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Neural Coding of Speech Sounds

Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

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Synonyms

Cortical representation of speech sounds; Distributed speech processing; Neural processing of speech; Neural representation of speech sounds

Definition

Speech sounds are composed of both rapid spectrotemporal changes and slow steady-state portions. The neural coding of speech sounds involves the representation of precise action potential timing across many cortical areas. Behavioral speech sound discrimination accuracy is well predicted by quantifying the similarity between the spatiotemporal response patterns evoked by two sounds.

Detailed Description

Speech Sounds

Speech sounds, like all sounds, evoke patterns of activity in the auditory nerve that are transmitted to the central nervous system. The brain must accurately identify speech sounds despite large amounts of acoustic variability. For example, it is possible to perceive the word “dad” regardless of who is speaking (a male, female, or child), in various types of degradation (at a cocktail party or a concert), or at...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    Dr. Michael Kilgard

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  1. Dr. Michael Kilgard
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Correspondence to Michael Kilgard .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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Kilgard, M. (2013). Neural Coding of Speech Sounds. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_433-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_433-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Neural Coding of Speech Sounds
    Published:
    29 September 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_433-2

  2. Original

    Neural Coding of Speech Sounds
    Published:
    20 February 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_433-1

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