Chapter 9 - Role of the auditory system in speech production

Abstract

This chapter reviews evidence regarding the role of auditory perception in shaping speech output. Evidence indicates that speech movements are planned to follow auditory trajectories. This in turn is followed by a description of the Directions Into Velocities of Articulators (DIVA) model, which provides a detailed account of the role of auditory feedback in speech motor development and control. A brief description of the higher-order brain areas involved in speech sequencing (including the pre-supplementary motor area and inferior frontal sulcus) is then provided, followed by a description of the Hierarchical State Feedback Control (HSFC) model, which posits internal error detection and correction processes that can detect and correct speech production errors prior to articulation. The chapter closes with a treatment of promising future directions of research into auditory-motor interactions in speech, including the use of intracranial recording techniques such as electrocorticography in humans, the investigation of the potential roles of various large-scale brain rhythms in speech perception and production, and the development of brain-computer interfaces that use auditory feedback to allow profoundly paralyzed users to learn to produce speech using a speech synthesizer.