TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhanced physiologic discriminability of stop consonants with prolonged formant transitions in awake monkeys based on the tonotopic organization of primary auditory cortex
AU - Steinschneider, Mitchell
AU - Fishman, Yonatan I.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Drs. Charles E. Schroeder and David H. Reser, and Ms. Jeannie Hutagalung for their invaluable technical assistance. Supported by National Institute of Deafness and Other Communications Disorders Grant DC-00657 .
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulty in perceiving stop consonant-vowel syllables (e.g., /ba/, /ga/, /da/) with rapid formant transitions, but perform normally when formant transitions are extended in time. This influential observation has helped lead to the development of the auditory temporal processing hypothesis, which posits that SLI is causally related to the processing of rapidly changing sounds in aberrantly expanded windows of temporal integration. We tested a potential physiological basis for this observation by examining whether syllables varying in their consonant place of articulation (POA) with prolonged formant transitions would evoke better differentiated patterns of activation along the tonotopic axis of A1 in awake monkeys when compared to syllables with short formant transitions, especially for more prolonged windows of temporal integration. Amplitudes of multi-unit activity evoked by /ba/, /ga/, and /da/ were ranked according to predictions based on responses to tones centered at the spectral maxima of frication at syllable onset. Population responses representing consonant POA were predicted by the tone responses. Predictions were stronger for syllables with prolonged formant transitions, especially for longer windows of temporal integration. Relevance of findings to normal perception and that occurring in SLI are discussed.
AB - Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulty in perceiving stop consonant-vowel syllables (e.g., /ba/, /ga/, /da/) with rapid formant transitions, but perform normally when formant transitions are extended in time. This influential observation has helped lead to the development of the auditory temporal processing hypothesis, which posits that SLI is causally related to the processing of rapidly changing sounds in aberrantly expanded windows of temporal integration. We tested a potential physiological basis for this observation by examining whether syllables varying in their consonant place of articulation (POA) with prolonged formant transitions would evoke better differentiated patterns of activation along the tonotopic axis of A1 in awake monkeys when compared to syllables with short formant transitions, especially for more prolonged windows of temporal integration. Amplitudes of multi-unit activity evoked by /ba/, /ga/, and /da/ were ranked according to predictions based on responses to tones centered at the spectral maxima of frication at syllable onset. Population responses representing consonant POA were predicted by the tone responses. Predictions were stronger for syllables with prolonged formant transitions, especially for longer windows of temporal integration. Relevance of findings to normal perception and that occurring in SLI are discussed.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.heares.2010.04.008
DO - 10.1016/j.heares.2010.04.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 20435116
AN - SCOPUS:78651075532
SN - 0378-5955
VL - 271
SP - 103
EP - 114
JO - Hearing Research
JF - Hearing Research
IS - 1-2
ER -