Neural Dynamics: Speech is Special
Résumé
Human speech is undoubtedly a particularly relevant acoustic stimulus for our species, due to its role of information transmission during communication. Previous research has aimed to map speech processing onto macro-anatomical brain structures specifically dedicated to this purpose, an endeavour that turned out to be challenging. A more recent line of research addressed the fact that speech is a dynamic signal, and instead focused on similarly dynamic neural activity. We here focus on the question of whether and how speech is special for such neural dynamics. We review findings that suggest that this is indeed the case: First, properties of human speech are strikingly similar to those found in neural dynamics, indicating that the two co-evolved. Second, neural dynamics produced by human speech have distinct, characteristic properties that are not only an amplified version of those observed during other, non-speech sounds. Although open questions remain, speech seems special for neural dynamics in humans.