Revisiting human language and speech production network: a meta-analytic connectivity modeling study

Chun-Wei Hsu; Chu-Chung Huang; Chih-Chin Heather Hsu; Yanchao Bi; Ovid Jyh-Lang Tzeng; Ching-Po Lin

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121008

Revisiting human language and speech production network: a meta-analytic connectivity modeling study

Neuroimage. 2025 Jan 7:121008. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121008. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chun-Wei Hsu¹, Chu-Chung Huang², Chih-Chin Heather Hsu¹, Yanchao Bi³, Ovid Jyh-Lang Tzeng⁴, Ching-Po Lin⁵

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), Institute of Brain and Education Innovation, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: czhuang@psy.ecnu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing 102206, China.
⁴ Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁵ Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Education and Research, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: cplin@ym.edu.tw.

PMID: 39788335
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121008

Abstract

In recent decades, converging evidence has reached a consensus that human speech production is carried out by large-scale hierarchical network comprising both language-selective and domain-general systems. However, it remains unclear how these systems interact during speech production and the specific contributions of their component regions. By utilizing a series of meta-analytic approaches based on various language tasks, we dissociated four major systems in this study: domain-general, high-level language, motor-perception, and speech-control systems in this study. Using meta-analytic connectivity modeling, we found that while the domain-general system is coactivated with high-level language regions and speech-control networks, only the speech-control network at the ventral precentral gyrus is coactivated with other systems during different speech-related tasks, including motor perception. In summary, this study revisits the previously proposed language models using meta-analytic approaches and highlights the contribution of the speech-control network to the process of speech production independent of articulatory motor.

Keywords: Brain networks; Language; Meta-analysis; Meta-analytic connectivity modeling.