Mind-Brain Lecture: Katharina v. Kriegstein (Leipzig)
Introduction and host: Arno Villringer
Abstract: Successful human social interaction is based on the fast and robust online perception of communication signals. In face-to-face communication this robust online perception is supported by the sharing of complementary information in several sensory modalities. What happens in auditory-only communication, e.g. when listening to someone on the phone? Traditionally it is assumed that auditory speech perception relies on the (i) auditory sensory system only (auditory-only model) and that (ii) specialization for processing of human communication signals occurs beyond the primary sensory cortices. In this talk I will present recent research challenging these two assumptions (von Kriegstein et al., 2008a; von Kriegstein et al., 2008b). In the first part of the talk I will present studies suggesting that the brain exploits previously encoded audio-visual correlations and that specific visual areas are instrumental for auditory perception even if no visual input is available (auditory-visual model). In the second part of the talk I will present evidence that modulation of subcortical sensory structures (i.e. auditory thalamus) serves the processing of specific features of speech sounds and is behaviourally relevant for speech recognition. The two parts of the talk will be unified in a predictive coding account for the robust online perception of communication signals.
von Kriegstein K, Dogan O, Gruter M, Giraud AL, Kell CA, Gruter T, Kleinschmidt A, Kiebel SJ (2008a) Simulation of talking faces in the human brain improves auditory speech recognition. ProcNatlAcadSciUSA 105:6747-6752.
von Kriegstein K, Patterson RD, Griffiths TD (2008b) Task-dependent modulation of medial geniculate body is behaviorally relevant for speech recognition. CurrBiol 18:1855-1859.
Dr. Katharina v. Kriegstein leads the Independent Junior Research Group “Neural mechanisms of human communication” at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften, Leipzig.
She is also a Fellow of the Mind-Brain-Institut which works in association with the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.
