Spike-phase coupling of subthalamic neurons predicts speech sound accuracy

Matteo Vissani and colleagues recorded cortical signals together with single neurons in the basal ganglia during awake neurosurgery while participants repeated syllables. They found that individual subthalamic nucleus (STN) neurons briefly lock their firing to the phase of theta–alpha oscillations in the supramarginal and posterior superior temporal gyrus during speech planning and production, and that speech sound errors occur when this STN–cortical coupling is delayed. The findings suggest precisely timed STN–perisylvian interactions support the auditory-motor transformations underlying speech, and that firing-rate models alone cannot explain basal ganglia circuit behavior. Read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58781-8