{"doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117410","title":"A distributed dynamic brain network mediates linguistic tone representation and categorization","abstract":"Successful categorization requires listeners to represent the incoming sensory information, resolve the \"blooming, buzzing confusion\" inherent to noisy sensory signals, and leverage the accumulated evidence towards making a decision. Despite decades of intense debate, the neural systems underlying speech categorization remain unresolved. Here we assessed the neural representation and categorization of lexical tones by native Mandarin speakers (N = 31) across a range of acoustic and contextual variabilities (talkers, perceptual saliences, and stimulus-contexts) using functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) and an evidence accumulation model of decision-making. Univariate activation and multivariate pattern analyses reveal that the acoustic-variability-tolerant representations of tone category are observed within the middle portion of the left superior temporal gyrus (STG). Activation patterns in the frontal and parietal regions also contained category-relevant information that was differentially sensitive to various forms of variability. The robustness of neural representations of tone category in a distributed fronto-temporoparietal network is associated with trial-by-trial decision-making parameters. These findings support a hybrid model involving a representational core within the STG that operates dynamically within an extensive frontoparietal network to support the representation and categorization of linguistic pitch patterns.","journal":"NeuroImage","year":2020,"id":71200,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":18,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9503,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":376484,"name":"Zhenzhong Gan","orcid":"0000-0002-5740-8758","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":377713,"name":"Fernando Llanos","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376485,"name":"Danting Meng","orcid":"0000-0002-0921-9071","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376486,"name":"Suiping Wang","orcid":"0000-0001-8726-169X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376487,"name":"Patrick C. M. Wong","orcid":"0000-0002-6105-5027","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":317099,"name":"Bharath Chandrasekaran","orcid":"0000-0002-3673-9435","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376483,"name":"Gangyi Feng","orcid":"0000-0003-2239-5296","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":81,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:43:57.004133Z","pmid":"33011415","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}