Neural Dynamics of Feedforward and Feedback Speech Processing

Speaker

Prof. Adeen Flinker

Associate Professor
Department of Neurology
NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Abstract

Speech production is a complex human function requiring continuous feedforward commands together with reafferent feedback processing. The cortical organization of these processes are largely characterized by dual stream models of speech (Hickok & Poeppel 2007, Rauschecker & Scott 2009), wherein Frontal cortex mainly serves as an articulatory network mapping feedforward commands. Leveraging human intracranial recordings, I will present a series of studies addressing the role of frontal cortex in processing feedforward and feedback speech commands in support of a mixed representation across frontal cortex. Using classical signal processing as well as deep neural networks I will provide evidence for functional subdivisions of frontal cortex wherein the ventral precentral gyrus sends feedforward commands and serves as the source of a corollary discharge, while MFG and dorsal precentral gyrus process auditory semantics and reafferent speech.

Dr. Adeen Flinker received his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012. After completing post-doctoral research at New York University, he joined the New York University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Neurology in 2017 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2023. Dr. Flinker's research focuses on clinical and basic questions in the electrophysiology of language. In 2021, he was awarded an Early Career Award by the Society for the Neurobiology of Language and he currently oversees intracranial electrophysiology research at NYU.

6 3D Brain maps accompanied by corresponding different colored human figures.