Distinct representations of phonemes, syllables, and supra-syllabic sequences in the speech production network

Methods We used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) adaptation paradigm and a novel technique for quantitative analysis of the pattern of activation changes in a given brain region across different experimental conditions to overcome the temporal resolution problem and capture subtle variations of activity that allowed us to dissociate the neural substrates underlying phonemic, syllabic, and supra-syllabic levels of processing during speech. 22 healthy volunteers were scanned while reading lists of bi-syllabic pseudowords organized in blocks with varying phonemic, syllabic, or suprasyllabic content.