Perception of affective and linguistic prosody: an ALE meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

Abstract

Prosody refers to the melodic and rhythmic aspects of speech. Two forms of prosody are typically distinguished: 'affective prosody' refers to the expression of emotion in speech, whereas 'linguistic prosody' relates to the intonation of sentences, including the specification of focus within sentences and stress within polysyllabic words. While these two processes are united by their use of vocal pitch modulation, they are functionally distinct. In order to examine the localization and lateralization of speech prosody in the brain, we performed two voxel-based meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies of the perception of affective and linguistic prosody. There was substantial sharing of brain activations between analyses, particularly in right-hemisphere auditory areas. However, a major point of divergence was observed in the inferior frontal gyrus: affective prosody was more likely to activate Brodmann area 47, while linguistic prosody was more likely to activate the ventral part of area 44.

Keywords: ALE meta-analysis; affective prosody; brain imaging, inferior frontal gyrus; emotion; linguistic prosody; speech.

Fig. 1

Sagittal sections showing major foci for the individual ALE meta-analyses for affective prosody (red) and linguistic prosody (green) as well as the statistical conjunction of the two (blue). These slices demonstrate the bilateral involvement of inferior frontal regions for affective and linguistic prosody perception. The figure also demonstrates the clear segregation of functions within the inferior frontal gyrus as well as sharing in the right auditory cortex. Red lines demarcate the limits of the ‘restricted’ analysis (z = −6 to z = 38): foci within the red lines were generated by the restricted analysis (which included all studies), while foci outside the red lines were generated by the whole-brain analysis (including only those studies that reported whole-brain coverage).

Fig. 2

The left panel shows the ALE foci for affective prosody (AP, red) and linguistic prosody (LP, green) registered onto axial sections. The right panel shows two direct contrasts, and highlights areas unique to each function. Affective prosody is uniquely associated with the IFG pars orbitalis (BA 47), while linguistic prosody is uniquely associated with the ventral IFG pars opercularis (BA 44).