Across multiple timescales, acoustic regularities of speech match rhythmic properties of both the auditory and motor systems. Syllabic rate corresponds to natural jaw-associated oscillatory rhythms, and phonemic length could reflect endogenous oscillatory auditory cortical properties. Hemispheric lateralization for speech could result from an asymmetry of cortical tuning, with left and right au...

Speech perception is thought to be linked to speech motor production. This linkage is considered to mediate multimodal aspects of speech perception, such as audio-visual and audio-tactile integration. However, direct coupling between articulatory movement and auditory perception has been little studied. The present study reveals a clear dissociation between the effects of a listener's own speec...

This paper examines, analyzes, and synthesizes literature on VOT production and perception in the context of Motor Theory of speech perception. Specifically, positive and negative evidences from speech production and perception, language acquisition, and evidence of dissociation from speech disorders of VOT are reviewed in the light of the Necessity Condition versus a weaker version of motor th...

Shifts in perceptual boundaries resulting from speech motor learning induced by perturbations of the auditory feedback were taken as evidence for the involvement of motor functions in auditory speech perception. Beyond this general statement, the precise mechanisms underlying this involvement are not yet fully understood. In this paper we propose a quantitative evaluation of some hypotheses con...

Interactions between auditory and somatosensory information are relevant to the neural processing of speech since speech processes and certainly speech production involves both auditory information and inputs that arise from the muscles and tissues of the vocal tract. We previously demonstrated that somatosensory inputs associated with facial skin deformation alter the perceptual processing of ...

Vocal learning in humans is isolated in evolution, nevertheless the comparative approach can help give insight into mechanisms of speech. Birdsong and speech learning share similar computational problems and may share similar neural mechanisms. In birds, there is a well-known sensory representation of the individual s own song. A similar representation is postulated for speech, and the implicat...

Historic theories of speech perception (Motor Theory and Analysis by Synthesis) invoked listeners' knowledge of speech production to explain speech perception. Neuroimaging data show that adult listeners activate motor brain areas during speech perception. In two experiments using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated motor brain activation, as well as auditory brain activation, during ...