# Neural dynamics of speech encoding and maintenance during phonological working memory

> **NIH NIH F32** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2021 · $65,610

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Phonological working memory is the capacity to maintain and manipulate representations of speech
sounds temporarily in working memory. It is believed to play a critical role in many aspects of language
development, such as vocabulary learning, sentence processing, and acquisition of literacy skills, and deficits
of phonological working memory are diagnostic of many developmental language disorders. The classic
theoretical framework for phonological working memory posits that information is held in a dedicated working
memory storage buffer, separate from speech perception cortex; although more recent cognitive models favor
a view in which the same cortical substrate responsible for perception of phonological information also
supports maintenance of those neural representations during working memory delay. Indeed, recent human
neuroimaging studies show phonological working memory load-dependent recruitment of speech-perception
cortex during a variety of tasks and in particular, activation in left superior temporal gyrus has been shown to
correlate with out-of-scanner performance on clinical assessments of phonological working memory. However,
because these studies are not able to temporally distinguish activation during phonological encoding from
persistent maintenance of phonological representations after encoding, we do not know which of these
processes to attribute to the observed correlations with behavior. Therefore, the theoretical implications of
these findings, as well as their clinical interpretations, critically depend on resolving phonological encoding and
working memory maintenance processes in time and space. We propose to investigate the neural dynamics of
phonological working memory using intracranial electrocorticography, which allows for the simultaneous
recording of many discrete neural populations with millimeter- and millisecond-resolution by placing electrodes
directly on the cortical surface of the brains of awake, behaving human patients undergoing surgery for
medically intractable epilepsy. This technique will allow us to observe directly the relationship between speech
encoding and maintenance during phonological working memory. Through three specific aims we will (1)
determine the time course of neural activation during phonological working memory across the cortex, (2)
determine whether the same perceptual systems that represent phonological information during encoding also
actively maintain those representations during working memory, and (3) determine whether perceptual speech
systems participate in broader network-level dynamics during working memory maintenance. By achieving
these aims, this project will advance our understanding of the role perceptual speech systems play during
phonological working memory. Ultimately, such findings can be used to inform the theoretical basis for the role
of phonological working memory in language development and has implications for the clinical characterization
and ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10235482
- **Project number:** 1F32DC019531-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Terri Lynn Scott
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $65,610
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-04-14 → 2024-04-13

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10235482

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10235482, Neural dynamics of speech encoding and maintenance during phonological working memory (1F32DC019531-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10235482. Licensed CC0.

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