Stuttering is associated with atypical structural and functional connectivity in sensorimotor brain areas, in particular premotor, motor, and auditory regions. It remains unknown, however, which specific mechanisms of speech planning and execution are affected by these neurological abnormalities. To investigate pre-movement sensory modulation, we recorded 12 stuttering and 12 nonstuttering adul...

The extent to which we can represent musical information in computers, in a way that matches our mental images, is one of the most intriguing and compelling questions in music research. Leman (1993) distinguishes three kinds of musical representation: 1. Acoustical, i.e. based on the physical properties of sound (e.g., sonograms, spectrograms). 2. Subsymbolic, i.e. based on the known behaviour ...

Sensory comprehension and motor production of language symbols form the basis of human speech. Classical neuroanatomy has pointed to Wernicke's and Broca's areas as playing important roles in the integration of these 2 functions. However, recent studies have proposed that more direct pathways may exist between auditory input and motor output, bypassing Wernicke's and Broca's areas. We used func...

When Americans think of literacy, they generally think of children’s ability to read and write words. This kind of literacy is indeed an important way to become a well-versed citizen in the information age (Neuman, Copple, & Bredekamp, 2000). However, often neglected and even diminished in importance are visual/ iconic and musical/echoic modes of thinking, which tend to be prominent in the info...

Children who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems while they are in the process of acquiring language face unique challenges because they use graphic symbols for communication. In contrast to the situation of typically developing children, they use different modalities for comprehension (auditory) and expression (visual). This study explored the ability of three- and...

As audiologists, we understand the important role hearing sensitivity plays in the development of reading skills. What we don’t always consider, however, is the effect of central auditory processing. The accurate representation of speech sounds is an important aspect of learning to link sounds with orthographic symbols, a fundamental building block of reading (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2010;107[...

From an early age, musicians learn complex motor and auditory skills (e.g., the translation of visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands with simultaneous auditory monitoring of output), which they practice extensively from childhood throughout their entire careers. Using a voxel-by-voxel morphometric technique, we found gray matter volume differences in motor, auditory, and visual...

Recent research has demonstrated that handwriting practice facilitates letter categorization in young children. The present experiments investigated why handwriting practice facilitates visual categorization by comparing two hypotheses: That handwriting exerts its facilitative effect because of the visual-motor production of forms, resulting in a direct link between motor and perceptual systems...

Recent research has demonstrated that handwriting practice facilitates letter categorization in young children. The present experiments investigated why handwriting practice facilitates visual categorization by comparing 2 hypotheses: that handwriting exerts its facilitative effect because of the visual-motor production of forms, resulting in a direct link between motor and perceptual systems, ...

background and aim: human beings receive a variety of sounds in their everyday lives. these sounds are generated by different sources, and are heard simultaneously or with a small time sequence. a characteristic of the auditory system is its ability to analyze complex sounds, and to make decisions about the source of each constituent part of these sounds. the present study intends to assess nor...