TY - JOUR
T1 - Sound blending in the brain
T2 - A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation
AU - Chiu, C. Y.Peter
AU - Coen-Cummings, Martha
AU - Schmithorst, Vincent J.
AU - Holland, Scott K.
AU - Keith, Robert
AU - Nabors, Laura
AU - Kramer, Megan
AU - Rozier, Hope
PY - 2005/6/21
Y1 - 2005/6/21
N2 - The presence of high levels of background noise is a serious concern for functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of phonological processing using conventional methods. As a result, many such studies have focused on phonological units larger than phonemes (e.g. syllables) or used stimuli presented in the visual (e.g. printed letters) rather than the auditory domain. We used a recently developed functional magnetic resonance imaging method to present spoken stimuli without the scanner's background noise. Young adult participants mentally blended phonemes in a series (e.g. /b/, /ae/, /t/), counted the number of discrete tones, or rested. Relative to tone counting, sound blending elicited activation in bilateral temporal and prefrontal cortices with left asymmetry. Activation within the dorsoposterior inferior frontal gyrus, a subregion of Broca's area, was negatively correlated with sound-blending accuracy. Our findings are consistent with prior studies ascribing a role of general sequencing, motor and articulatory programming, and vocal or subvocal articulatory rehearsal to this brain region.
AB - The presence of high levels of background noise is a serious concern for functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of phonological processing using conventional methods. As a result, many such studies have focused on phonological units larger than phonemes (e.g. syllables) or used stimuli presented in the visual (e.g. printed letters) rather than the auditory domain. We used a recently developed functional magnetic resonance imaging method to present spoken stimuli without the scanner's background noise. Young adult participants mentally blended phonemes in a series (e.g. /b/, /ae/, /t/), counted the number of discrete tones, or rested. Relative to tone counting, sound blending elicited activation in bilateral temporal and prefrontal cortices with left asymmetry. Activation within the dorsoposterior inferior frontal gyrus, a subregion of Broca's area, was negatively correlated with sound-blending accuracy. Our findings are consistent with prior studies ascribing a role of general sequencing, motor and articulatory programming, and vocal or subvocal articulatory rehearsal to this brain region.
KW - Auditory working memory
KW - Brain mapping
KW - Broca's area
KW - Dyslexia
KW - Literacy
KW - Phonological awareness
KW - Reading
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=21344453973&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=21344453973&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/00001756-200506210-00002
DO - 10.1097/00001756-200506210-00002
M3 - Article
C2 - 15931055
AN - SCOPUS:21344453973
SN - 0959-4965
VL - 16
SP - 883
EP - 886
JO - Neuroreport
JF - Neuroreport
IS - 9
ER -