SHORT COMMUNICATION Speech listening speci®cally modulates the excitability of tongue muscles: a TMS study
نویسندگان
چکیده
The precise neural mechanisms underlying speech perception are still to a large extent unknown. The most accepted view is that speech perception depends on auditory-cognitive mechanisms speci®cally devoted to the analysis of speech sounds. An alternative view is that, crucial for speech perception, it is the activation of the articulatory (motor) gestures that generate these sounds. The listener understands the speaker when his/her articulatory gestures are activated (motor theory of speech perception). Here, by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we demonstrate that, during speech listening, there is an increase of motor-evoked potentials recorded from the listeners' tongue muscles when the presented words strongly involve, when pronounced, tongue movements. Although these data do not prove the motor theory of speech perception, they demonstrate for the ®rst time that word listening produces a phoneme speci®c activation of speech motor centres.
منابع مشابه
Phonological and lexical motor facilitation during speech listening: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.
In the present study, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the influence of phonological and lexical properties of verbal items on the excitability of the tongue's cortical motor representation during passive listening. In particular, we aimed to clarify if the difference in tongue motor excitability found during listening to words and pseudo-words [Fadiga, L., Craighe...
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Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has proven to be a useful tool in investigating the role of the articulatory motor cortex in speech perception. Researchers have used single-pulse and repetitive TMS to stimulate the lip representation in the motor cortex. The excitability of the lip motor representation can be investigated by applying single TMS pulses over this cortical area and recordi...
متن کاملAccepted for publication in J. Neurophysiology, Paris Phonological and Lexical Motor Facilitation during Speech Listening: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study
In the present study we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the influence of phonological and lexical properties of verbal items on the excitability of the tongue’s cortical motor representation during passive listening. In particular, we aimed to clarify if the difference in tongue motor excitability found during listening to words and pseudo-words (Fadiga et al. 2002) ...
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