**Brief description:** This project uses spectrotemporal modulation filtering and nonparametric multivariate analysis of fMRI data to identify brain regions outside the auditory cortex with reliably tuned, speech driven spectrotemporal receptive fields. Such tuning is observed in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left dorsal speech-premotor cortex (dPM), and bilateral calcarine sulcus (calcS). The IFG responds primarily to spectrotemporal features associated with speech intelligibility, while dPM and calcS respond to spectrotemporal features associated with intelligibility and vocal pitch. We use STRF decomposition (by intelligibility ratings) to examine interactions of STRF tuning with intelligibility, and we compare STRF tuning in IFG, dPM and calcS with STRF tuning in the auditory-cortical regions showing maximal connectivity with these non-auditory-cortical regions.
**Brief methods:** Subjects were presented with 400 IEEE sentences subjected to spectrotemporal modulation filtering as described in Venezia et al. (2016). Subjects made subjective yes-no intelligibility ratings of each sentence by button press. The fMRI data were preprocessed as described in Venezia et al. (2019). Single-trial activation estimates were obtained using the Least Squares-Separate technique described by Mumford et al. (2012). This posting contains the LSS beta time series images in cortical surface space (e.g, S1.surf128.results/LSS.S1.niml.dset) and a record of the spectrotemporal modulation filter patterns applied to each sentence plus the button press registered in response to each sentence (e.g., S1/Behavioral/sfmri01data.mat).
**Manuscript pre-print** here and at https://psyarxiv.com/nfh26
**Scripts for all analyses** described in the pre-print included with this posting. Analysis workflow and software dependencies described in Revision1/README.txt. Please see 'Revision1' subdirectory for all up-to-date analysis code. Code for original draft of the manuscript preserved in root directory.
**Contact:** jonathan.venezia@va.gov
**References:**
Mumford, Jeanette A., et al. "Deconvolving BOLD activation in event-related designs for multivoxel pattern classification analyses." Neuroimage 59.3 (2012): 2636-2643.
Venezia, Jonathan H., Gregory Hickok, and Virginia M. Richards. "Auditory “bubbles”: Efficient classification of the spectrotemporal modulations essential for speech intelligibility." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 140.2 (2016): 1072-1088.
Venezia, Jonathan H., et al. "Hierarchy of speech-driven spectrotemporal receptive fields in human auditory cortex." Neuroimage 186 (2019): 647-666.
