Abstract
The role of neuronal oscillations in the processing of speech has recently come to prominence. Since resting-state (RS) brain activity has been shown to predict both task-related brain activation and behavioural performance, we set out to establish whether inter-individual differences in spectrally-resolved RS-MEG power are associated with variations in speech in noise recognition. In a frequency range between 21 and 29 Hz, significant positive correlations were observed between voxelwise power and resilience to noise in a large left-lateralised perisylvian cluster spanning from inferior frontal gyrus to temporo-parietal junction and peaking in left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG). Smaller areas of association were also found around the right pSTG (21-29Hz) and bilateral pSTG (30-40Hz). These findings are spatially and spectrally consistent with the neural substrates of phonological processing. We propose that increased RS power in auditory cortices and the left perisylvian region can partly explain improved resilience to noise.
Highlights
Power of resting MEG activity predicts Words-In-Noise recognition performance
Significant associations in higher beta and lower gamma frequency band
Strongest in left-lateralised perisylvian cluster peaking in posterior STG
Effects are spectrally and spatially consistent with phoneme-level processing
