Cited by 120Neuroscience and Music PerceptionNeurobiology of Language and BilingualismTactile and Sensory Interactions

Distinct fMRI responses to laughter, speech, and sounds along the human peri-sylvian cortex

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Meyer, Martin, Zysset, Stefan, von Cramon, D. Yves, Alter, Kai·2005·Cognitive Brain Research

Abstract

In this event-related fMRI study, 12 right-handed volunteers heard human laughter, sentential speech, and nonvocal sounds in which global temporal and harmonic information were varied whilst they were performing a simple auditory target detection. This study aimed to delineate distinct peri-auditory regions which preferentially respond to laughter, speech, and nonvocal sounds. Results show that all three types of stimuli evoked blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses along the left and right peri-sylvian cortex. However, we observed differences in regional strength and lateralization in that (i) hearing human laughter preferentially involves auditory and somatosensory fields primarily in the right hemisphere, (ii) hearing spoken sentences activates left anterior and posterior lateral temporal regions, (iii) hearing nonvocal sounds recruits bilateral areas in the medial portion of Heschl's gyrus and at the medial wall of the posterior Sylvian Fissure (planum parietale and parietal operculum). Generally, the data imply a differential regional sensitivity of peri-sylvian areas to different auditory stimuli with the left hemisphere responding more strongly to speech and with the right hemisphere being more amenable to nonspeech stimuli. Interestingly, passive perception of human laughter activates brain regions which control motor (larynx) functions. This observation may speak to the issue of a dense intertwining of expressive and receptive mechanisms in the auditory domain. Furthermore, the present study provides evidence for a functional role of inferior parietal areas in auditory processing. Finally, a post hoc conjunction analysis meant to reveal the neural substrates of human vocal timbre demonstrates a particular preference of left and right lateral parts of the superior temporal lobes for stimuli which are made up of human voices relative to nonvocal sounds.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.02.008

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  • Activation in the left posterior temporal gyrus/sulcus increases when sine wave analogues of speech are recognised as speech relative to when the same stimuli are not recognised as speech.

    “Further evidence that these speech selective responses relate to familiarity with the patterns of spectral variation (Liebenthal et al., 2003) came from two studies that showed activation in the left posterior temporal gyrus/sulcus increased when sine wave analogues of speech were recognised as speech relative to when the same stimuli were not recognised as speech (Dehaene-Lambertz et al., 2005;”

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Provine, 1996, Laughter, Am. Sci., 84, 38
  2. Ugurbil, 1993, Magnetic fields: initial experiences at 4T, Magn. Reson. Q., 9, 259

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Authors
Meyer, M., Zysset, S., von Cramon, D. Y., & Alter, K.
Affiliations
  • University of Zurich (CH)
  • Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (DE)
Corresponding author
Meyer, Martin
Venue
Cognitive Brain Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2005-07
Volume
24
Issue
2
Pages
291-306
ISSN
0926-6410 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1967069922
Cited by
120
References
118
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 14
FWCI
3.14
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cognitive Brain Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
  • Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
  • Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
Funders
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
Keywords
laughter, speech perception, auditory cortex, hemispheric lateralization, inferior parietal lobule, superior temporal lobe, vocal timbre, laryngeal motor control, Heschl's gyrus, auditory target detection
MeSH terms
Acoustic Stimulation, Adult, Auditory Perception, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Laughter, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Sound, Speech, Temporal Lobe

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