Debate continues regarding the necessary role of right superior temporal gyrus (STG) regions in sublexical speech perception given the bilateral STG activation often observed in fMRI studies. To evaluate the causal roles, TMS pulses were delivered to inhibit and disrupt neuronal activity at the left and right STG regions during a nonword discrimination task based on peak activations from a blocked fMRI paradigm assessing speech vs. nonspeech perception (N = 20). Relative to a control region located in the posterior occipital lobe, TMS to the left anterior STG (laSTG) led to significantly worse accuracy, whereas TMS to the left posterior STG (lpSTG) and right anterior STG (raSTG) did not. Although the disruption from TMS was significantly greater for the laSTG than for raSTG, the difference in accuracy between the laSTG and lpSTG did not reach significance. The results argue for a causal role of the laSTG but not raSTG in speech perception. Further research is needed to establish the source of the differences between the laSTG and lpSTG.

中文翻译：

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左右颞上回在言语感知中的作用：fMRI 引导的 TMS 研究

鉴于在 fMRI 研究中经常观察到双侧 STG 激活，关于右颞上回 (STG) 区域在亚词汇语音感知中的必要作用的争论仍在继续。为了评估因果作用，在基于评估语音与非语音感知（N = 20）的阻塞 fMRI 范式的峰值激活的非单词辨别任务期间，传递 TMS 脉冲以抑制和破坏左右 STG 区域的神经元活动。相对于位于后枕叶的控制区域，左前 STG (laSTG) 的 TMS 导致精度显着降低，而左后 STG (lpSTG) 和右前 STG (raSTG) 的 TMS 则没有。尽管 laSTG 的 TMS 干扰明显大于 raSTG，laSTG 和 lpSTG 之间的准确性差异没有达到显着性。结果论证了 laSTG 而非 raSTG 在言语感知中的因果作用。需要进一步研究以确定 laSTG 和 lpSTG 之间差异的来源。