Behavioral and Neural Responses to External Alterations of Speech Variability

"The participant will sit still while their head is slid into the helmet-shaped bottom of the MEG device. The MEG contains sensors that passively detect weak magnetic fields outside the head produced by brain activity. The computer records the brain's electrical activity on the screen as wavy lines. The investigators will also ask you to wear sensors to capture eye-blinks (electrooculogram) and heartbeats (electrocardiogram) to facilitate removal from the MEG signal during analysis.~Participant will sit in front of a projector screen and be asked to put on a pair of headphones. Participant will be shown real words or nonsense words to read, the investigators may play sounds through headphones for the participant to repeat. Participant speech will be recorded by a microphone. The investigators may ask the participant to identify what they heard by pressing a button on a button-box. These tasks are expected to take about one hour to complete."

An MRI is a test that uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of organs and structures inside the body. The participant will be able to hear and speak to the research staff at all times during the MRI procedures. The MRI test will take about 15 minutes.

The participant may be asked to perform some of the tasks from MEG again, this time outside of the scanner. As before, the participant may see real words or nonsense words to read, and the investigators may play sounds through headphones and ask the participant to repeat them. Participant speech will be recorded by a microphone. The investigators may ask the participant to identify what they heard by pressing a button on a button-box. These tasks are expected to take about one hour to complete.