Region-specific endogenous brain rhythms and their role for speech and language: from Section 1 - The Physiology of Rhythm

TY - CHAP

T1 - Region-specific endogenous brain rhythms and their role for speech and language

T2 - from Section 1 - The Physiology of Rhythm

AU - Rimmele, Johanna M.

AU - Keitel, Anne

PY - 2026/4/23

Y1 - 2026/4/23

N2 - Brain rhythms at different timescales are observed ubiquitously across cortex. Despite this ubiquitousness, individual brain areas can be characterized by "spectral profiles," which reflect distinct patterns of endogenous brain rhythms. Crucially, endogenous brain rhythms have often been explicitly or implicitly related to perceptual and cognitive functions. Regarding language, a vast amount of research investigates the role of brain rhythms for speech processing. Particularly, lower-level processes, such as speech segmentation and consecutive syllable encoding and the hemispheric lateralization of such processes, have been related to auditory cortex brain rhythms in the theta and gamma range and explained by neural oscillatory models. Other brain rhythms – particularly delta and beta – have been related to prosodic processing (delta) but also higher-level language processing, including phrasal and sentential processing. Delta and beta brain rhythms have also been related to predictions from the motor cortex, emphasizing the tight link between production and perception. More recently, neural oscillatory models were extended to include different levels of language processing.

AB - Brain rhythms at different timescales are observed ubiquitously across cortex. Despite this ubiquitousness, individual brain areas can be characterized by "spectral profiles," which reflect distinct patterns of endogenous brain rhythms. Crucially, endogenous brain rhythms have often been explicitly or implicitly related to perceptual and cognitive functions. Regarding language, a vast amount of research investigates the role of brain rhythms for speech processing. Particularly, lower-level processes, such as speech segmentation and consecutive syllable encoding and the hemispheric lateralization of such processes, have been related to auditory cortex brain rhythms in the theta and gamma range and explained by neural oscillatory models. Other brain rhythms – particularly delta and beta – have been related to prosodic processing (delta) but also higher-level language processing, including phrasal and sentential processing. Delta and beta brain rhythms have also been related to predictions from the motor cortex, emphasizing the tight link between production and perception. More recently, neural oscillatory models were extended to include different levels of language processing.

KW - spontaneous brain rhythms

KW - oscillations

KW - speech

KW - electrophysiology

KW - EEG/MEG

U2 - 10.1017/9781009295888.005

DO - 10.1017/9781009295888.005

M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)

SN - 9781009295857 (pbk)

SN - 9781009295840 (hbk)

SP - 44

EP - 64

BT - Rhythms of Speech and Language

A2 - Meyer, Lars

A2 - Strauss, Antje

PB - Cambridge University Press

CY - Cambridge

ER -