Fixed speech–music readers did not confirm shared animal sound ranking in 20 iEEG patients and 16 fMRI adults

We tested whether separate speech-versus-music neural readers rank animal sounds above mechanical and environmental sounds. Public studies supplied signed iEEG local field potentials and BOLD fMRI in different people with different sound panels. A local lock preceded tests in 20 patients and 16 MRI adults. Mean AUCs were 0.4622 and 0.6445; 95% person Student intervals were [0.4213,0.5032] and [0.5808,0.7082]. Six of 20 patients and 15 of 16 adults were above chance. A separate eight-adult MRI study gave mean 0.6445 [0.5209,0.7682]. The fixed shared positive test failed. Gains over source-feature acoustic readers were +0.1252 and -0.0646. The acoustic AUCs were 0.3370 and 0.7091, so positive relative gain did not ensure target skill. Both shared tests had Holm p=1. Held-out speech/music reading was strong in both modalities. Sound resampling, reader refits, category differences and all negative controls remain. Independent arithmetic and fresh source reads checked the inputs and scores. No common neural code, absence of animal information or causal modality effect is established. The contribution is a fixed benchmark and a failed cross-modal test. Sparse clinical sampling, different cohorts, sounds and signal filters, and source MRI screens limit scope. Code, permitted electrical inputs, source pins and terms, plans, results, figures and repeat instructions are preserved. Both MRI full-refit sound ranges included chance.

human neuroscience · iEEG · fMRI · auditory cortex · speech · music · animal sounds · category transfer · negative result