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Abstract
The “temporal voice areas” (TVAs; Belin et al., 2000) of the human brain show greater neuronal activity in response to human voices than to other categories of non-vocal sounds. However, a direct link between TVA activity and voice perception behavior has not yet been established. Here we show that a functional magnetic resonance imaging measure of activity in the TVAs predicts individual performance at a separately administered voice memory test. This relation holds when general sound memory ability is taken into account. These findings provide the first evidence that the TVAs are specifically involved in voice cognition.
Highlights
The human voice is probably the most common and meaningful sound of our environment, and efficient processing of the information carried within it – both linguistic and non-linguistic – is important for normal social interaction
Within the temporal voice areas” (TVAs), relating voice memory score and general sound-activation highlighted a region within the superior temporal sulcus (STS)/MTG in which activation was correlated with voice memory performance (global maximum [54 −19 −14], p < 10−4, t = 3.74; cluster extending to 13 contiguous voxels; Figure 1A)
Within the TVA cluster identified above, we observed a significant correlation between voice memory scores orthogonalized relative to the bells memory scores and BOLD activity [p < 0.005 (FWE), t = 3.39]
Summary
The human voice is probably the most common and meaningful sound of our environment, and efficient processing of the information carried within it – both linguistic and non-linguistic – is important for normal social interaction. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified regions along the middle and anterior part of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) with a preferential response to vocal sounds (the “temporal voice areas,” TVA; Belin et al, 2000). Their early development (Grossman et al, 2010), ancient phylogenetic history (Petkov et al, 2008), and crucially, preferential response to vocalizations even devoid of linguistic content (Binder et al, 2000; Belin et al, 2002) suggest that the TVA could constitute a critical node of the cerebral network involved in voice cognition abilities. The link between voice memory ability – an important aspect of vocal identity processing – and voice-selective activity remains untested
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