Temporal Coding of Voice Pitch Contours in Mandarin Tones
Accurate perception of time-variant pitch is important for speech recognition, particularly for tonal languages with different lexical tones such as Mandarin, in which different tones convey different semantic information. Previous studies reported that the auditory nerve and cochlear nucleus can en...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neural Circuits |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncir.2018.00055/full |
| _version_ | 1811339599334604800 |
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| author | Fei Peng Fei Peng Hamish Innes-Brown Hamish Innes-Brown Colette M. McKay Colette M. McKay James B. Fallon James B. Fallon James B. Fallon Yi Zhou Xing Wang Xing Wang Ning Hu Ning Hu Wensheng Hou Wensheng Hou Wensheng Hou |
| author_facet | Fei Peng Fei Peng Hamish Innes-Brown Hamish Innes-Brown Colette M. McKay Colette M. McKay James B. Fallon James B. Fallon James B. Fallon Yi Zhou Xing Wang Xing Wang Ning Hu Ning Hu Wensheng Hou Wensheng Hou Wensheng Hou |
| author_sort | Fei Peng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Accurate perception of time-variant pitch is important for speech recognition, particularly for tonal languages with different lexical tones such as Mandarin, in which different tones convey different semantic information. Previous studies reported that the auditory nerve and cochlear nucleus can encode different pitches through phase-locked neural activities. However, little is known about how the inferior colliculus (IC) encodes the time-variant periodicity pitch of natural speech. In this study, the Mandarin syllable /ba/ pronounced with four lexical tones (flat, rising, falling then rising and falling) were used as stimuli. Local field potentials (LFPs) and single neuron activity were simultaneously recorded from 90 sites within contralateral IC of six urethane-anesthetized and decerebrate guinea pigs in response to the four stimuli. Analysis of the temporal information of LFPs showed that 93% of the LFPs exhibited robust encoding of periodicity pitch. Pitch strength of LFPs derived from the autocorrelogram was significantly (p < 0.001) stronger for rising tones than flat and falling tones. Pitch strength are also significantly increased (p < 0.05) with the characteristic frequency (CF). On the other hand, only 47% (42 or 90) of single neuron activities were significantly synchronized to the fundamental frequency of the stimulus suggesting that the temporal spiking pattern of single IC neuron could encode the time variant periodicity pitch of speech robustly. The difference between the number of LFPs and single neurons that encode the time-variant F0 voice pitch supports the notion of a transition at the level of IC from direct temporal coding in the spike trains of individual neurons to other form of neural representation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:29:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-119835ba01d5415ea32f5e70c31dfe9b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5110 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:29:15Z |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neural Circuits |
| spelling | doaj.art-119835ba01d5415ea32f5e70c31dfe9b2022-12-22T02:35:08ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neural Circuits1662-51102018-07-011210.3389/fncir.2018.00055323262Temporal Coding of Voice Pitch Contours in Mandarin TonesFei Peng0Fei Peng1Hamish Innes-Brown2Hamish Innes-Brown3Colette M. McKay4Colette M. McKay5James B. Fallon6James B. Fallon7James B. Fallon8Yi Zhou9Xing Wang10Xing Wang11Ning Hu12Ning Hu13Wensheng Hou14Wensheng Hou15Wensheng Hou16Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Bioengineering College of Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaCollaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaBionics Institute, East Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaDepartment of Medical Bionics Department, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaBionics Institute, East Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaDepartment of Medical Bionics Department, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaBionics Institute, East Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaDepartment of Medical Bionics Department, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaDepartment of Otolaryngology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaChongqing Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Department of Neurobiology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaKey Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Bioengineering College of Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaChongqing Medical Electronics Engineering Technology Research Center, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaKey Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Bioengineering College of Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaCollaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaKey Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Bioengineering College of Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaCollaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaChongqing Medical Electronics Engineering Technology Research Center, Chongqing University, Chongqing, ChinaAccurate perception of time-variant pitch is important for speech recognition, particularly for tonal languages with different lexical tones such as Mandarin, in which different tones convey different semantic information. Previous studies reported that the auditory nerve and cochlear nucleus can encode different pitches through phase-locked neural activities. However, little is known about how the inferior colliculus (IC) encodes the time-variant periodicity pitch of natural speech. In this study, the Mandarin syllable /ba/ pronounced with four lexical tones (flat, rising, falling then rising and falling) were used as stimuli. Local field potentials (LFPs) and single neuron activity were simultaneously recorded from 90 sites within contralateral IC of six urethane-anesthetized and decerebrate guinea pigs in response to the four stimuli. Analysis of the temporal information of LFPs showed that 93% of the LFPs exhibited robust encoding of periodicity pitch. Pitch strength of LFPs derived from the autocorrelogram was significantly (p < 0.001) stronger for rising tones than flat and falling tones. Pitch strength are also significantly increased (p < 0.05) with the characteristic frequency (CF). On the other hand, only 47% (42 or 90) of single neuron activities were significantly synchronized to the fundamental frequency of the stimulus suggesting that the temporal spiking pattern of single IC neuron could encode the time variant periodicity pitch of speech robustly. The difference between the number of LFPs and single neurons that encode the time-variant F0 voice pitch supports the notion of a transition at the level of IC from direct temporal coding in the spike trains of individual neurons to other form of neural representation.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncir.2018.00055/fulltemporal codingtime-variantvoice pitch contoursnatural speechinferior colliculusfundamental frequency |
| spellingShingle | Fei Peng Fei Peng Hamish Innes-Brown Hamish Innes-Brown Colette M. McKay Colette M. McKay James B. Fallon James B. Fallon James B. Fallon Yi Zhou Xing Wang Xing Wang Ning Hu Ning Hu Wensheng Hou Wensheng Hou Wensheng Hou Temporal Coding of Voice Pitch Contours in Mandarin Tones Frontiers in Neural Circuits temporal coding time-variant voice pitch contours natural speech inferior colliculus fundamental frequency |
| title | Temporal Coding of Voice Pitch Contours in Mandarin Tones |
| title_full | Temporal Coding of Voice Pitch Contours in Mandarin Tones |
| title_fullStr | Temporal Coding of Voice Pitch Contours in Mandarin Tones |
| title_full_unstemmed | Temporal Coding of Voice Pitch Contours in Mandarin Tones |
| title_short | Temporal Coding of Voice Pitch Contours in Mandarin Tones |
| title_sort | temporal coding of voice pitch contours in mandarin tones |
| topic | temporal coding time-variant voice pitch contours natural speech inferior colliculus fundamental frequency |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncir.2018.00055/full |
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