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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 23, 2006, 26(34):8647-8652; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0995-06.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
From Air Oscillations to Music and Speech: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence for Fine-Tuned Neural Networks in Audition

Mari Tervaniemi,^1,2 * André J. Szameitat,^3 * Stefanie Kruck,⁴ Erich Schröger,² Kai Alter,⁵ Wouter De Baene,⁶ and Angela D. Friederici⁴

¹Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki Brain Research Centre, FIN-00014, Helsinki, Finland, ²Institut für Psychologie I, Universität Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, ³Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom, ⁴Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, ⁵School of Neurology, Neurobiology and Psychiatry, The Medical School, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle NE1 4HH, United Kingdom, and ⁶Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

Correspondence should be addressed to Mari Tervaniemi, Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, O. Box 9, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Email: mari.tervaniemi{at}helsinki.fi

In the auditory modality, music and speech have high informational and emotional value for human beings. However, the degree of the functional specialization of the cortical and subcortical areas in encoding music and speech sounds is not yet known. We investigated the functional specialization of the human auditory system in processing music and speech by functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings. During recordings, the subjects were presented with saxophone sounds and pseudowords /ba:ba/ with comparable acoustical content. Our data show that areas encoding music and speech sounds differ in the temporal and frontal lobes. Moreover, slight variations in sound pitch and duration activated thalamic structures differentially. However, this was the case with speech sounds only while no such effect was evidenced with music sounds. Thus, our data reveal the existence of a functional specialization of the human brain in accurately representing sound information at both cortical and subcortical areas. They indicate that not only the sound category (speech/music) but also the sound parameter (pitch/duration) can be selectively encoded.

Key words: speech; music; neuroimaging; functional specialization; auditory cortex; thalamus

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Received March 7, 2006; revised July 7, 2006; accepted July 12, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Mari Tervaniemi, Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, O. Box 9, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Email: mari.tervaniemi{at}helsinki.fi

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Schonwiesner, N. Novitski, S. Pakarinen, S. Carlson, M. Tervaniemi, and R. Naatanen Heschl's Gyrus, Posterior Superior Temporal Gyrus, and Mid-Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Have Different Roles in the Detection of Acoustic Changes J Neurophysiol, March 1, 2007; 97(3): 2075 - 2082. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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