Common brain areas activated by hearing and seeing speech
Poster Presentation

Ville Ojanen
Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of computational engineering

Johanna Pekkola
Helsinki University Central Hospital, Department of Radiology

Iiro, P. Jääskeläinen
Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of computational engineering

Riikka Möttönen
Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of computational engineering

Taina Autti
Helsinki University Central Hospital, Department of Radiology

Veikko Jousmäki
Low temperature laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology

Mikko Sams
Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of computational engineering

     Abstract ID Number: 93
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 21, 2005
     Presentation date: 06/07/2005 11:30 AM in MART Auditorium
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
We used 3T fMRI to map brain areas activated during both listening to and lipreading speech (Finnish vowels /a/, /o/, /i/ and /y/) in 13 healthy subjects. Both types of speech perception activated the premotor and/or primary motor cortex. Other common areas were Broca’s area, left inferior parietal area, posterior superior temporal gyrus/sulcus (STG/STS) bilaterally, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and left anterior cingulate cortex. The center of activation in the motor areas, Broca’s area and inferior parietal area during visual speech perception was significantly different from that during auditory speech perception. This is interpreted as evidence of both unimodal and audiovisual “mirror neurons” in these areas and as tentative evidence of somatotopic activation of the mirror neuron system during auditory and visual speech perception. This system might transform auditory and visual speech inputs into articulatory-based representations.