The Developmental Origins of Voice Processing in the Human Brain

In human adults, voices are processed in specialized brain regions in superior temporal cortices. We examined the development of this cortical organization during infancy by using near-infrared spectroscopy. In experiment 1, 7-month-olds but not 4-month-olds showed increased responses in left and ri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Mass.), 2010-03, Vol.65 (6), p.852-858
Main Authors: Grossmann, Tobias, Oberecker, Regine, Koch, Stefan Paul, Friederici, Angela D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation - methods
Age
Auditory Perception - physiology
Brain
Brain - growth & development
Emotional Intelligence - physiology
Emotions
Experiments
Female
Humans
Infant
Language
Male
Monkeys & apes
Speech
Speech Perception - physiology
Studies
sysneuro
Temporal Lobe - growth & development
Voice - physiology
Voice recognition
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Summary:In human adults, voices are processed in specialized brain regions in superior temporal cortices. We examined the development of this cortical organization during infancy by using near-infrared spectroscopy. In experiment 1, 7-month-olds but not 4-month-olds showed increased responses in left and right superior temporal cortex to the human voice when compared to nonvocal sounds, suggesting that voice-sensitive brain systems emerge between 4 and 7 months of age. In experiment 2, 7-month-old infants listened to words spoken with neutral, happy, or angry prosody. Hearing emotional prosody resulted in increased responses in a voice-sensitive region in the right hemisphere. Moreover, a region in right inferior frontal cortex taken to serve evaluative functions in the adult brain showed particular sensitivity to happy prosody. The pattern of findings suggests that temporal regions specialize in processing voices very early in development and that, already in infancy, emotions differentially modulate voice processing in the right hemisphere. ► Temporal cortex specializes in processing human voices during infancy ► Emotion specifically enhances voice processing in the right hemisphere in infants ► Deeper evaluation of happy speech in infants' right inferior frontal cortex
ISSN:0896-6273
1097-4199
DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.001