A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Hemodynamic responses to emotional speech in two-month-old infants imaged using diffuse optical tomography




AuthorsShekhar S, Maria A, Kotilahti K, Huotilainen M, Heiskala J, Tuulari JT, Hirvi P, Karlsson L, Karlsson H, Nissilä I

PublisherNature Publishing Group

Publication year2019

JournalScientific Reports

Journal name in sourceScientific Reports

Article number4745

Volume9

Number of pages15

ISSN2045-2322

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39993-7

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/40118090


Abstract

Emotional speech is one of the principal forms of social communication in humans. In this study, we investigated neural processing of emotionalspeech (happy, angry, sad and neutral) in the left hemisphere of 21 two-month-old infants using diffuse optical tomography. Reconstructed total hemoglobin (HbT) images were analysed using adaptive voxel-based clustering and region-of-interest (ROI) analysis. We found a distributedhappy > neutral response within the temporo-parietal cortex, peakingin the anterior temporal cortex; a negative HbT response to emotional speech (the average of the emotional speech conditions < baseline) inthe temporo-parietal cortex, neutral > angry in the anterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), happy > angry in the superior temporal gyrus and posterior superior temporal sulcus, angry < baseline in the insula, superior temporal sulcus and superior temporal gyrus and happy < baseline in the anterior insula. These results suggest that left STS is more sensitive to happy speech as compared to angry speech, indicating that it might play an important role in processing positive emotions in two-month-old infants. Furthermore, happy speech (relative to neutral) seems to elicit more activation in the temporo-parietal cortex, thereby suggesting enhanced sensitivity of temporo-parietal cortex to positive emotional stimuli at this stage of infant development.


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