Sensitivity of occipito-temporal cortex, premotor and Broca's areas to visible speech gestures in a familiar language.

ABSTRACT: When looking at a speaking person, the analysis of facial kinematics contributes to language discrimination and to the decoding of the time flow of visual speech. To disentangle these two factors, we investigated behavioural and fMRI responses to familiar and unfamiliar languages when observing speech gestures with natural or reversed kinematics. Twenty Italian volunteers viewed silent video-clips of speech shown as recorded (Forward, biological motion) or reversed in time (Backward, non-biological motion), in Italian (familiar language) or Arabic (non-familiar language). fMRI revealed that language (Italian/Arabic) and time-rendering (Forward/Backward) modulated distinct areas in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex, suggesting that visual speech analysis begins in this region, earlier th

SUBMITTER: Maffei V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7304574 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature