Cortical networks for recognition of speech with simultaneous talkers

Hear Res. 2023 Jul 24;437:108856. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108856. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe relative contributions of superior temporal vs. inferior frontal and parietal networks to recognition of speech in a background of competing speech remain unclear, although the contributions themselves are well established. Here, we use fMRI with spectrotemporal modulation transfer function (ST-MTF) modeling to examine the speech information represented in temporal vs. frontoparietal networks for two speech recognition tasks with and without a competing talker. Specifically, 31 listeners completed two versions of a three-alternative forced choice competing speech task: "Unison" and "Competing", in which a female (target) and a male (competing) talker uttered identical or different phrases, respectively. Spectrotemporal modulation filtering (i.e., acoustic distortion) was applied to the two-talker mixtures and ST-MTF models were generated to predict brain activation from differences in spectrotemporal-modulation distortion on each trial. Three cortical networks were identified based on differential patterns of ST-MTF predictions and the resultant ST-MTF weights across conditions (Unison, Competing): a bilateral superior temporal (S-T) network, a frontoparietal (F-P) network, and a network distributed across cortical midline regions and the angular gyrus (M-AG). The S-T network and the M-AG network responded primarily to spectrotemporal cues associated with speech intelligibil...

Source: Hearing Research - August 2, 2023 Category: Audiology Authors: Christian Herrera Nicole Whittle Marjorie R Leek Christian Brodbeck Grace Lee Caleb Barcenas Samuel Barnes Barbara Holshouser Alex Yi Jonathan H Venezia Source Type: research