# Characterizing the temporal processing of speech in the human auditory cortex

> **NIH NIH R01** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2021 · $681,122

## Abstract

Project Summary
Time is the fundamental dimension of sound, and temporal integration is thus fundamental to speech perception.
To recognize a complex structure such as a word in fluent speech, the brain must integrate across many different
timescales spanning tens to hundreds of milliseconds. These timescales are considerably longer than the
duration of responses at the auditory nerve. Therefore, the auditory cortex must integrate acoustic information
over long and varied timescales to encode linguistic units. On the other hand, the nature of the intermediate units
of representation between sound and meaning remains debated. Focal brain injuries have shown selective
impairment at all levels of linguistic processing (phonemic, phonotactic, and semantic) but current models of
spoken word recognition disagree on the existence and type of these representational levels. The neural basis
of temporal and linguistic processing remains speculative partly due to the limited spatiotemporal resolution of
noninvasive human neuroimaging techniques which is needed to study the encoding of fluent speech. Our multi-
PI proposal overcomes these challenges by assembling a team of researchers and clinicians with
complementary expertise at NYU and Columbia University. We propose to record invasively from a large number
of neurosurgical patients, which provides a rare and unique opportunity to collect direct cortical recordings across
several auditory regions. We propose novel experimental paradigms and analysis methods to investigate where,
when, and how acoustic features of speech are integrated over time to encode linguistic units. Our experimental
paradigms will determine the functional and anatomical organization of stimulus integration periods in primary
and nonprimary auditory cortical regions and relate the temporal processing in these regions to the emergence
of phonemic-, phonotactic-, and semantic-level representations. Finally, we will determine the nonlinear
computational mechanisms that enable the auditory cortex to integrate fast features over long durations, which
is essential in speech recognition. Understanding of the temporal processing of speech in primary and
nonprimary auditory cortex is critical for developing complete models of speech perception in the human brain,
which is essential to understanding of how these processes break down in speech and communication disorders.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10211535
- **Project number:** 1R01DC018805-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Adeen Flinker
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $681,122
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10211535

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10211535, Characterizing the temporal processing of speech in the human auditory cortex (1R01DC018805-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10211535. Licensed CC0.

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