Syllable processing is organized in discrete subregions of the human superior temporal gyrus.

Modular organization at approximately 1 mm scale could be fundamental to cortical processing, but its presence in human association cortex is unknown. Using custom-built, high-density electrode arrays placed on the cortical surface of 7 patients undergoing awake craniotomy for tumor excision, we investigated receptive speech processing in the left (dominant) human posterior superior temporal gyrus. Responses to consonant-vowel syllables and noise-vocoded controls recorded with 1,024 channel micro-grids at 200 μm pitch demonstrated roughly circular domains approximately 1.7 mm in diameter, with sharp boundaries observed in 128 channel linear arrays at 50 μm pitch, possibly consistent with a columnar organization. Peak latencies to syllables in different modules were bimodally distributed centered at 252 and 386 ms. Adjacent modules were sharply delineated from each other by their distinct time courses and stimulus selectivity. We suggest that receptive language cortex may be organized in discrete processing modules.

Informations de copyright

Copyright: This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interest: SD and AR have equity in a startup company (Intelecterra). SC has a financial interest in an unrelated company (Beacon Biosignals). No other authors report competing interests.