Neural processes underlying statistical learning for speech segmentation in dogs

• Published in: Current biology 2021-12, Vol.31 (24), p.5512-5521.e5
• Main Authors: Boros, Marianna, Magyari, Lilla, Török, Dávid, Bozsik, Anett, Deme, Andrea, Andics, Attila
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; auditory cortex; basal ganglia; Dogs; EEG; Electroencephalography; ERP; Evoked Potentials - physiology; fMRI; language acquisition; Learning; Mammals; Speech - physiology; Speech Perception - physiology; speech processing; statistical learning; word segmentation
• ISSN: 0960-9822; 1879-0445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.017

To learn words, humans extract statistical regularities from speech. Multiple species use statistical learning also to process speech, but the neural underpinnings of speech segmentation in non-humans remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated computational and neural markers of speech segmentation in dogs, a phylogenetically distant mammal that efficiently navigates humans’ social and linguistic environment. Using electroencephalography (EEG), we compared event-related responses (ERPs) for artificial words previously presented in a continuous speech stream with different distributional statistics. Results revealed an early effect (220–470 ms) of transitional probability and a late component (590–790 ms) modulated by both word frequency and transitional probability. Using fMRI, we searched for brain regions sensitive to statistical regularities in speech. Structured speech elicited lower activity in the basal ganglia, a region involved in sequence learning, and repetition enhancement in the auditory cortex. Speech segmentation in dogs, similar to that of humans, involves complex computations, engaging both domain-general and modality-specific brain areas. [Display omitted] •Dogs listened to speech streams with various distributional cues to word boundaries•ERPs show that dogs track both word frequency and syllable transitional probability•fMRI reveals syllable sequence processing in dog basal ganglia and auditory cortex•Dogs use similar neural and computational mechanisms as humans do to segment speech Boros, Magyari, et al. probe dogs’ statistical learning capacities for word segmentation. ERPs reveal dogs’ ability to track transitional probabilities between syllables to discover word boundaries. fMRI results show that both domain-general and modality-specific brain regions are involved in syllable sequence processing, similarly as in humans.