Neuronal populations in the occipital cortex of the blind synchronize to the temporal dynamics of speech.

ABSTRACT: The occipital cortex of early blind individuals (EB) activates during speech processing, challenging the notion of a hard-wired neurobiology of language. But, at what stage of speech processing do occipital regions participate in EB? Here we demonstrate that parieto-occipital regions in EB enhance their synchronization to acoustic fluctuations in human speech in the theta-range (corresponding to syllabic rate), irrespective of speech intelligibility. Crucially, enhanced synchronization to the intelligibility of speech was selectively observed in primary visual cortex in EB, suggesting that this region is at the interface between speech perception and comprehension. Moreover, EB showed overall enhanced functional connectivity between temporal and occipital cortices that are sensitive to spe

SUBMITTER: Van Ackeren MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5790372 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature