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In tonal languages, which are spoken by nearly one-third of the worlds population, speakers precisely control the tension of vocal folds in the larynx to modulate pitch in order to distinguish words with completely different meanings. The specific pitch trajectories for a given tonal language are called lexical tones. Here, we used high-density direct cortical recordings to determine the neural basis of lexical tone production in native Mandarin-speaking participants. We found that instead of a tone category-selective coding, local populations in the bilateral laryngeal motor cortex (LMC) encode articulatory kinematic information to generate the pitch dynamics of lexical tones. Using a computational model of tone production, we discovered two distinct patterns of population activity in LMC commanding pitch rising and lowering. Finally, we showed that direct electrocortical stimulation of different local populations in LMC evoked pitch rising and lowering during tone production, respectively. Together, these results reveal the neural basis of vocal pitch control of lexical tones in tonal languages.

Direct electrical stimulation, the transient 'lesional' method probing brain function, has been utilized in identifying the language cortex and preserving language function during epilepsy and neuro-oncological surgeries for about a century. However, comparison of functional maps of the language cortex across languages/continents based on cortical stimulation remains unclear. We conducted a retrospective multicentre study including four cohorts of direct electrical stimulation mapping from four centres across three continents, where three indigenous languages (English, French and Mandarin) are spoken. All subjects performed the two most common language tasks: number counting and picture naming during stimulation. All language sites were recorded and normalized to the same brain template. Next, Spearman's correlation analysis was performed to explore the consistency of the distributions of the language cortex across centres, a kernel density estimation to localize the peak coordinates, and a hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to detect the crucial epicenters. A total of 598 subjects with 917 speech arrest sites (complete interruption of ongoing counting) and 423 anomia sites (inability to name or misnaming) were included. Different centres presented highly consistent distribution patterns for speech arrest (Spearman's coefficient r ranged from 0.60 to 0.85, all pair-wise correlations P

Background: Systemic immune‐inflammation index (SII) is a novel inflammatory marker based on neutrophils, platelets and lymphocytes counts, which has potential prognostic value among coronary artery disease (CAD) patients as described by some observational studies. We aimed to provide higher‐certainty evidence to verify the association of SII with poor outcomes of CAD patients. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Ovid and Scopus were searched to find relevant literature exploring the prognostic value of SII among CAD patients. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) extracted from the literature included were pooled with the fixed‐effect or random‐effect model. Sensitivity analyses and subgroup analyses were conducted to detect the source of heterogeneity and evaluate the stability of results. Results: A total of nine studies with 15,832 participants were included. The quantitative synthesis including eight studies with 15,657 participants showed that the high SII was related to the major adverse cardiovascular event in CAD patients (HR with 95% CI: 2.36 [1.67, 3.33]). After eliminating heterogeneity and adjusting for publication bias, the above result was still robust (HR with 95% CI: 1.67 [1.32, 2.12]). Additionally, we also demonstrated the prognostic values of SII for all‐cause death, cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction and stroke. Conclusion: Higher SII has prognostic values for adverse outcomes in CAD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]