Brain 'talks over' boring quotes: Top-down activation of voice-selective areas while listening to monotonous direct speech quotations

Psychology

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.111
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Keywords

Direct speech, Indirect speech, fMRI, Speech perception, Mental simulation, Language comprehension, Emotional prosody

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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

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Brain 'talks over' boring quotes: Top-down activation of voice-selective areas while listening to monotonous direct speech quotations. / Yao, Bo; Belin, Pascal; Scheepers, Christoph.
In: NeuroImage, Vol. 60, No. 3, 15.04.2012, p. 1832-1842.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Bibtex

@article{bc9f2d40d0cd4533bb04fcb903f111f6,

title = "Brain 'talks over' boring quotes: Top-down activation of voice-selective areas while listening to monotonous direct speech quotations",

abstract = "In human communication, direct speech (e.g., Mary said, “I'm hungry”) is perceived as more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., Mary said that she was hungry). This vividness distinction has previously been found to underlie silent reading of quotations: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that direct speech elicited higher brain activity in the temporal voice areas (TVA) of the auditory cortex than indirect speech, consistent with an “inner voice” experience in reading direct speech. Here we show that listening to monotonously spoken direct versus indirect speech quotations also engenders differential TVA activity. This suggests that individuals engage in top-down simulations or imagery of enriched supra-segmental acoustic representations while listening to monotonous direct speech. The findings shed new light on the acoustic nature of the “inner voice” in understanding direct speech.",

keywords = "Direct speech, Indirect speech, fMRI, Speech perception, Mental simulation, Language comprehension, Emotional prosody",

author = "Bo Yao and Pascal Belin and Christoph Scheepers",

year = "2012",

month = apr,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.111",

language = "English",

volume = "60",

pages = "1832--1842",

journal = "NeuroImage",

issn = "1053-8119",

publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",

number = "3",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Brain 'talks over' boring quotes: Top-down activation of voice-selective areas while listening to monotonous direct speech quotations

AU - Yao, Bo

AU - Belin, Pascal

AU - Scheepers, Christoph

PY - 2012/4/15

Y1 - 2012/4/15

N2 - In human communication, direct speech (e.g., Mary said, “I'm hungry”) is perceived as more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., Mary said that she was hungry). This vividness distinction has previously been found to underlie silent reading of quotations: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that direct speech elicited higher brain activity in the temporal voice areas (TVA) of the auditory cortex than indirect speech, consistent with an “inner voice” experience in reading direct speech. Here we show that listening to monotonously spoken direct versus indirect speech quotations also engenders differential TVA activity. This suggests that individuals engage in top-down simulations or imagery of enriched supra-segmental acoustic representations while listening to monotonous direct speech. The findings shed new light on the acoustic nature of the “inner voice” in understanding direct speech.

AB - In human communication, direct speech (e.g., Mary said, “I'm hungry”) is perceived as more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., Mary said that she was hungry). This vividness distinction has previously been found to underlie silent reading of quotations: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that direct speech elicited higher brain activity in the temporal voice areas (TVA) of the auditory cortex than indirect speech, consistent with an “inner voice” experience in reading direct speech. Here we show that listening to monotonously spoken direct versus indirect speech quotations also engenders differential TVA activity. This suggests that individuals engage in top-down simulations or imagery of enriched supra-segmental acoustic representations while listening to monotonous direct speech. The findings shed new light on the acoustic nature of the “inner voice” in understanding direct speech.

KW - Direct speech

KW - Indirect speech

KW - fMRI

KW - Speech perception

KW - Mental simulation

KW - Language comprehension

KW - Emotional prosody

U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.111

DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.111

M3 - Journal article

VL - 60

SP - 1832

EP - 1842

JO - NeuroImage

JF - NeuroImage

SN - 1053-8119

IS - 3

ER -

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