scholarly journals Human larynx motor cortices coordinates respiration for vocal-motor control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Belyk ◽  
Rachel Brown ◽  
Deryk S Beal ◽  
Alard Roebroeck ◽  
Carolyn McGettigan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Motor System ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Ultra High Field ◽  
Motor Pathways ◽  
Evolution Of Speech ◽  
Human Motor ◽  
Powerful Mechanism ◽  
Speech Motor

Vocal flexibility is a hallmark of the human species, most particularly the capacity to speak and sing. The human motor system is unique in having two separate representations of the laryngeal muscles, where only one would be expected. The dorsal larynx area is known to integrate respiratory function which is provides a powerful mechanism in support of speech motor control, while less is known about the contributions of the ventral larynx. We localised the dorsal and ventral larynx motor cortices by having participants sing wordless melodies while undergoing ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging and tested the involvement of respiratory motor control in the same regions by having participants whistle simple melodies. Surprisingly, both singing and whistling increased activation of both ‘larynx areas’ despite the lack of involvement of the larynx during whistling. We provide the first evidence that this level of integration is not exclusive to the dLMC, suggesting a greater role of the vLMC in the evolution of speech than previously supposed. With this broader understanding of the human vocal-motor system, we outline predictions about the descending motor pathways that give these cortical areas access to both the laryngeal and respiratory systems.

scholarly journals Modeling the Role of Sensory Feedback in Speech Motor Control and Learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (8S) ◽  
pp. 2963-2985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Parrell ◽  
John Houde
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Motor System ◽  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
State Feedback Control ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Control Feedback ◽  
Motor Production ◽  
Speech Motor

Purpose While the speech motor system is sensitive to feedback perturbations, sensory feedback does not seem to be critical to speech motor production. How the speech motor system is able to be so flexible in its use of sensory feedback remains an open question. Method We draw on evidence from a variety of disciplines to summarize current understanding of the sensory systems' role in speech motor control, including both online control and motor learning. We focus particularly on computational models of speech motor control that incorporate sensory feedback, as these models provide clear encapsulations of different theories of sensory systems' function in speech production. These computational models include the well-established directions into velocities of articulators model and computational models that we have been developing in our labs based on the domain-general theory of state feedback control (feedback aware control of tasks in speech model). Results After establishing the architecture of the models, we show that both the directions into velocities of articulators and state feedback control/feedback aware control of tasks models can replicate key behaviors related to sensory feedback in the speech motor system. Although the models agree on many points, the underlying architecture of the 2 models differs in a few key ways, leading to different predictions in certain areas. We cover key disagreements between the models to show the limits of our current understanding and point toward areas where future experimental studies can resolve these questions. Conclusions Understanding the role of sensory information in the speech motor system is critical to understanding speech motor production and sensorimotor learning in healthy speakers as well as in disordered populations. Computational models, with their concrete implementations and testable predictions, are an important tool to understand this process. Comparison of different models can highlight areas of agreement and disagreement in the field and point toward future experiments to resolve important outstanding questions about the speech motor control system.

Taxonomies in Biology, Phonetics, Phonology, and Speech Motor Control

1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 596-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Folkins ◽  
Ken M. Bleile
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Motor System ◽  
Motor Deficits ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Phonetic Transcription ◽  
Phonological Deficits ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Speech Motor

This article begins with a review explaining the different purposes of biological taxonomies. Taxonomic units are often dependent on the purpose for which the taxonomy has been constructed. Biological taxonomies provide an analogy that we use to emphasize some of the distinctions among the units of phonetic transcription systems, competence phonologies, and performance phonologies. The units of both phonology and phonetic transcription are considered as possible units of the speech motor system, and some of the difficulties of this assumption are explained. Although phonemic units, like units of phonetic transcription, are useful for many purposes, it is not theoretically necessary to use units derived as part of competence phonologies in systems attempting to explain phonological performance or speech motor performance. In this regard, we challenge the concept of coarticulation, because it is based on assumptions about the role of phonological or phonetic units in speech motor control. We offer an integrated perspective that has implications for research in speech motor control and deficits of the speech motor system. We see speech motor deficits as distinct from, yet possibly interacting with, phonological deficits.

scholarly journals Stone Tools and the Linguistic Capabilities of Earlier Hominids

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Steele ◽  
Angus Quinlan ◽  
Francis Wenban-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Single Dimension ◽  
Evolution Of Speech ◽  
Speech Motor

The evolution of human manipulative abilities may be clearly linked to the evolution of speech motor control Both creativity and complexity in vocal and manipulative gestures may be closely linked to a single dimension of brain evolution — the evolution of absolute brain size. Inferring the linguistic capabilities of earlier hominids from their lithic artefacts, however, required us to take account of domain-specific constraints on manipulative skill In this article we report on a pilot flint-knapping experiment designed to identify such constraints ‘in action’.

Do We Have a “Mental Syllabary” in the Brain? An fMRI Study

Motor Control ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Brendel ◽  
Michael Erb ◽  
Axel Riecker ◽  
Wolfgang Grodd ◽  
Hermann Ackermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Motor Execution ◽  
Syllable Frequency ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Speech Motor

The present study combines functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and reaction time (RT) measurements to further elucidate the influence of syllable frequency and complexity on speech motor control processes, i.e., overt reading of pseudowords. Tying in with a recent fMRI-study of our group we focused on the concept of a mental syllabary housing syllable sized ready-made motor plans for high- (HF), but not low-frequency (LF) syllables. The RT-analysis disclosed a frequency effect weakened by a simultaneous complexity effect for HF-syllables. In contrast, the fMRI data revealed no effect of syllable frequency, but point to an impact of syllable structure: Compared with CV-items, syllables with a complex onset (CCV) yielded higher hemodynamic activation in motor “execution” areas (left sensorimotor cortex, right inferior cerebellum), which is at least partially compatible with our previous study. We discuss the role of the syllable in speech motor control.

scholarly journals Task-dependent switching of feedback controllers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justinas Česonis ◽  
David W. Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Feedback Control ◽  
Motor System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Feedback Controllers ◽  
Human Motor Control ◽  
Mixed Schedule ◽  
Human Motor ◽  
Human Participants

AbstractThe separation of distinct motor memories by contextual cues is a well known and well studied phenomenon of feedforward human motor control. However, there is no clear evidence of such context-induced separation in feedback control. Here we test both experimentally and computationally if context-dependent switching of feedback controllers is possible in the human motor system. Specifically, we probe visuomotor feedback responses of our human participants in two different tasks – stop and hit – and under two different schedules. The first, blocked schedule, is used to measure the behaviour of stop and hit controllers in isolation, showing that it can only be described by two independent controllers with two different sets of control gains. The second, mixed schedule, is then used to compare how such behaviour evolves when participants regularly switch from one task to the other. Our results support our hypothesis that there is contextual switching of feedback controllers, further extending the accumulating evidence of shared features between feedforward and feedback control.

A Contribution to the Role of the Claustrum in Speech Motor Control Processes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Pützer ◽  
Jean Richard Moringlane ◽  
Wolfgang Reith ◽  
Christoph M. Krick
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Speech Motor

scholarly journals Knockout of Foxp2 disrupts vocal development in mice

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregg A. Castellucci ◽  
Matthew J. McGinley ◽  
David A. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Model System ◽  
Courtship Song ◽  
Vocal Behavior ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Vocal Development ◽  
Rhythmic Structure ◽  
Adult Mice ◽  
Speech Motor

Abstract The FOXP2 gene is important for the development of proper speech motor control in humans. However, the role of the gene in general vocal behavior in other mammals, including mice, is unclear. Here, we track the vocal development of Foxp2 heterozygous knockout (Foxp2+/−) mice and their wildtype (WT) littermates from juvenile to adult ages, and observe severe abnormalities in the courtship song of Foxp2+/− mice. In comparison to their WT littermates, Foxp2+/− mice vocalized less, produced shorter syllable sequences, and possessed an abnormal syllable inventory. In addition, Foxp2+/− song also exhibited irregular rhythmic structure, and its development did not follow the consistent trajectories observed in WT vocalizations. These results demonstrate that the Foxp2 gene is critical for normal vocal behavior in juvenile and adult mice, and that Foxp2 mutant mice may provide a tractable model system for the study of the gene’s role in general vocal motor control.

scholarly journals Transfer of Learning: What Does It Tell Us About Speech Production Units?

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 1613-1625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiphaine Caudrelier ◽  
Jean-Luc Schwartz ◽  
Pascal Perrier ◽  
Silvain Gerber ◽  
Amélie Rochet-Capellan
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Serial Order ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Control Research ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Speech Motor

Purpose Words, syllables, and phonemes have each been regarded as basic encoding units of speech production in various psycholinguistic models. The present article investigates the role of each unit in the interface with speech articulation, using a paradigm from motor control research. Method Seventy-six native speakers of French were trained to change their production of /be/ in response to an auditory feedback perturbation (auditory–motor learning). We then assessed the magnitude of learning transfer from /be/ to the syllables in 2 pseudowords (/bepe/ and /pebe/) and 1 real word (/bebe/) as well as the aftereffect on the same utterance (/be/) with a between-subjects design. This made it possible to contrast the amplitude of transfer at the levels of the utterance, the syllable, and the phoneme, depending on the position in the word. Linear mixed models allowed us to study the amplitude as well as the dynamics of the transfer and the aftereffect over trials. Results Transfer from the training utterance /be/ was observed for all vowels of the test utterances but was larger to the syllable /be/ than to the syllable /pe/ at word-initial position and larger to the 1st syllable than to the 2nd syllable in the utterance. Conclusions Our study suggests that words, syllables, and phonemes may all contribute to the definition of speech motor commands. In addition, the observation of a serial order effect raises new questions related to the connection between psycholinguistic models and speech motor control approaches.

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