美国加州大学旧金山分校Edward F. Chang小组揭示人类听觉皮层中语音的平行和分布式编码。2021年8月18日，国际知名学术期刊《细胞》在线发表了这一成果。

通过对整个人类听觉皮层的颅内记录、皮层电刺激和手术切除，研究人员发现各区域的皮层处理并不符合串行的层次组织。相反，反应潜伏期和接受区的分析表明，初级和非初级听觉皮层的信息处理是平行和不同的。在刺激初级听觉皮层引起听觉幻觉，但不扭曲或干扰言语感知的情况下，也观察到这种功能上的分离。在刺激颞上回的非初级皮层时，相反的效果被观察到。初级听觉皮层的切除并不影响言语感知。

这些结果确立了整个人类听觉皮层平行信息处理的分布式功能组织，并证明了非初级听觉皮层在语音处理中的重要独立作用。

据悉，语音感知被认为是依靠大脑皮层将声音转化为语言表征的前馈性序列转换。

附：英文原文

Title: Parallel and distributed encoding of speech across human auditory cortex

Author: Liberty S. Hamilton, Yulia Oganian, Jeffery Hall, Edward F. Chang

Issue&Volume: 2021-08-18

Abstract: Speech perception is thought to rely on a cortical feedforward serial transformationof acoustic into linguistic representations. Using intracranial recordings acrossthe entire human auditory cortex, electrocortical stimulation, and surgical ablation,we show that cortical processing across areas is not consistent with a serial hierarchicalorganization. Instead, response latency and receptive field analyses demonstrate paralleland distinct information processing in the primary and nonprimary auditory cortices.This functional dissociation was also observed where stimulation of the primary auditorycortex evokes auditory hallucination but does not distort or interfere with speechperception. Opposite effects were observed during stimulation of nonprimary cortexin superior temporal gyrus. Ablation of the primary auditory cortex does not affectspeech perception. These results establish a distributed functional organization ofparallel information processing throughout the human auditory cortex and demonstratean essential independent role for nonprimary auditory cortex in speech processing.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.019

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00878-3