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PreprintCited by 10Neurobiology of Language and BilingualismPhonetics and Phonology ResearchVoice and Speech Disorders

Reliability of single-subject neural activation patterns in speech production tasks

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Frankford, Saul A., Nieto-Castañón, Alfonso, Tourville, Jason A., Guenther, Frank H.·2019·Brain and Language
DOI 10.1101/807925PMC PMC7781091

Preprint — published as 10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104881

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Abstract

Speech neuroimaging research targeting individual speakers could help elucidate differences that may be crucial to understanding speech disorders. However, this research necessitates reliable brain activation across multiple speech production sessions. In the present study, we evaluated the reliability of speech-related brain activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging data from twenty neuro-typical subjects who participated in two experiments involving reading aloud simple speech stimuli. Using traditional methods like the Dice and intraclass correlation coefficients, we found that most individuals displayed moderate to high reliability. We also found that a novel machine-learning subject classifier could identify these individuals by their speech activation patterns with 97% accuracy from among a dataset of seventy-five subjects. These results suggest that single-subject speech research would yield valid results and that investigations into the reliability of speech activation in people with speech disorders are warranted.

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  • The brain regions showing significant convergence across all inner speech studies are broadly associated with overt speech production.

    “The brain regions which showed significant convergence across all inner speech studies were regions broadly associated with overt speech production.”

    From Bridging phenomenology and neural mechanisms of inner speech: ALE meta-analysis on egocentricity and spontaneity in a dual-mechanistic framework (2023) · cites this paper as Frankford et al., 2019

    The Results (section 3.3, page unavailable) identify regions commonly activated during speech production, supporting the overt-speech association. But the Methods (section 2.2, page unavailable) say all tasks in this study involved overt production; the paper does not report significant convergence across inner speech studies. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Frankford, S. A., Nieto-Castañón, A., Tourville, J. A., & Guenther, F. H.
Affiliations
Boston University (US)
Corresponding author
Frankford, Saul A.
ORCID
Venue
Brain and Language
Publisher
openRxiv
Published
2019-10-17
Volume
212
Pages
104881-104881
ISSN
0093-934X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1101/807925
PMC
PMC7781091
OpenAlex
W3109292669
Cited by
10
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2021: 1
FWCI
0.54
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Brain and Language (publishedVersion)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • OpenBU (Boston University) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • OpenBU (Boston University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Centre d'Imagerie BioMédicale
  • National Institutes of Health (DC002852)
  • Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC002852, T32DC013017, R01DC007683)
  • National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
  • National Center for Research Resources (P41RR014075)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Voice and Speech Disorders
Keywords
speech production, brain activation patterns, inter-session reliability, individual differences, subject classification, reading aloud, speech disorders, functional MRI
MeSH terms
Brain, Brain Mapping, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Speech, Reproducibility of Results

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