Electrocorticographic correlates of overt articulation of 44 English phonemes: Intracranial recording in children with focal epilepsy

•Movies delineate articulation-related cortical processing in distinct perisylvian regions.•Gamma activity at 70-110 Hz in oral sensorimotor sites distinguished phonemes.•Gamma activity in a larynx motor site distinguished voiced and voiceless phonemes.

ObjectiveWe determined the temporal-spatial patterns of electrocorticography (ECoG) signal modulation during overt articulation of 44 American English phonemes.MethodsWe studied two children with focal epilepsy who underwent extraoperative ECoG recording. Using animation movies, we delineated 'when' and 'where' gamma- (70-110 Hz) and low-frequency-band activities (10-30 Hz) were modulated during self-paced articulation.ResultsRegardless of the classes of phoneme articulated, gamma-augmentation initially involved a common site within the left inferior Rolandic area. Subsequently, gamma-augmentation and/or attenuation involved distinct sites within the left oral-sensorimotor area with a timing variable across phonemes. Finally, gamma-augmentation in a larynx-sensorimotor area took place uniformly at the onset of sound generation, and effectively distinguished voiced and voiceless phonemes. Gamma-attenuation involved the left inferior-frontal and superior-temporal regions simultaneously during articulation. Low-frequency band attenuation involved widespread regions including the frontal, temporal, and parietal regions.ConclusionsOur preliminary results support the notion that articulation of distinct phonemes recruits specific sensorimotor activation and deactivation. Gamma attenuation in the left inferior-frontal and superior-temporal regions may reflect transient functional suppression in these cortical regions during automatic, self-paced vocalization of phonemes containing no semantic or syntactic information.SignificanceFurther studies are warranted to determine if measurement of event-related modulations of gamma-band activity, compared to that of the low-frequency-band, is more useful for decoding the underlying articulatory functions.