Linguistic pitch is hierarchically encoded in the right ventral stream.

ABSTRACT: A challenge for speech perception research is to explain how listeners transform speech sounds into meaning. Using MEG and complementary analytical methods, we expose the neural dynamics that generate meaningful linguistic units (e.g., sentence type: question, statement) that are abstracted from lower-level perceptual cues (fundamental frequency (f0) modulations). In analogy to the well-established left-lateralized hierarchical organization of a ventral stream in the domains of vision and auditory processing, we show that the emergence of abstract f0 representations is supported by a right-lateralized progression that starts in early auditory areas and advances along the posterior-anterior axis of the superior temporal gyrus (STG). Furthermore, our data indicate that the accumulation and i

SUBMITTER: Oderbolz C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12913770 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature