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Khanna AR, Muñoz W, Kim YJ, Kfir Y, Paulk AC, Jamali M, Cai J, Mustroph ML, Caprara I, Hardstone R, Mejdell M, Meszéna D, Zuckerman A, Schweitzer J, Cash S, Williams ZM. Single-neuronal elements of speech production in humans. Nature 2024; 626:603-610. [PMID: 38297120 PMCID: PMC10866697 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06982-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024]
Abstract
Humans are capable of generating extraordinarily diverse articulatory movement combinations to produce meaningful speech. This ability to orchestrate specific phonetic sequences, and their syllabification and inflection over subsecond timescales allows us to produce thousands of word sounds and is a core component of language1,2. The fundamental cellular units and constructs by which we plan and produce words during speech, however, remain largely unknown. Here, using acute ultrahigh-density Neuropixels recordings capable of sampling across the cortical column in humans, we discover neurons in the language-dominant prefrontal cortex that encoded detailed information about the phonetic arrangement and composition of planned words during the production of natural speech. These neurons represented the specific order and structure of articulatory events before utterance and reflected the segmentation of phonetic sequences into distinct syllables. They also accurately predicted the phonetic, syllabic and morphological components of upcoming words and showed a temporally ordered dynamic. Collectively, we show how these mixtures of cells are broadly organized along the cortical column and how their activity patterns transition from articulation planning to production. We also demonstrate how these cells reliably track the detailed composition of consonant and vowel sounds during perception and how they distinguish processes specifically related to speaking from those related to listening. Together, these findings reveal a remarkably structured organization and encoding cascade of phonetic representations by prefrontal neurons in humans and demonstrate a cellular process that can support the production of speech.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arjun R Khanna
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - William Muñoz
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Yoav Kfir
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Angelique C Paulk
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Mohsen Jamali
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jing Cai
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Martina L Mustroph
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Irene Caprara
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Richard Hardstone
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Mackenna Mejdell
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Domokos Meszéna
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Jeffrey Schweitzer
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sydney Cash
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ziv M Williams
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Boston, MA, USA.
- Harvard Medical School, Program in Neuroscience, Boston, MA, USA.
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Romeo Z, Marino M, Mantini D, Angrilli A, Spironelli C. Language Network Connectivity of Euthymic Bipolar Patients Is Altered at Rest and during a Verbal Fluency Task. Biomedicines 2023; 11:1647. [PMID: 37371743 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines11061647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/31/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Abnormalities of the Language Network (LN) have been found in different psychiatric conditions (e.g., schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), supporting the hypothesis that language plays a central role in a high-level integration/connectivity of second-level cognitive processes and the underlying cortical regions. This view implies a continuum of shared neural alterations along the psychotic disorder spectrum. In particular, bipolar disorder (BD) patients were recently documented to have an altered LN asymmetry during resting state. The extent to which the LN architecture is altered and stable also during a language task has yet to be investigated. To address this question, we analyzed fMRI data recorded during an open-eyes resting state session and a silent verbal fluency task in 16 euthymic BD patients and 16 matched healthy controls (HC). Functional connectivity in the LN of both groups was computed using spatial independent component analysis, and group comparisons were carried out to assess the network organization during both rest and active linguistic task conditions. The LN of BD patients involved left and right brain areas during both resting state and linguistic task. Compared to the left-lateralized network found in HC, the BD group was characterized by two anterior clusters (in left frontal and right temporo-insular regions) and the disengagement of the posterior language areas, especially during the verbal fluency task. Our findings support the hypothesis that reduced language lateralization may represent a biological marker across different psychotic disorders and that the altered language network connectivity found at rest in bipolar patients is stable and pervasive as it is also impaired during a verbal fluency task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zaira Romeo
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Marco Marino
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
- Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Dante Mantini
- Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Alessandro Angrilli
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
- Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Chiara Spironelli
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
- Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
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Ramage AE, Ray KL, Franz HM, Tate DF, Lewis JD, Robin DA. Cingulo-Opercular and Frontoparietal Network Control of Effort and Fatigue in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 15:788091. [PMID: 35221951 PMCID: PMC8866657 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.788091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2021] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Neural substrates of fatigue in traumatic brain injury (TBI) are not well understood despite the considerable burden of fatigue on return to productivity. Fatigue is associated with diminishing performance under conditions of high cognitive demand, sense of effort, or need for motivation, all of which are associated with cognitive control brain network integrity. We hypothesize that the pathophysiology of TBI results in damage to diffuse cognitive control networks, disrupting coordination of moment-to-moment monitoring, prediction, and regulation of behavior. We investigate the cingulo-opercular (CO) and frontoparietal (FP) networks, which are engaged to sustain attention for task and maintain performance. A total of 61 individuals with mild TBI and 42 orthopedic control subjects participated in functional MRI during performance of a constant effort task requiring altering the amount of effort (25, 50, or 75% of maximum effort) utilized to manually squeeze a pneumostatic bulb across six 30-s trials. Network-based statistics assessed within-network organization and fluctuation with task manipulations by group. Results demonstrate small group differences in network organization, but considerable group differences in the evolution of task-related modulation of connectivity. The mild TBI group demonstrated elevated CO connectivity throughout the task with little variation in effort level or time on task (TOT), while CO connectivity diminished over time in controls. Several interregional CO connections were predictive of fatigue in the TBI group. In contrast, FP connectivity fluctuated with task manipulations and predicted fatigue in the controls, but connectivity fluctuations were delayed in the mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) group and did not relate to fatigue. Thus, the mTBI group's hyper-connectivity of the CO irrespective of task demands, along with hypo-connectivity and delayed peak connectivity of the FP, may allow for attainment of task goals, but also contributes to fatigue. Findings are discussed in relation to performance monitoring of prediction error that relies on internal cues from sensorimotor feedback during task performance. Delay or inability to detect and respond to prediction errors in TBI, particularly evident in bilateral insula-temporal CO connectivity, corresponds to day-to-day fatigue and fatigue during task performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy E. Ramage
- Interdisciplinary Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
| | - Kimberly L. Ray
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, United States
| | - Hannah M. Franz
- Interdisciplinary Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
| | - David F. Tate
- Department of Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Jeffrey D. Lewis
- Mental Health Clinic, Wright Patterson Medical Center, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH, United States
| | - Donald A. Robin
- Interdisciplinary Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
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Corrivetti F, de Schotten MT, Poisson I, Froelich S, Descoteaux M, Rheault F, Mandonnet E. Dissociating motor–speech from lexico-semantic systems in the left frontal lobe: insight from a series of 17 awake intraoperative mappings in glioma patients. Brain Struct Funct 2019; 224:1151-1165. [DOI: 10.1007/s00429-019-01827-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2018] [Accepted: 01/05/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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