Activation in the angular gyrus and in the pSTS is modulated by face primes during voice recognition. Issue 5 (20th February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hölig, Cordula; Föcker, Julia; Best, Anna; Röder, Brigitte; Büchel, Christian
• Is Part Of: Human brain mapping. Volume 38:Issue 5(2017)
• Page Start: 2553
• Page End: 2565
• Publication Date: 2017-02-20
• Subjects: crossmodal processing -- voice recognition -- person identity -- face -- multisensory -- priming -- fMRI; Brain mapping -- Periodicals; 611.81
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23540
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1065-9471

Abstract

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to better understand the interaction of face and voice processing when identifying people. In a S1‐S2 crossmodal priming fMRI experiment, the target (S2) was a disyllabic voice stimulus, whereas the modality of the prime (S1) was manipulated blockwise and consisted of the silent video of a speaking face in the crossmodal condition or of a voice stimulus in the unimodal condition. Primes and targets were from the same speaker (person‐congruent) or from two different speakers (person‐incongruent). Participants had to classify the S2 as either an old or a young person. Response times were shorter after a congruent than after an incongruent face prime. The right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and the right angular gyrus showed a significant person identity effect (person‐incongruent > person‐congruent) in the crossmodal condition but not in the unimodal condition. In the unimodal condition, a person identity effect was observed in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus. Our data suggest that both the priming with a voice and with a face result in a preactivated voice representation of the respective person, which eventually facilitates (person‐congruent trials) or hampers (person‐incongruent trials) the processing of the identity of a subsequent voice. This process involves activation in the right pSTS and in the right angular gyrus for voices primed by faces, but not for voices primed by voices. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2553–2565, 2017 . ©2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.