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Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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T'ain't What You Say, It's the Way That You Say It—Left Insula and Inferior Frontal Cortex Work in Interaction with Superior Temporal Regions to Control the Performance of Vocal Impersonations

Carolyn McGettigan1,2, Frank Eisner3, Zarinah K. Agnew1, Tom Manly4, Duncan Wisbey1, and Sophie K. Scott1

1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London

2Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London

3Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

4MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK

Historically, the study of human identity perception has focused on faces, but the voice is also central to our expressions and experiences of identity [Belin, P., Fecteau, S., & Bedard, C. Thinking the voice: Neural correlates of voice perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 129–135, 2004]. Our voices are highly flexible and dynamic; talkers speak differently, depending on their health, emotional state, and the social setting, as well as extrinsic factors such as background noise. However, to date, there have been no studies of the neural correlates of identity modulation in speech production. In the current fMRI experiment, we measured the neural activity supporting controlled voice change in adult participants performing spoken impressions. We reveal that deliberate modulation of vocal identity recruits the left anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus, supporting the planning of novel articulations. Bilateral sites in posterior superior temporal/inferior parietal cortex and a region in right middle/anterior STS showed greater responses during the emulation of specific vocal identities than for impressions of generic accents. Using functional connectivity analyses, we describe roles for these three sites in their interactions with the brain regions supporting speech planning and production. Our findings mark a significant step toward understanding the neural control of vocal identity, with wider implications for the cognitive control of voluntary motor acts.

Cited by

Daniel Carey, Carolyn McGettigan. (2016) Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and vocal tract: Applications to the study of speech production and language learning. Neuropsychologia.
Online publication date: 1-Jun-2016.
CrossRef
Katarzyna Pisanski, Valentina Cartei, Carolyn McGettigan, Jordan Raine, David Reby. (2016) Voice Modulation: A Window into the Origins of Human Vocal Control?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20:4304-318.
Online publication date: 1-Apr-2016.
CrossRef
Md. Mahbub Hasan, Sathi Rani Mitra, Kenbu Teramoto. (2015) Canonical correlation based impersonation quality determination algorithm for natural morphed speech. 2015 IEEE International Conference on Telecommunications and Photonics (ICTP)1-4.
CrossRef
Carolyn McGettigan. (2015) The social life of voices: studying the neural bases for the expression and perception of the self and others during spoken communication. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 9.
Online publication date: 19-Mar-2015.
CrossRef
Jeong S. Kyong, Sophie K. Scott, Stuart Rosen, Timothy B. Howe, Zarinah K. Agnew, Carolyn McGettigan. (2014) Exploring the Roles of Spectral Detail and Intonation Contour in Speech Intelligibility: An fMRI Study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 26:81748-1763.
Online publication date: 26-Jun-2014.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (885 KB) | PDF Plus (584 KB) 
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