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Abstract:
Abstract: The human voice contains in its acoustic structure
a wealth of information on the speaker's identity and emotional
state that we perceive with remarkable ease and accuracy. Although
perception of speaker-related features of voice plays a major role
in human communication, little is known about its neural basis (Van
Lancker et al, 82, 88). Using fMRI in normal human volunteers, we
found that voice-selective regions exist along the upper bank of
the superior temporal sulcus (STS) bilaterally. These regions
showed greater neuronal activity when subjects listened passively
to vocal sounds, whether speech or nonspeech, than to non-vocal
environmental sounds. Central STS regions also displayed a high
degree of selectivity by responding significantly more to vocal
sounds than to matched control stimuli, including scrambled voices
and amplitude-modulated noise. Moreover, their response to stimuli
degraded by frequency filtering paralleled the subjects behavioral
performance on voice-perception tasks that used these stimuli. The
voice-selective areas in the STS may represent the counterpart of
the face-selective areas in human visual cortex (Kanwisher et al,
97; McCarthy et al, 97). Their existence sheds new light on the
functional architecture of the human auditory cortex. Supported by
Fondation France-Telecom, Canadian MRC and NSERC
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