Neural dynamics during the vocalization of 'uh' or 'um'

Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 20;10(1):11987. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-68606-x.

Abstract

People occasionally use filler phrases or pauses, such as "uh", "um", or "y'know," that interrupt the flow of a sentence and fill silent moments between ordinary (non-filler) phrases. It remains unknown which brain networks are engaged during the utterance of fillers. We addressed this question by quantifying event-related cortical high gamma activity at 70-110 Hz. During extraoperative electrocorticography recordings performed as part of the presurgical evaluation, patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy were instructed to overtly explain, in a sentence, 'what is in the image (subject)', 'doing what (verb)', 'where (location)', and 'when (time)'. Time-frequency analysis revealed that the utterance of fillers, compared to that of ordinary words, was associated with a greater magnitude of high gamma augmentation in association and visual cortex of either hemisphere. Our preliminary results raise the hypothesis that filler utterance would often occur when large-scale networks across the association and visual cortex are engaged in cognitive processing, including lexical retrieval as well as verbal working memory and visual scene scanning.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Behavior
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Communication*
  • Electrodes
  • Female
  • Gamma Rhythm / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Models, Neurological
  • Task Performance and Analysis
  • Time Factors