Brainstem pitch representation in native speakers of Mandarin is less susceptible to degradation of stimulus temporal regularity.

ABSTRACT: It has been demonstrated that neural encoding of pitch in the auditory brainstem is shaped by long-term experience with language. To date, however, all stimuli have exhibited a high degree of pitch saliency. The experimental design herein permits us to determine whether experience-dependent pitch representation in the brainstem is less susceptible to progressive degradation of the temporal regularity of iterated rippled noise (IRN). Brainstem responses were recorded from Chinese and English participants in response to IRN homologues of Mandarin Tone 2 (T2(IRN)). Six different iterations steps were utilized to systematically vary the degree of temporal regularity in the fine structure of the IRN stimuli to produce a pitch salience continuum ranging from low to high. Pitch-tracking accuracy

SUBMITTER: Krishnan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2838171 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature