Auditory-motor expertise alters "speech selectivity" in professional musicians and actors.

ABSTRACT: Several perisylvian brain regions show preferential activation for spoken language above and beyond other complex sounds. These "speech-selective" effects might be driven by regions' intrinsic biases for processing the acoustical or informational properties of speech. Alternatively, such speech selectivity might emerge through extensive experience in perceiving and producing speech sounds. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study disambiguated such audiomotor expertise from speech selectivity by comparing activation for listening to speech and music in female professional violinists and actors. Audiomotor expertise effects were identified in several right and left superior temporal regions that responded to speech in all participants and music in violinists more than actress

SUBMITTER: Dick F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3059891 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature