Concurrent processing of the prosodic hierarchy is supported by cortical entrainment and phase-amplitude coupling

Models of phonology posit a hierarchy of prosodic units that are relatively independent from syntactic structure, requiring its own parsing. Surprisingly, it remains unexplored how this prosodic hierarchy is represented in the brain. We investigated this foundational question by means of an EEG study. Thirty young adults listened to German sentences containing manipulations at different levels of the prosodic hierarchy. Evaluating speech-to-brain cortical entrainment and phase-amplitude coupling revealed that prosody’s hierarchical structure is maintained at the neural level. The faithfulness of this tracking varied as a function of the hierarchy’s degree of intactness as well as systematic inter-individual differences in audio-motor synchronization. The results underscore the role of complex oscillatory mechanisms in configuring the continuous and hierarchical nature of the speech signal and firmly situate prosody as a structure indispensable from theoretical perspectives on spoken language comprehension in the brain.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  bioRxiv

• Publication date

  2024-01-22

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1101/2024.01.22.576636PMID 39704246PMCID 11659776
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Language follows a distinct mode of extra-genomic evolution.

  2024cited by this paper
• Auditory Processing of Intonational Rises and Falls in German: Rises Are Special in Attention Orienting

  2024cited by this paper
• Theta‐gamma phase‐amplitude coupling in auditory cortex is modulated by language proficiency

  2023cited by this paper
• Intonation Units in Spontaneous Speech Evoke a Neural Response

  2023cited by this paper
• Speech-to-Speech Synchronization protocol to classify human participants as high or low auditory-motor synchronizers

  2022cited by this paper
• Overt and implicit prosody contribute to neurophysiological responses previously attributed to grammatical processing

  2022cited by this paper
• Neural oscillations are a start toward understanding brain activity rather than the end

  2021cited by this paper
• Acoustically Driven Cortical δ Oscillations Underpin Prosodic Chunking

  2021cited by this paper
• Preferred auditory temporal processing regimes and auditory-motor synchronization

  2021cited by this paper
• ERP mismatch response to phonological and temporal regularities in speech

  2020cited by this paper
• Generalized linear mixed-model (GLMM) trees: A flexible decision-tree method for multilevel and longitudinal data

  2020influential reference
• Oscillations in the auditory system and their possible role.

  2020cited by this paper
• Speech rhythms and their neural foundations

  2020cited by this paper
• Sequences of Intonation Units form a ~ 1 Hz rhythm

  2019cited by this paper
• Neural Entrainment and Attentional Selection in the Listening Brain.

  2019cited by this paper
• Two Distinct Neural Timescales for Predictive Speech Processing.

  2019cited by this paper
• The Syntax–Prosody Interface

  2019cited by this paper
• An Introduction to Mixed Models for Experimental Psychology

  2019cited by this paper
• Prosodic pitch processing is represented in delta‐band EEG and is dissociable from the cortical tracking of other acoustic and phonetic features

  2019cited by this paper
• Spontaneous synchronization to speech reveals neural mechanisms facilitating language learning

  2019influential reference
• Brian 2, an intuitive and efficient neural simulator

  2019influential reference
• Prominence of delta oscillatory rhythms in the motor cortex and their relevance for auditory and speech perception.

  2019cited by this paper
• A New Unifying Account of the Roles of Neuronal Entrainment.

  2019cited by this paper
• Unattended processing of hierarchical pitch variations in spoken sentences

  2018cited by this paper
• Proactive Sensing of Periodic and Aperiodic Auditory Patterns.

  2018cited by this paper
• Perceptually relevant speech tracking in auditory and motor cortex reflects distinct linguistic features

  2018cited by this paper
• Phase Entrainment of Brain Oscillations Causally Modulates Neural Responses to Intelligible Speech

  2018cited by this paper
• Delta(but not theta)‐band cortical entrainment involves speech‐specific processing

  2018cited by this paper
• Neural Entrainment to Speech Modulates Speech Intelligibility.

  2017cited by this paper
• Auditory-Inspired Speech Envelope Extraction Methods for Improved EEG-Based Auditory Attention Detection in a Cocktail Party Scenario

  2017cited by this paper
• Hierarchical representation and estimation of prosody using continuous wavelet transform

  2017influential reference
• Temporal modulations in speech and music.

  2017cited by this paper
• Detecting treatment-subgroup interactions in clustered data with generalized linear mixed-effects model trees

  2017cited by this paper
• Symmetrical and asymmetrical voice systems and processing load: Pupillometric evidence from sentence production in Tagalog and German

  2017cited by this paper
• A cross-linguistic study of speech modulation spectra.

  2017cited by this paper
• Non-linear auto-regressive models for cross-frequency coupling in neural time series

  2017cited by this paper
• Interpretations of Frequency Domain Analyses of Neural Entrainment: Periodicity, Fundamental Frequency, and Harmonics

  2016cited by this paper
• Decoding Dynamic Brain Patterns from Evoked Responses: A Tutorial on Multivariate Pattern Analysis Applied to Time Series Neuroimaging Data

  2016cited by this paper
• Delta, theta, beta, and gamma brain oscillations index levels of auditory sentence processing

  2016cited by this paper
• Irregular Speech Rate Dissociates Auditory Cortical Entrainment, Evoked Responses, and Frontal Alpha

  2015cited by this paper
• Frontal Top-Down Signals Increase Coupling of Auditory Low-Frequency Oscillations to Continuous Speech in Human Listeners

  2015cited by this paper
• Neural Cross-Frequency Coupling: Connecting Architectures, Mechanisms, and Functions.

  2015cited by this paper
• Speech encoding by coupled cortical theta and gamma oscillations

  2015cited by this paper
• Inversion of Auditory Spectrograms, Traditional Spectrograms, and Other Envelope Representations

  2015cited by this paper
• Dorsal and Ventral Pathwa ys for Prosody Highlights

  2015cited by this paper
• Attention and prediction in human audition: a lesson from cognitive psychophysiology

  2015cited by this paper
• Towards a computational(ist) neurobiology of language: correlational, integrated and explanatory neurolinguistics

  2015cited by this paper
• Brain responses to spoken F0 changes: Is H special?

  2015cited by this paper
• Predictive motor control of sensory dynamics in auditory active sensing.

  2015cited by this paper
• The contribution of frequency-specific activity to hierarchical information processing in the human auditory cortex

  2014cited by this paper
• MNE software for processing MEG and EEG data

  2014influential reference
• On the interpretation of weight vectors of linear models in multivariate neuroimaging

  2014cited by this paper
• Neuronal oscillations and speech perception: critical-band temporal envelopes are the essence

  2013cited by this paper
• Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal.

  2013cited by this paper
• Speech Rhythm Facilitates Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution: ERP Evidence

  2013cited by this paper
• The pace of prosodic phrasing couples the listener's cortex to the reader's voice

  2013cited by this paper
• MEG and EEG data analysis with MNE-Python

  2013influential reference
• Speech Rhythms and Multiplexed Oscillatory Sensory Coding in the Human Brain

  2013cited by this paper
• Cortical oscillations and sensory predictions.

  2012cited by this paper
• Frequency modulation entrains slow neural oscillations and optimizes human listening behavior

  2012cited by this paper
• The maps problem and the mapping problem: Two challenges for a cognitive neuroscience of speech and language

  2012cited by this paper
• Cortical oscillations and speech processing: emerging computational principles and operations

  2012influential reference
• A mutual information analysis of neural coding of speech by low-frequency MEG phase information.

  2011cited by this paper
• Scikit-learn: Machine Learning in Python

  2011influential reference
• Phrase Length Matters: The Interplay between Implicit Prosody and Syntax in Korean “Garden Path” Sentences

  2011cited by this paper
• Linking Speech Perception and Neurophysiology: Speech Decoding Guided by Cascaded Oscillators Locked to the Input Rhythm

  2011cited by this paper
• ERP correlates of pre-attentive processing of Cantonese lexical tones: The effects of pitch contour and pitch height.

  2011cited by this paper
• Brian Hears: Online Auditory Processing Using Vectorization Over Channels

  2011influential reference
• The prosodic word is not universal, but emergent

  2010cited by this paper
• The pairwise phase consistency: A bias-free measure of rhythmic neuronal synchronization

  2010cited by this paper
• Common Premotor Regions for the Perception and Production of Prosody and Correlations with Empathy and Prosodic Ability

  2010cited by this paper
• The functional role of cross-frequency coupling.

  2010cited by this paper
• Premotor cortex mediates perceptual performance

  2010cited by this paper
• The Semantics of Prosody: Acoustic and Perceptual Evidence of Prosodic Correlates to Word Meaning

  2009cited by this paper
• The Gamma Oscillation: Master or Slave?

  2009cited by this paper
• The Natural Statistics of Audiovisual Speech

  2009cited by this paper
• Phonological phrase boundaries constrain the online syntactic analysis of spoken sentences.

  2008cited by this paper
• The sound of sarcasm

  2008cited by this paper
• The processing of German word stress: evidence for the prosodic hierarchy*

  2008cited by this paper
• The essential role of premotor cortex in speech perception.

  2007cited by this paper
• Prosodically driven phonetic detail in speech processing: The case of domain-initial strengthening in English

  2007cited by this paper
• Prosodic phrasing is central to language comprehension.

  2006cited by this paper
• Effects of Timing Regularity and Metrical Expectancy on Spoken-Word Perception

  2005cited by this paper
• An oscillatory hierarchy controlling neuronal excitability and stimulus processing in the auditory cortex.

  2005cited by this paper
• Neural processing of amplitude-modulated sounds.

  2004cited by this paper
• Brain activity varies with modulation of dynamic pitch variance in sentence melody.

  2004influential reference
• Listening to speech activates motor areas involved in speech production

  2004cited by this paper
• Psycholinguistics cannot escape prosody

  2002cited by this paper
• Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer

  2002influential reference
• Estimating spatio-temporal receptive fields of auditory and visual neurons from their responses to natural stimuli

  2001cited by this paper
• On the role of space and time in auditory processing.

  2001cited by this paper
• Estimating spatio-temporal receptive fields of auditory and visual neurons from their responses to natural stimuli.

  2001cited by this paper
• Removing electroencephalographic artifacts by blind source separation.

  2000influential reference
• Measuring phase synchrony in brain signals

  1999cited by this paper
• Learning To Parse?

  1998cited by this paper
• An Efficient Implementation of the Patterson-Holdsworth Auditory Filter Bank

  1997cited by this paper
• The Parsing of Prosody

  1996influential reference
• A prosody tutorial for investigators of auditory sentence processing

  1996cited by this paper
• Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing

  1995cited by this paper
• On the perceptual strength of prosodic boundaries and its relation to suprasegmental cues

  1994cited by this paper

• Effects of speech periodicity and speech rate on auditory-motor coupling during speech comprehension

  2026cites this paper
• Asymmetric sampling in time: evidence and perspectives.

  2025cites this paper
• The stability of articulatory and acoustic oscillatory signals derived from speech

  2025cites this paper
• Refined analysis of the Speech-to-Speech Synchronization task reveals subharmonic synchronization

  2025cites this paper
• A universal of speech timing: Intonation units form low-frequency rhythms

  2025cites this paper
• Does nonsense make sense? A springboard to studying dynamic reconfiguration of large-scale networks during semantic and intonation speech processing

  2025cites this paper
• Hearing and cognitive decline in aging differentially impact neural tracking of context-supported versus random speech across linguistic timescales

  2024cites this paper
• Processing of Visual Speech Cues in Speech-in-Noise Comprehension Depends on Working Memory Capacity and Enhances Neural Speech Tracking in Older Adults With Hearing Impairment

  2024cites this paper