RESEARCH LINES FOR MASTER’S STUDENTS 2024 – 2025
1. Subcortical encoding of speech sounds in adults and newborns
PI: Carles Escera
In the Subcortical encoding of speech sounds in adults and newborns research line (PI: Carles Escera), we aim at investigating how the sounds of human language are encoded in the auditory system and what are the modulating factors that shape this encoding, from experience-dependent plasticity and environmental to genetics. We employ a fascinating auditory evoked potential called Frequency-Following Response (FFR), which reflect compound neuronal activity in the ascending auditory pathway to cortex that is phase-locked to the spectrotemporal components of the acoustic signal, so that it faithfully mimics the eliciting stimulus. Using the FFR, our lab has shown predictive coding in the subcortical auditory system, the influence of the serotonin transporter gen in efficient speech-sound encoding, and that timing predictability enhances repetition suppression at subcortical level. The master projects will lie within this line, with the possibility to enroll in adult and even newborn recordings, and the opportunity to join an internationally reputed site for auditory cognitive neuroscience training and a thriving research environment. Check www.ub.edu/brainlab for ongoing specific projects and further details.
Keywords: Auditory evoked potentials, Frequency-Following Response (FFR), auditory perception, speech and language disorders
Selected references:
Slabu, L., Grimm, S., & Escera, C. (2012). Novelty detection in the human auditory brainstem. Journal of Neuroscience, 34, 1447-1452.
Recasens, M., Grimm, S, Capilla, A., Nowak, R., & Escera, C. (2014). Two sequential processes of change detection in hierarchically ordered areas of the human auditory cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 24, 143-153.
Selinger, L., Zarnowiek, K., Via, M., Clemente, I.C., Escera, C. (2016). Involvement of the serotonin transporter gene in accurate subcortical speech encoding. Journal of Neuroscience, 36(42), 10782-10790.
Gorina-Careta, N., Zarnowiec, K., Costa-Faidella, J., & Escera, C. (2016). Timing predictability enhances regularity encoding in the human subcortical auditory pathway. Scientific Reports, 6:37405.
Parras, G.G., Nieto-Diego, J., Carbajal, G.V., Valdés-Baizabal, C., Escera. C., & Malmierca, M.S. (2017). Neurons along the auditory pathway exhibit a hierarchical organization of prediction error. Nature Communications, 8, 2148.
Escera, C. (2017). The role of the auditory brain stem in regularity encoding and deviance detection. In: Kraus, N., Anderson, S., White-Schwoch, T., Fay, R. R., and Popper, A. N. (Eds.). The Frequency-following Response: A Window into Human Communication, (pp. 101-121). New York: Springer Nature.
2. Electrophysiology of predictive processes in action-perception interactions and the sense of agency
PI: Iria SanMiguel
Active perception and predictive processing. Everyone is familiar with bistable stimuli like the Rubin vase, which can be perceived either as two faces or a vase. How is it possible that the same sensory stimulation can give rise to different percepts in different occasions? Such phenomena highlight the active nature of perception. The world we perceive is an interpretation of the information that arrives at our senses. A key factor in this interpretative process is prediction. The brain constantly and automatically formulates predictions regarding the sensory input. Sensory responses, and hence perception, are influenced by such predictions. We are interested in understanding the neural mechanisms that support predictive processing, and their effects on perception.
Motor-driven sensory prediction. An important source of sensory predictions is our own motor behaviour. How is it possible that the visual image remains still, despite we are constantly moving our body and our eyes? The solution lies in predictive processing: the sensory consequences of the organisms’ motor actions are predicted by the nervous system, and this prediction is used to compensate the effects of self-action during sensory processing. In our research, we make use motor- driven prediction to study predictive processing in audition. In a typical experiment, participants deliver auditory stimuli to themselves by pressing buttons. Comparing responses to self- and externally-generated sounds we can study the effects of motor-driven prediction in auditory processing.
Agency. How do we recognize ourselves as the agents of certain stimuli in the environment, when there is nothing that can differentiate such stimuli from other stimuli that we did not cause ourselves? The sensation of agency may arise from the effects of motor-driven sensory predictions on sensory processing. That is, whenever a sensation is cancelled out by a motor prediction, we may feel that we were the agent causing the stimulation. We are interested in understanding the precise relationship between motor-driven sensory predictions and the sensation of agency.
Keywords: Predictive coding, sense of agency, EEG, ERPs, motor control, sensorimotor processes, perception
Selected publications:
Schröger, Marzecová & SanMiguel (2015) Attention and prediction in human audition: a lesson from cognitive psychophysiology. European Journal of Neuroscience, 41(5):641-64.
SanMiguel, Widmann, Bendixen, Trujillo-Barreto & Schröger (2013) Hearing Silences: Human Auditory Processing Relies on Preactivation of Sound-Specific Brain Activity Patterns. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(20):8633-9.
Bendixen, SanMiguel & Schröger (2012) Early electrophysiological indicators for predictive processing in audition: A review. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 83(2):120-31.
Timm, Schönwiesner, Schröger & SanMiguel (2016) Sensory suppression of brain responses to self-generated sounds is observed with and without the perception of agency. Cortex, 80:5-20. Timm J, SanMiguel I, Keil J, Schröger E, Schönwiesner M. (2014). Motor intention determines sensory attenuation of brain responses to self-initiated sounds. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(7):1481-9.
3. Genetic modulators of brain potentials associated to speech and musical processing
PI: Marc Via
In the research line “Genetic modulators of brain potentials associated to speech and musical processing” (PI: Marc Via), we aim at establishing the role of genetic and epigenetic variants in the auditory processing of acoustic stimuli of different nature (speech vs. non-speech, syllables vs. running speech) at different levels of the auditory hierarchy (cortical vs. subcortical stages). In particular, we collect electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings from young healthy participants while conducting different experiments on sound processing. Additionally, we collect saliva samples to analyze genetic and epigenetic markers and behavioral data to measure the ability of participants in pitch discrimination tasks.
Thus, we will identify genetic and epigenetic variants associated to measures of pitch extraction at the subcortical level, through the analysis of subcortical responses to acoustic stimuli of different complexity and to cortical responses to different linguistic and non-linguistic acoustic stimuli. Moreover, we will also assess the role of attentional processes and the ecological validity of the observed associations. Our new view on the molecular mechanisms involved in the cognitive neuroscience of audition, incorporating genetic markers and methylation profiling into the brain mechanisms of auditory cognition, constitute a breakthrough on current views in cognitive neuroscience. Results arising from the project will be relevant for specialists in very diverse fields (e.g. neurophysiology, molecular genetics and epigenetics, acoustics, or psycholinguistics) and may also lead to approaches to understand the pathophysiology of disorders such as dyslexia or language specific impairment.
Keywords: EEG, FFR, genetics, epigenetics, audition, music, language
Selected references:
Garcia-Garcia, M., Via, M., Zarnowiec, K., SanMiguel, I., Escera, C., Clemente, I.C. (2017). COMT and DRD2/ANKK-1 gene-gene interaction account for resetting of gamma neural oscillations to auditory stimulus-driven attention. PLoS One, 12(2), e0172362.
Selinger, L., Zarnowiek, K., Via, M., Clemente, I.C., Escera, C. (2016). Involvement of the serotonin transporter gene in accurate subcortical speech encoding. Journal of Neuroscience, 36(42), 10782-10790.
4. Threat processing in the auditory system
PI: Judith Domínguez-Borràs
Fast and efficient detection of threats is critical for survival. This process is largely dependent on existing neural connections between the sensory systems and the amygdala, a structure in the temporal lobe with a major role in emotion. An intriguing question is how the amygdala receives those sensory inputs in order to trigger a prompt emotional response. In humans, the study of the neural pathways for emotion detection has been largely dedicated to vision, but much less to audition. In this research line we aim at studying the neural pathways for threat detection and perception in the auditory system and the amygdala. We use a variety of techniques, including electroencephalography (EEG) and (functional) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and different experimental approaches, such as fear conditioning.
Keywords: Emotion, audition, amygdala, EEG, MRI, fMRI
Selected references:
Guex, R., Ros, T., Mégevand, P., Spinelli, L., Seeck, M., Vuilleumier, P., Domínguez-Borràs, J. (2022). Prestimulus amygdala spectral activity is associated with visual face awareness. Cerebral Cortex, bhac119.
Moyne, M., Legendre, G., Arnal, L., Kumar, S., Sterpenich, V., Seeck, M., Grandjean, D., Schwartz, S., Vuilleumier, P., Domínguez-Borràs, J. (2022). Brain reactivity to emotion persists in NREM sleep and is associated with individual dream recall. Cerebral Cortex Communications, 3(1): tgac003.
Domínguez-Borràs, J., Vuilleumier, P. (2022). Amygdala function in emotion, cognition, and behavior. In G. Miceli, P. Bartolomeo, & V. Navarro (Eds.), The temporal lobe. Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 187:359-380. Elsevier Science Publishers.
Domínguez-Borràs, J., Guex, R., Méndez-Bértolo, C., Legendre, G., Spinelli, L., Moratti, S., Frühholz, S., Mégevand, P., Arnal, L., Strange, B., Seeck, M., Vuilleumier, P. (2019). Human amygdala response to unisensory and multisensory emotion input: no evidence of superadditivity from intracranial recordings. Neuropsychologia, 131, 9-24.
5. Cerebellum and audio-motor interaction
PI: Jordi Costa-Faidella
In the research line “Cerebellum and audio-motor interaction” (PI: Jordi Costa-Faidella), we aim at deciphering the role of the cerebellum, a particularly understudied structure from the point of view of its electrodynamics, in the control of sound pitch perception and production. To do so, we will optimize non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) recordings and data processing to reveal cerebellar activity during the perception of pitched sounds as well as during procedural learning tasks in which healthy participants will learn to control the pitch of sounds with their motor actions (i.e., learning to play a musical instrument). This research line also offers the possibility to study pitch perception and production mechanisms in patients suffering from spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3; Machado-Joseph disease), a rare affection of the cerebellum, offering a two-sided approach to the study of the role of the cerebellum in audio-motor interaction.
Pitch is a critical feature of sound that conveys prosodic and emotional speech information; lexical information in tonal languages; musical melody; and serves as the primary cue to segregate speakers in noisy environments. Pitch perception and fine-tuned production control are thus of the essence in language and musical development. The neural representation of sound pitch appears to be so relevant that is already developed in newborns. In this research line we focus on the periodicity of the sound signal, that is, it’s regularity in time, and the neural representation by phase-locked neuronal activity (i.e., entrained neuronal oscillations), wondering whether the cerebellum will exploit that characteristic to fine tune the integration of neuronal communication across auditory and motor systems.
Keywords: Auditory, EEG, Cerebellum, Neuronal Oscillations, Sensory-Motor integration, Periodicity, Pitch, SCA3
Selected references:
Arenillas-Alcón, S., Costa-Faidella, J., Ribas-Prats, T., Gómez-Roig, M. D., & *Escera, C. (2021). Neural encoding of voice pitch and formant structure at birth as revealed by frequency-following responses. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 6660.
Costa-Faidella, J., Sussman, E. S., & Escera, C. (2017). Selective entrainment of brain oscillations drives auditory perceptual organization. NeuroImage, (159), 195–206.
Costa-Faidella, J., Baldeweg, T., Grimm, S., & Escera, C. (2011). Interactions between “what” and “when” in the auditory system: temporal predictability enhances repetition suppression. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(50), 18590–18597.