Cerebral Processing of Voice Gender Studied Using a Continuous Carryover fMRI Design

Ian Charest (1) , Cyril Pernet (2, 3) , Marianne Latinus (4) , Frances Crabbe (4) , Pascal Belin (4, 5, 6)

1 MRC CBU - Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
2 CHRU Montpellier - Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire [Montpellier]
3 Edin. - University of Edinburgh
4 Institute of Neurosciences and Psychology [Glasgow]
5 BRAMS - International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research
6 INT - Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone

Normal listeners effortlessly determine a person's gender by voice, but the cerebral mechanisms underlying this ability remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate 2 stages of cerebral processing during voice gender categorization. Using voice morphing along with an adaptation-optimized functional magnetic resonance imaging design , we found that secondary auditory cortex including the anterior part of the temporal voice areas in the right hemisphere responded primarily to acoustical distance with the previously heard stimulus. In contrast, a network of bilateral regions involving inferior prefrontal and anterior and posterior cingulate cortex reflected perceived stimulus ambiguity. These findings suggest that voice gender recognition involves neuronal populations along the auditory ventral stream responsible for auditory feature extraction, functioning in pair with the prefrontal cortex in voice gender perception.

Mots clés: neuronal representation; inferior prefrontal cortex; auditory cortex; superior temporal sulcus; adaptation

Domaines: Sciences cognitives; Neurobiologie

Ian Charest, Cyril Pernet, Marianne Latinus, Frances Crabbe, Pascal Belin. Cerebral Processing of Voice Gender Studied Using a Continuous Carryover fMRI Design. Cerebral Cortex, 2013, 23 (4), pp.958-966. ⟨10.1093/cercor/bhs090⟩. ⟨hal-02006941⟩