Differential cross-modal effect of speech sounds on the vMMN elicited by letter versus non-letter deviants

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Differential cross-modal effect of speech sounds on the vMMN elicited by letter versus non-letter deviants Dries Froyen1, 2*, N. Van-Atteveldt1, 3 and L. Blomert1, 2 1 Faculty of psychology and congnitive neuroscience, Maastricht University, Netherlands 2 Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, M-BIC, Netherlands 3 College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, United States Appropriate development of letter - speech sound associations is considered crucial for reading acquisition. Brain imaging evidence indicated that heteromodal areas in superior temporal sulcus and modality-specific auditory cortex are involved in letter - speech sound processing. The role of early visual areas, however, remains unclear. In a previous auditory MMN (aMMN) study a cross-modal effect of letters on speech sound processing was observed. aMMN-amplitude to speech sounds presented simultaneously with letters was higher in comparison with aMMN amplitude to speech sounds presented in isolation, indicating early and automatic letter - speech sound integration. In the present study the visual counterpart of the aMMN, the vMMN, is used to investigate the influences of speech sounds on letter processing. Letter and non-letter deviants were infrequently presented in a train of standard letters either in isolation or simultaneously with a speech sound. As early as 150-220 ms after stimulus onset, influences of the speech sound on visual processing were observed. However, these influences were similar for letter and non-letter processing and thus not letter-specific. In a later time-window, between 240 and 350 msec, a differential effect of the speech sound on letter and non-letter processing was observed. Interestingly, the speech sound did not influence letter processing but suppressed non-letter processing. The present results support previous fMRI findings on letter - speech sound processing, in which the early visual areas were not involved when passively processing letters and speech sounds. This implies that, although letter - speech sound processing might rely on the evolutionarily older audiovisual speech processing system, both systems recruit early visual areas by means of a different mechanism. The present study furthermore provides an appropriate tool to investigate, with a high temporal resolution and non-invasively, cross-modal effects on visual processing. Conference: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Presentations Citation: Froyen D, Van-Atteveldt N and Blomert L (2009). Differential cross-modal effect of speech sounds on the vMMN elicited by letter versus non-letter deviants. Conference Abstract: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.091 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Mar 2009; Published Online: 25 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Dries Froyen, Faculty of psychology and congnitive neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands, d.froyen@psychology.unimaas.nl Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Dries Froyen N. Van-Atteveldt L. Blomert Google Dries Froyen N. Van-Atteveldt L. Blomert Google Scholar Dries Froyen N. Van-Atteveldt L. Blomert PubMed Dries Froyen N. Van-Atteveldt L. Blomert Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.