The Control of Vocal Pitch in Human Laryngeal Motor Cortex.

ABSTRACT: In speech, the highly flexible modulation of vocal pitch creates intonation patterns that speakers use to convey linguistic meaning. This human ability is unique among primates. Here, we used high-density cortical recordings directly from the human brain to determine the encoding of vocal pitch during natural speech. We found neural populations in bilateral dorsal laryngeal motor cortex (dLMC) that selectively encoded produced pitch but not non-laryngeal articulatory movements. This neural population controlled short pitch accents to express prosodic emphasis on a word in a sentence. Other larynx cortical representations controlling voicing and longer pitch phrase contours were found at separate sites. dLMC sites also encoded vocal pitch during a non-speech singing task. Finally, direct fo

SUBMITTER: Dichter BK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6084806 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature