Experimental Psychology Seminar - The neuronal representation of social communication signals – voices and faces in the primate brain

Speaker: Catherine Perrodin, Experimental Psychology, UCL

Beyond speech, a relatively recent evolutionary adaptation in humans, many social animals interact using vocal expressions and can recognize conspecific individuals by voice. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified regions dedicated to processing species-specific vocal signals in the brains of nonhuman primates that are comparable to the voice-sensitive areas in the human temporal lobe. However, these imaging approaches do not inform directly on neuronal-level functional processes, and as a result the neurobiology of voice processing in the primate brain has remained unclear. Using fMRI-guided electrophysiology to target a voice-sensitive area in the anterior temporal lobe of the macaque monkey brain, we investigated the neuronal representation of vocal communication signals. I will first present data on the auditory encoding of voices by neurons in a voice-sensitive area. Second, I will discuss how visual face information interacts with the neuronal processing of voices during audio-visual social communication. Finally, I will consider how these new insights into the neuronal mechanisms of voice processing inform on the substrates of voice-related activity patterns in humans. By building on the links between how the brains of humans and monkeys process social communication signals, such cross-species comparisons are advancing our understanding of the neurobiology of voice perception.

Time: 7 June 2016, 4pm

Venue: Room 305, 26 Bedford Way, WC1H 0AP