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Cortical oscillations and speech processing: emerging computational principles and operations

Nature Neuroscience volume 15, pages 511–517 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Neuronal oscillations are ubiquitous in the brain and may contribute to cognition in several ways: for example, by segregating information and organizing spike timing. Recent data show that delta, theta and gamma oscillations are specifically engaged by the multi-timescale, quasi-rhythmic properties of speech and can track its dynamics. We argue that they are foundational in speech and language processing, 'packaging' incoming information into units of the appropriate temporal granularity. Such stimulus-brain alignment arguably results from auditory and motor tuning throughout the evolution of speech and language and constitutes a natural model system allowing auditory research to make a unique contribution to the issue of how neural oscillatory activity affects human cognition.

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Figure 1: A theory of early oscillation-based operations in speech perception.
Figure 2: Speech–brain interaction from human intracortical recordings of primary auditory cortex.
Figure 3: Generation of oscillations in a cortical column.
Figure 4: Comparison of neural responses in auditory primary and association (Brodmann area 22) cortices.
Figure 5: A biophysical model of coupled theta and gamma oscillations.
Figure 6: Functional anatomy of the speech processing network.

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Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to C. Liegeois-Chauvel for providing stereotactic EEG data and C.-G. Bénar for related methodological support. In A.-L.G.'s team we thank Y. Beigneux, B. Morillon and L. Arnal, who analyzed these data; A. Hyafil, C. Kapdebon and L. Fontolan, who carried out the computational modeling work; and K. Lehongre and D. Roussillon, who conducted the experiments in human subjects. In D.P.'s team, we thank H. Luo, M. Howard and G. Cogan for pioneering work and many discussions of these issues. We also thank our colleagues O. Ghitza, S. Greenberg, B. Gutkin, V. Wyart, C. Lorenzi, F. Ramus and C. Schroeder for motivating and discussing various aspects of this research. This work is supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France and the European Research Council (A.-L.G.), and US National Institutes of Health grant 2R01 DC05660 (D.P.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département d'Etudes Cognitives, Inserm U960, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

    Anne-Lise Giraud

  2. Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA

    David Poeppel

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  1. Anne-Lise Giraud
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Correspondence to Anne-Lise Giraud.

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Giraud, AL., Poeppel, D. Cortical oscillations and speech processing: emerging computational principles and operations. Nat Neurosci 15, 511–517 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3063

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