ArticleNature communications2021
Human cortical encoding of pitch in tonal and non-tonal languages.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed.
- A neural architecture for imagined and overt speech motor dynamics.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- A Fine-grained Spatiotemporal ECoG Dataset during Speech Perception in Tonal Language.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Multiscale neural features of tonal bilingualism: linking regional differences in brain network degree centrality to neurotransmitter-gene signatures in Bai-Mandarin bilinguals.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Linguistic pitch is hierarchically encoded in the right ventral stream.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Speaking in Tones: The role of lexical tones in Chinese-speaking Primary Progressive Aphasia.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Causal Lesion Evidence for Two Motor Speech Coordination Networks in the Brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- TMNRED, A Chinese Language EEG Dataset for Fuzzy Semantic Target Identification in Natural Reading Environments.Scientific data · 2025Article
- VocalMind: A Stereotactic EEG Dataset for Vocalized, Mimed, and Imagined Speech in Tonal Language.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Cortical processing of discrete prosodic patterns in continuous speech.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Atypical vocal imitation of speech and song in autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from Mandarin speakers.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2025Article
- Parallel hierarchical encoding of linguistic representations in the human auditory cortex and recurrent automatic speech recognition systems.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Differential electroencephalography responses in speech perception between native and non-native speakers.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- A bilingual speech neuroprosthesis driven by cortical articulatory representations shared between languages.Nature biomedical engineering · 2024Article
- Perception and adaptation of receptive prosody in autistic adolescents.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Genetic association analysis of human median voice pitch identifies a common locus for tonal and non-tonal languages.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Encoding of melody in the human auditory cortex.Science advances · 2024Article
- Individual differences in working memory impact the trajectory of non-native speech category learning.PloS one · 2024Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
Languages can use a common repertoire of vocal sounds to signify distinct meanings. In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, pitch contours of syllables distinguish one word from another, whereas in non-tonal languages, such as English, pitch is used to convey intonation. The neural computations underlying language specialization in speech perception are unknown. Here, we use a cross-linguistic approach to address this. Native Mandarin- and English- speaking participants each listened to both Mandarin and English speech, while neural activity was directly recorded from the non-primary auditory cortex. Both groups show language-general coding of speaker-invariant pitch at the single electrode level. At the electrode population level, we find language-specific distribution of cortical tuning parameters in Mandarin speakers only, with enhanced sensitivity to Mandarin tone categories. Our results show that speech perception relies upon a shared cortical auditory feature processing mechanism, which may be tuned to the statistics of a given language.
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