Neural activity flows through cortical subnetworks during speech production

Gregg A Castellucci; Mac MacKay; Christopher K Kovach; Farhad Tabasi; Jeremy D W Greenlee; Michael A Long

doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116783

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Neural activity flows through cortical subnetworks during speech production

Journal article

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Peer reviewed

Neural activity flows through cortical subnetworks during speech production

Gregg A Castellucci, Mac MacKay, Christopher K Kovach, Farhad Tabasi, Jeremy D W Greenlee and Michael A Long

Cell reports (Cambridge), Vol.45(1), 116783

12/30/2025

DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116783

PMCID: PMC12937506

PMID: 41477762

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Abstract

Speech production entails several processing steps that encode linguistic and articulatory structure, but whether these computations correspond to spatiotemporally discrete patterns of neural activity is unclear. To address this issue, we use electrocorticography to directly measure the brains of neurosurgical participants performing an interactive speech paradigm. We observe a broad range of cortical modulation profiles, and subsequent clustering analyses establish that responses comprised distinct classes associated with sensory perception, planning, motor execution, and task-related suppression. These activity classes are also localized to separate neural substrates, indicating their status as specialized networks. We then parse dynamics in the planning and motor networks using unsupervised dimensionality reduction, which reveals subnetworks that are sequentially active throughout preparation and articulation. These results therefore support and extend a localizationist model of speech production where cortical activity "flows" within and across discrete pathways during language use.

Neurosurgery

brain mapping

cortex

planning

electrocorticography

CP: Neuroscience

speech

interaction

language

speech perception

speech production

Details

Title: Subtitle: Neural activity flows through cortical subnetworks during speech production
Creators: Gregg A Castellucci
Mac MacKay
Christopher K Kovach
Farhad Tabasi - University of Iowa
Jeremy D W Greenlee
Michael A Long
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Cell reports (Cambridge), Vol.45(1), 116783
DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116783
PMID: 41477762
PMCID: PMC12937506
NLM abbreviation: Cell Rep
ISSN: 2211-1247
eISSN: 2211-1247
Publisher: Elsevier
Grant note: NIH NIDCD: R01DC019354, R01DC015260 Simons Collaboration on the Global BrainCareer Award at the Scientific Interface fellowship from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund
We thank members of the Long laboratory, as well as Margot Elmaleh, Jelena Krivokapid, and Jeremy Yeaton, for helpful feedback on early versions of this manuscript. We also thank Haiming Chen, Christopher Garcia, Matthew Ho-ward III, Kenji Ibayashi, Kirill Nourski, Ariane Rhone, Andrea Rohl, and Beau Snoad for help with data collection. This research was supported by NIH NIDCD R01DC019354 (M.A.L.) , NIH NIDCD R01DC015260 (J.D.W.G.) , the Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (M.A.L.) , and a Career Award at the Scientific Interface fellowship from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (G.A.C.) .
Language: English
Date published: 12/30/2025
Academic Unit: Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Neurosurgery; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9985113251702771

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