Differential cross-modal effect of speech sounds on the vMMN elicited by letter versus non-letter deviants
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1
Faculty of psychology and congnitive neuroscience, Maastricht University, Netherlands
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2
Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, M-BIC, Netherlands
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3
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, United States
Appropriate development of letter - speech sound associations is considered crucial for reading acquisition. Brain imaging evidence indicated that heteromodal areas in superior temporal sulcus and modality-specific auditory cortex are involved in letter - speech sound processing. The role of early visual areas, however, remains unclear. In a previous auditory MMN (aMMN) study a cross-modal effect of letters on speech sound processing was observed. aMMN-amplitude to speech sounds presented simultaneously with letters was higher in comparison with aMMN amplitude to speech sounds presented in isolation, indicating early and automatic letter - speech sound integration. In the present study the visual counterpart of the aMMN, the vMMN, is used to investigate the influences of speech sounds on letter processing. Letter and non-letter deviants were infrequently presented in a train of standard letters either in isolation or simultaneously with a speech sound. As early as 150-220 ms after stimulus onset, influences of the speech sound on visual processing were observed. However, these influences were similar for letter and non-letter processing and thus not letter-specific. In a later time-window, between 240 and 350 msec, a differential effect of the speech sound on letter and non-letter processing was observed. Interestingly, the speech sound did not influence letter processing but suppressed non-letter processing. The present results support previous fMRI findings on letter - speech sound processing, in which the early visual areas were not involved when passively processing letters and speech sounds. This implies that, although letter - speech sound processing might rely on the evolutionarily older audiovisual speech processing system, both systems recruit early visual areas by means of a different mechanism. The present study furthermore provides an appropriate tool to investigate, with a high temporal resolution and non-invasively, cross-modal effects on visual processing.
Conference:
MMN 09
Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Presentations
Citation:
Froyen
D,
Van-Atteveldt
N and
Blomert
L
(2009). Differential cross-modal effect of speech sounds on the vMMN elicited by letter versus non-letter deviants.
Conference Abstract:
MMN 09
Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.091
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Received:
25 Mar 2009;
Published Online:
25 Mar 2009.
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Correspondence:
Dries Froyen, Faculty of psychology and congnitive neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands, d.froyen@psychology.unimaas.nl