The role of theta oscillations for prelexical abstraction

• Applicant: Antje Strauß, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391911866

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

In sum, this project provided empirical evidence and theoretical clarification on the complex interplay between neural oscillations, speech segmentation, and comprehension. The findings consistently point to a multifactorial model, in which theta oscillations play a contextdependent rather than universal role for speech comprehension. Instead of serving as a general-purpose oscillatory mechanism, theta activity may be best understood as entrained dynamically in coordination with other oscillations for example in the beta range. To further understand its function, the current research emphasizes the importance of individual variability and naturalistic stimuli. Though not all workpackages came to full fruition, the project as a whole makes a strong case for moving beyond simple entrainment models toward integrative frameworks that consider temporal, spectral, and motoric aspects of human speech processing.

Publications

• The syllable in the light of motor skills and neural oscillations. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 32(5), 562–569.
  Strauß, Antje & Schwartz, Jean-Luc
  
• Brain Rhythms in Computation, Communication and Cognition [BryCoCo], Tel Aviv, Israel, 16.-18.09.2019 Cortical entrainment in the alpha but not theta range predicts speech comprehension in noise
  Antje Strauß
  
• Cued Speech Enhances Speech-in-Noise Perception. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 24(3), 223-233.
  Bayard, Clémence; Machart, Laura; Strauß, Antje; Gerber, Silvain; Aubanel, Vincent & Schwartz, Jean-Luc
  
• Salzburg Mind and Brain Annual Meeting [SAMBA] Salzburg, Austria 11.-12.07.2019 Cortical entrainment in the alpha but not theta range predicts speech comprehension in noise
  Antje Strauß
  
• Society for the Neurobiology of Language [SNL], Helsinki, Finland, 20.-22.08.2019 Cortical entrainment in the alpha but not theta range predicts speech comprehension in noise
  Antje Strauß
  
• Bottom-up and top-down processes cooperate around syllable P-centers to support speech intelligibility
  Antje Strauß, Vincent Aubanel, Anne-Lise Giraud & Jean-Luc Schwartz
  
• Current advances in Neurolinguistics – Oscillations, Language & the Brain, online, 09.2020 Dissociating the roles of bottom-up driven neural entrainment and top-down cortical tracking for speech perception by means of electric brain stimulation
  Antje Strauß
  
• Society for the Neurobiology of Language, online, 22.10.2020 Bottom-up neural entrainment and top-down cortical tracking cooperate around syllable P- centers to ensure speech intelligibility. A combined EEG-tACS study
  Antje Strauß
  
• The Fharvard corpus: A phonemically-balanced French sentence resource for audiology and intelligibility research. Speech Communication, 124, 68–74.
  Aubanel, Vincent; Bayard, C.; Strauß, A. & Schwartz, J.-L.
  
• CuttingEEG, Aix-en-Provence, Frankreich, 04.-07.10.2021 Finding endogenous theta oscillations in primary auditory cortex
  Antje Strauß
  
• DGfS, Tübingen, Deutschland, 23.02.2022 Testing prerequisites of neural entrainment and its functional limitations for speech processing
  Antje Strauß
  
• ESCOP, Lille, Frankreich, 31.08.2022 Finding endogenous theta oscillations in primary auditory cortex–a prerequisite for neural entrainment to speech
  Antje Strauß
  
• How strong is the rhythm of perception? A registered replication of Hickok, Farahbod, and Saberi (2015). Center for Open Science.
  Henry, Molly J.; Obleser, Jonas; Crusey, Maria & Peelle, Jonathan E.
  
• Lurija Kolloquium, Schmieder Kliniken, Allensbach, Deutschland, 21.06. 2022 Der Rhythmus, wo man mit muss? Theta-Oszillationen im Auditorischen Kortex auf dem Prüfstand
  Antje Strauß
  
• Salzburg Mind and Brain Annual Meeting [SAMBA] Salzburg, Austria 14.-15.07.2022 Tackling endogenous theta oscillations in primary auditory cortex
  Antje Strauß
  
• Society for the Neurobiology of Language [SNL], Philadelphia, USA, 06.-08.10.2022 Tackling endogenous theta oscillations in primary auditory cortex
  Antje Strauß
  
• The differential roles of lexical and sublexical processing during spoken-word recognition in clear and in noise. Cortex, 151, 70-88.
  Strauß, Antje; Wu, Tongyu; McQueen, James M.; Scharenborg, Odette & Hintz, Florian
  
• Electrophysiological evidence for the enhancement of gesture-speech integration by linguistic predictability during multimodal discourse comprehension. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 23(2), 340-353.
  Hintz, Florian; Khoe, Yung Han; Strauß, Antje; Psomakas, Adam Johannes Alfredo & Holler, Judith
  
• Rhythms of Speech and Language. Cambridge University Press
  Lars Meyer & Antje Strauß (Eds.)