Investigating the neural correlates of voice versus speech-sound directed information in pre-school children.

ABSTRACT: Studies in sleeping newborns and infants propose that the superior temporal sulcus is involved in speech processing soon after birth. Speech processing also implicitly requires the analysis of the human voice, which conveys both linguistic and extra-linguistic information. However, due to technical and practical challenges when neuroimaging young children, evidence of neural correlates of speech and/or voice processing in toddlers and young children remains scarce. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 20 typically developing preschool children (average age  = 5.8 y; range 5.2-6.8 y) to investigate brain activation during judgments about vocal identity versus the initial speech sound of spoken object words. FMRI results reveal common brain regions re

SUBMITTER: Raschle NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4274095 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature