Speech Timing Research Articles

Impact of a Proactive Swallowing Rehabilitation Program on Feeding Tube Placement in Patients Treated for Head and Neck Cancer

Previous evidence has shown active swallowing rehabilitation during treatment for head and neck cancer can reduce feeding tube placement and improve swallowing outcomes. We sought to evaluate the initiation of a proactive swallowing program at a single institution and its effect on feeding tube placement and dietary intake. This is a retrospective evaluation of patients treated for squamous cell carcinomas of the hypopharynx, oropharynx, and nasopharynx from 2004-2015. Initiation of regular speech pathology evaluations occurred after 2011, so treatment groups were divided into two groups: 2004-2010 and 2011-2015. Primary outcome variables were speech pathology referral placement and timing of the referral. Secondary outcome was feeding tube placement. We identified 192 patients meeting inclusion criteria. The mean age in our cohort was 61.6 years (range 35-94). A majority of patients had tumors of the oropharynx (78%; nasopharynx 8.3%; hypopharynx 13.5%) and also received chemotherapy (85.4%). Only a minority of patients (18.8%) received any surgery. This cohort included patients of stages I-IVc, mostly III (17.2%) or IVa (62.0%). There were no significant differences in any of these characteristics between patients diagnosed prior to program implementation and after (P>.05, all). A majority of patients received a speech pathology referral (76.0%, n=146), but only 45.8% (n=88) received a referral prior to initiating treatment. 38.5% (n=74) of patients received a g-tube at some point, most often during treatment. Prior to initiation of our proactive program, only 26.5% of patients received a pre-treatment evaluation. This increased to 60.6% in the post-implementation period (P<.001). Of note, there was also a non-significant increase in rate of referral to speech pathology overall at any time (from 69.9% to 80.7%, P=.08). We also observed a significant decrease in g-tube placement rates following program initiation, from 51.8% to 28.4% (P=.001). Among patients receiving a swallow evaluation, feeding tube requirements were lower for those receiving a pre-treatment evaluation (29.6%) than for those referred during (83.3%) or after (67.5%) treatment (P<.001). Ultimately, the rate of tolerating any oral (PO) intake at the end of treatment improved from 70.6% in the pre-implementation period to 92.1% (P=.005). Implementation of a proactive speech pathology referral program at our institution was associated with increased likelihood of a pre-treatment referral and a decreased need for feeding tube, with associated increase in tolerating PO intake at the end of treatment. These results highlight the importance of active swallowing rehabilitation programs as part of any multidisciplinary head and neck team.

Acoustic correlates of accentedness and comprehensibility in L2 Spanish judgments: A mixed-effects modeling approach

Two constructs—comprehensibility and accentedness—figure themselves prominently in listeners’ judgments of L2 (second language) speech. Correlational analyses have shown that they make separate contributions to such judgments (Derwing and Munro, 1995, 1997, 2005). As it is important to set realistic goals for adult L2 learners by prioritizing understanding over nativelikeness (Levis, 2005), recent studies began to examine the relative contribution of linguistic aspects, especially acoustic features, to comprehensibility and accentedness (Munro & Derwing, 1999; Kang, Rubin, & Pickering, 2010; Trofimovich & Issac, 2012). Consistent with this agenda, this study first examines the reliability of scores (produced by the 9-point Lickert scale) under modern measurement framework (e.g. multi-facet Rasch measurement model). Then, the relationship between acoustic features, including the confidence values (for each utterance) obtained using Google Cloud Platform speech recognition engine as well as suprasegmental features extracted using Prosogram (Mertens, 2014), and ratings are established using mixed-effects modeling techniques. Results indicate that, even though it can be shown that comprehensibility and accentedness are statistically distinct constructs, both ratings share a common set of acoustic correlates as significant predictors—speech time, standard deviation of pitch values, and normalized pairwise variability index (nPVI).

Australian children with cleft palate achieve age-appropriate speech by 5 years of age

IntroductionChildren with cleft palate demonstrate atypical speech sound development, which can influence their intelligibility, literacy and learning. There is limited documentation regarding how speech sound errors change over time in cleft palate speech and the effect that these errors have upon mono-versus polysyllabic word production. The objective of this study was to examine the phonetic and phonological speech skills of children with cleft palate at ages 3 and 5. MethodsA cross-sectional observational design was used. Eligible participants were aged 3 or 5 years with a repaired cleft palate. The Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) Articulation subtest and a non-standardised list of mono- and polysyllabic words were administered once for each child. The Profile of Phonology (PROPH) was used to analyse each child's speech. ResultsN = 51 children with cleft palate participated in the study. Three-year-old children with cleft palate produced significantly more speech errors than their typically-developing peers, but no difference was apparent at 5 years. The 5-year-olds demonstrated greater phonetic and phonological accuracy than the 3-year-old children. Polysyllabic words were more affected by errors than monosyllables in the 3-year-old group only. ConclusionsChildren with cleft palate are prone to phonetic and phonological speech errors in their preschool years. Most of these speech errors approximate typically-developing children by 5 years. At 3 years, word shape has an influence upon phonological speech accuracy. Speech pathology intervention is indicated to support the intelligibility of these children from their earliest stages of development.

A Hybrid Intelligent System Integrating the Cascade Forward Neural Network with Elman Neural Network

Cascade forward neural network (CFNN) is a well-known static neural network where the signals move in forward direction only. Dynamic neural network such as Elman neural network (ENN) is built in such a way that allows the signals to travel in both directions. Dynamic neural network has been used widely in various applications such as speech recognition and time series and rarely used in static applications because of their poor performance. This paper proposes to hybrid the CFNN with the ENN to take the advantages of both networks with signals travel in both directions. The proposed system is named as HECFNN, and its effectiveness is evaluated using a number of benchmarks. The benchmarks investigated include datasets of Wine, Ionosphere, Iris, Wisconsin breast cancer, glass and Pima Indians diabetes. Firstly, the performances of the hybrid system are compared with those of the CFNN and ENN. The simulations demonstrate that the proposed hybrid network structure can effectively model both linear and nonlinear static systems with high accuracy. The proposed system achieves an improvement in terms of accuracy as compared to the results of the CFNN and ENN. Secondly, the results are compared with different methods reported by Hoang. It is found that the accuracy of the proposed system is as good as, if not better than, other methods. Thirdly, the HECFNN results are also compared with best results reported from different methods in the literature review. It also found that the HECFNN results are better than those methods in general. Based on the results obtained, the proposed HECFNN system demonstrates better performance, thus justifying its potentials as a useful and effective system for prediction and classification.

Notes on Phase and Coordination, and Their Application to Rhythm and Timing in Speech( Rhythm and Timing)

Notes on Phase and Coordination, and Their Application to Rhythm and Timing in Speech( Rhythm and Timing)

A Study of Japanese Speech Timing from the Syllable Perspective( Contrasting English and Japanese Phonetics)

A Study of Japanese Speech Timing from the Syllable Perspective( Contrasting English and Japanese Phonetics)

Functional neural circuits that underlie developmental stuttering

The aim of this study was to identify differences in functional and effective brain connectivity between persons who stutter (PWS) and typically developing (TD) fluent speakers, and to assess whether those differences can serve as biomarkers to distinguish PWS from TD controls. We acquired resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data in 44 PWS and 50 TD controls. We then used Independent Component Analysis (ICA) together with Hierarchical Partner Matching (HPM) to identify networks of robust, functionally connected brain regions that were highly reproducible across participants, and we assessed whether connectivity differed significantly across diagnostic groups. We then used Granger Causality (GC) to study the causal interactions (effective connectivity) between the regions that ICA and HPM identified. Finally, we used a kernel support vector machine to assess how well these measures of functional connectivity and granger causality discriminate PWS from TD controls. Functional connectivity was stronger in PWS compared with TD controls in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and primary motor cortices, but weaker in inferior frontal cortex (IFG, Broca’s area), caudate, putamen, and thalamus. Additionally, causal influences were significantly weaker in PWS from the IFG to SMA, and from the basal ganglia to IFG through the thalamus, compared to TD controls. ICA and GC indices together yielded an accuracy of 92.7% in classifying PWS from TD controls. Our findings suggest the presence of dysfunctional circuits that support speech planning and timing cues for the initiation and execution of motor sequences in PWS. Our high accuracy of classification further suggests that these aberrant brain features may serve as robust biomarkers for PWS.

Motor speech signature of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: Refining the phenotype.

To provide a comprehensive description of motor speech function in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Forty-eight individuals (24 bvFTD and 24 age- and sex-matched healthy controls) provided speech samples. These varied in complexity and thus cognitive demand. Their language was assessed using the Progressive Aphasia Language Scale and verbal fluency tasks. Speech was analyzed perceptually to describe the nature of deficits and acoustically to quantify differences between patients with bvFTD and healthy controls. Cortical thickness and subcortical volume derived from MRI scans were correlated with speech outcomes in patients with bvFTD. Speech of affected individuals was significantly different from that of healthy controls. The speech signature of patients with bvFTD is characterized by a reduced rate (75%) and accuracy (65%) on alternating syllable production tasks, and prosodic deficits including reduced speech rate (45%), prolonged intervals (54%), and use of short phrases (41%). Groups differed on acoustic measures derived from the reading, unprepared monologue, and diadochokinetic tasks but not the days of the week or sustained vowel tasks. Variability of silence length was associated with cortical thickness of the inferior frontal gyrus and insula and speech rate with the precentral gyrus. One in 8 patients presented with moderate speech timing deficits with a further two-thirds rated as mild or subclinical. Subtle but measurable deficits in prosody are common in bvFTD and should be considered during disease management. Language function correlated with speech timing measures derived from the unprepared monologue only.

SIGNS OF EARLY COGNITIVE DECLINE WITHIN CONNECTED SPEECH: EVIDENCE FROM THE WISCONSIN REGISTRY FOR ALZHEIMER'S PREVENTION (WRAP)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is primarily characterized by early memory impairment; however, many patients show deficits in language across all stages of AD. Typical language testing is insensitive to early language problems that may manifest in discourse. We examined connected speech longitudinally in a group of late-middle-aged adults at risk for AD. We hypothesized that those with early Mild Cognitive Impairment (eMCI) would show decline in connected speech over time compared to cognitively healthy (CH) adults. First, we submitted connected speech measures from a picture description task to exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA, CFA) from a subgroup of cognitively healthy WRAP participants (n=399; mean age=60±7, 67% female). Next, we examined resulting factor scores as outcomes in a subset of participants with speech samples obtained at 2 time points (n=219), using a linear mixed effects model (LME), with fixed effects of time point and baseline cognitive status (CH/eMCI), and a random effect of intercept nested within subjects. Secondary analyses used logistic regression to investigate the effect of speech factors on cognitive status at latest visit. The EFA/CFA factor structure (Fig 1, Table 1) met goodness-of-fit criteria. Participant characteristics for longitudinal analyses are presented in Table 2. Cognitive status at time 1 was a significant predictor of Semantic (p =.007) and Syntax (p <.001) factors, with a significant interaction of time and cognitive status for the Semantic factor (p =.04) (Table 3, Fig.2). Syntax was a significant predictor of eMCI (p <.0001), as was change in Fluency (p=.01) (Table 4). This is the first study to demonstrate a confirmed factor structure of connected speech measures in a prospective AD-risk-enriched cohort. Evident are baseline differences between eMCI and CH in syntax complexity. Baseline syntax and change in Fluency were significant predictors of eMCI at the latest visit. Unexpectedly, participants with eMCI performed higher on the Semantic factor at baseline; however, they declined more steeply than the CH group over time. Future analyses will continue to examine longitudinal relationships among speech factors and subtypes of cognitive impairment (memory, executive function, language), which may contribute to early identification of and intervention for AD. Conceptual model submitted to confirmatory factor analysis using the cross-validation subsample(n=149). Note: CFA met the following satisfactory fit indices: χ2=35.63, CFI = .99, NNFI = .99, RMSEA=.04, 90% confidence interval=.00, .08, GFI=.98, AGFI=.97, SRMR = .07. Definitions: SUID is Semantic Unit Idea Density (number of information units/total words). Type-token ratio: number of unique words/total words. Pronoun index: total pronouns divided by nouns + pronouns. Maze Index: total number of revisions, repetitions, and filled pauses/total words. Verb Index: total number of verbs/utterances. Grammatical complexity: The number of grammatical relations that mark syntactic embeddings divided by the total number of grammatical relations. Density: ratio of the propositions corresponding to verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions to the total number of words (excluding repetitions and fillers). Boxplots of Connected Speech Factor by Visit and Consensus Diagnosis at Speech Time 1 (unadjusted means).

Visual Complexity and Its Effects on Referring Expression Generation.

Speakers' perception of a visual scene influences the language they use to describe it-which objects they choose to mention and how they characterize the relationships between them. We show that visual complexity can either delay or facilitate description generation, depending on how much disambiguating information is required and how useful the scene's complexity can be in providing, for example, helpful landmarks. To do so, we measure speech onset times, eye gaze, and utterance content in a reference production experiment in which the target object is either unique or non-unique in a visual scene of varying size and complexity. Speakers delay speech onset if the target object is non-unique and requires disambiguation, and we argue that this reflects the cost of deciding on a high-level strategy for describing it. The eye-tracking data demonstrate that these delays increase when speakers are able to conduct an extensive early visual search, implying that when speakers scan too little of the scene early on, they may decide to begin speaking before becoming aware that their description is underspecified. Speakers' content choices reflect the visual makeup of the scene-the number of distractors present and the availability of useful landmarks. Our results highlight the complex role of visual perception in reference production, showing that speakers can make good use of complexity in ways that reflect their visual processing of the scene.

Quantification and Systematic Characterization of Stuttering-Like Disfluencies in Acquired Apraxia of Speech.

The purpose of this article is to quantify and describe stuttering-like disfluencies in speakers with acquired apraxia of speech (AOS), utilizing the Lidcombe Behavioural Data Language (LBDL). Additional purposes include measuring test-retest reliability and examining the effect of speech sample type on disfluency rates. Two types of speech samples were elicited from 20 persons with AOS and aphasia: repetition of mono- and multisyllabic words from a protocol for assessing AOS (Duffy, 2013), and connected speech tasks (Nicholas & Brookshire, 1993). Sampling was repeated at 1 and 4 weeks following initial sampling. Stuttering-like disfluencies were coded using the LBDL, which is a taxonomy that focuses on motoric aspects of stuttering. Disfluency rates ranged from 0% to 13.1% for the connected speech task and from 0% to 17% for the word repetition task. There was no significant effect of speech sampling time on disfluency rate in the connected speech task, but there was a significant effect of time for the word repetition task. There was no significant effect of speech sample type. Speakers demonstrated both major types of stuttering-like disfluencies as categorized by the LBDL (fixed postures and repeated movements). Connected speech samples yielded more reliable tallies over repeated measurements. Suggestions are made for modifying the LBDL for use in AOS in order to further add to systematic descriptions of motoric disfluencies in this disorder.

PEMEROLEHAN BAHASA PADA ANAK SUKU SASAK DALAM PERSPEKTIF PSIKOLINGUISTIK

Language acquisition is the process of understanding and production of language in children through several stages ranging from groping to fluent talk. This study aims to assess the ability of children aged four years and five months in (1) to understand basic vocabulary; (2) describes the acquisition of the first language on a phonological level, and; (3) the acquisition of language on a syntactic level. The method used in this research is the method of referring, proficient, and documentation. This research uses psycholingistic approach. This psycholinguistic approach tries to explain the essence of the structure of language, and how it is acquired, used at the time of speech, and at the time of understanding the sentences in the narrative. In essence in the activities of communication occurs the process of producing and understanding speech. The results of this study of language acquisition on the phonological level and the syntax among the respondents of the study is good enough in speaking, and there are no significant deviations in the resulting speech. Language acquisition of children aged four years and five months is at the stage of the development of a sentence. Respondents have been familiar with the pattern of dialogue, have understood when it was his turn to speak and when it was his turn to speak. Respondents have mastered the basic grammar laws of adults, developing vocabulary, and phonological development can be said to have ended. However, respondents still have difficulty in pronunciation of some consonants.Keywords: language acquisition, psycholinguistics, phonology, syntax

Testing the Relationship Between Social Anxiety Schemas, Mindfulness Facets, and State and Trait Social Anxiety Symptoms

The current study evaluated the extent to which facets of trait mindfulness moderate the relationship between social anxiety schemas and responses to a social anxiety stressor task. We also evaluated whether specific trait mindfulness facets uniquely predicted state stressor responding and trait social anxiety symptoms, controlling for social anxiety schemas and other mindfulness facets. Participants’ (N = 235; 70.6% female) social anxiety schemas were assessed by a measure of early maladaptive schemas. Participants also engaged in a speech task, following which behavioral avoidance (speech time) and self-reported desired avoidance and state anxiety were assessed. Results were analyzed using structural equation modeling and indicated that mindfulness facets were not a significant moderator of the relation between schemas and behavioral avoidance. However, results suggested that specific mindfulness facets function as unique predictors of responses to a social anxiety stressor and trait anxiety symptoms, above and beyond social anxiety schemas and other facets of mindfulness. Interestingly, results indicated that the Describe facet of mindfulness was the most robust predictor of state stressor responding. Given their differential prediction of social anxiety symptoms, results highlight the importance of individually evaluating the unique components of mindfulness, as opposed to testing mindfulness as a unified construct.

Respiratory Constraints in Verbal and Non-verbal Communication.

In the present paper we address the old question of respiratory planning in speech production. We recast the problem in terms of speakers' communicative goals and propose that speakers try to minimize respiratory effort in line with the H&H theory. We analyze respiratory cycles coinciding with no speech (i.e., silence), short verbal feedback expressions (SFE's) as well as longer vocalizations in terms of parameters of the respiratory cycle and find little evidence for respiratory planning in feedback production. We also investigate timing of speech and SFEs in the exhalation and contrast it with nods. We find that while speech is strongly tied to the exhalation onset, SFEs are distributed much more uniformly throughout the exhalation and are often produced on residual air. Given that nods, which do not have any respiratory constraints, tend to be more frequent toward the end of an exhalation, we propose a mechanism whereby respiratory patterns are determined by the trade-off between speakers' communicative goals and respiratory constraints.

Holy Shit: Taboo Speech Acts as Self-Consumption

AbstractThis paper addresses the scarcely scrutinized topic in the consumer culture literature regarding how a social actor consumes himself through speech acts. More specifically, by introducing a new type of speech act, viz. the taboo speech act, and by effectively differentiating it from expletives, slang, and swearing words and expressions, I outline how subjectivity appropriates and individuates its systemic underpinning asotheror linguistic system (Saussure) and wall of language (Lacan) in linguistic acts of transgression. Taboo speech acts do not merely express emotions, such as anger and frustration. They also seek to contain a linguistic system as an ideational totality of acts of parole in aprimus affectivusthat is incumbent on the inverse sublimation of epithets and cultural symbols standing synecdochically in apars pro totorelationship for the limits of what is culturally/linguistically sanctioned. The subject consumes/annihilates and institutes itself at the same time in taboo speech acts whose mission may not be fully accounted for through conversational pragmatics, insofar as they perform at a more foundational level a social ontological function. The offered analysis aims at contributing to the extant literature in consumer cultural theory, applied linguistics, and social theory.

The perception of speech rate in non-manipulated, reversed and spectrally rotated speech reveals a subordinate role of amplitude envelope information

Previous research suggests that the broad-band amplitude envelope (ENV) of speech is crucial for the perception of speech rate and timing. The present experiment tested this claim using non-manipulated and spectrally rotated speech (rotated around 2.5 kHz) with a bandwidth of 5 kHz which both contain identical ENV and reversed speech in which the temporal organisation of ENV is distorted. 44 listeners of Swiss German rated perceived speech tempo on a continuous scale reaching from “rather slow” to “rather fast” in 48 stimuli (4 sentences × 4 speakers × 3 signal conditions). Results revealed a significant effect of signal condition. Both reversed and spectrally rotated speech were perceived as significantly faster than clear speech but there was no difference between spectrally rotated and reversed speech. Results were consistent for all sentences and speakers. Results suggest that the intelligibility of the signal plays a higher role in the perception of speech rate than the presence of the ENV.

0185 SPEECH AS A RELIABLE MARKER OF ALERTNESS AND PERFORMANCE IMPAIRMENT UNDER CONDITIONS OF ACUTE SLEEP DEPRIVATION

The acoustic properties of speech are a reliable marker of changes in the central nervous system. Measures of speech timing and frequency have been used to assess impairment in clinical patient groups, including stroke, Huntington’s disease, and depression. Associations between speech properties and impaired performance have also been described in healthy individuals under periods of sleep deprivation. In the current study, we aimed to compare the time course of speech outcomes to other objective measures of alertness during 40 hours of sleep deprivation. Methods Twenty-three healthy volunteers (18 males; mean age=25.41 ± 5.73 years) underwent 40 hours of acute sleep deprivation under constant routine conditions. Speech tasks were administered every four hours, beginning three hours after scheduled waketime. The Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT), Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), and EEG collected during the Karolinksa Drowsiness Test (KDT) were measured bi-hourly. Objective measures of speech were derived using spectral, cepstral and timing analyses. Results Acoustic parameters displayed impairment across 40-h of sustained wakefulness. Measures of speech timing (e.g. speech rate) and frequency deteriorated significantly following 23 hours awake compared to baseline (first 16 hours awake). Impairment peaked around 31 hours of wakefulness before showing slight improvements. These findings were consistent with laboratory standard assessments of sleepiness and vigilant attention. Conclusion The time course of changes in the acoustic properties of speech are comparable to those changes observed in alertness and performance impairment across 40 h of sleep deprivation. These findings suggest the acoustic properties of speech may be a reliable indicator of alertness/drowsiness, with utility for development of objective and non-invasive systems to identify and manage sleep-related impairment in workplace settings. Support (If Any) The study was supported by the Cooperative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity.

PROBLEM KETIDAKPATUHAN TERHADAP PUTUSAN MAHKAMAH KONSTITUSI TENTANG PENGUJIAN UNDANG-UNDANG

Article 24C Paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution of the The Republic of Indonesia authorizes the Constitutional Court to hear at the first and final level the decission of wich of to examine the law againts the Constitution. In the elucidation of Article 10 Paragraph (1) of the law of Constitutional Court, the final decission shall obtain a permanent legal force from the time of speech and no legal remedy can be taken. The final verdict of the Constitutional Court examining the law is immediately applicable, and some require the follow up of the legislators by forming new laws, or amending existing laws. Often, the legislators do not obey the Cosntitutional Court’s decission. Non-compliance can occur because there are not sanctions againts non-compliance, and also the Constitutional Court does not haven an instrumental or execution in charge of ensuring the execution of its verdict. Therefore, efforts are needed to ensure that the Co nstitutional Courtas a judicial institution remains authoritative and is not abandoned by justice seekers.

Time Course of Lexicalization During Sentence Production in Parkinson's Disease: Eye-Tracking While Speaking.

Growing evidence suggests that sentence formulation is affected in Parkinson's disease (PD); however, how speakers with PD coordinate sentence planning and speaking remains unclear. Within 2 competing models of sentence production, this study examined whether speakers with PD show advanced buffering of words to minimize disfluencies and increased demands during speech or whether they plan one word at a time, compromising accuracy and fluency of speech. Participants described 3 computer-displayed pictures using the sentence "the A and the B are above the C." Name agreement (codability) was varied to be high (clock) or low (sofa/couch) for each object position (A, B, C), affecting difficulty of lexical selection. Participants' gaze durations to each object were recorded. Speakers with PD showed incremental word-by-word planning, retrieving only the first lexical item (A) before speech onset, similar to controls. However, they produced greater word-finding errors and disfluencies compared to controls for the low-codable pictures, but not for high-codable pictures. These findings suggest that by following word-by-word incremental production, speakers with PD compromise fluency and accuracy of speech to a greater extent than healthy older speakers and that PD is associated with impaired inhibitory control during lexical selection.

Temporal predictive mechanisms modulate motor reaction time during initiation and inhibition of speech and hand movement

Skilled movement is mediated by motor commands executed with extremely fine temporal precision. The question of how the brain incorporates temporal information to perform motor actions has remained unanswered. This study investigated the effect of stimulus temporal predictability on response timing of speech and hand movement. Subjects performed a randomized vowel vocalization or button press task in two counterbalanced blocks in response to temporally-predictable and unpredictable visual cues. Results indicated that speech and hand reaction time was decreased for predictable compared with unpredictable stimuli. This finding suggests that a temporal predictive code is established to capture temporal dynamics of sensory cues in order to produce faster movements in responses to predictable stimuli. In addition, results revealed a main effect of modality, indicating faster hand movement compared with speech. We suggest that this effect is accounted for by the inherent complexity of speech production compared with hand movement. Lastly, we found that movement inhibition was faster than initiation for both hand and speech, suggesting that movement initiation requires a longer processing time to coordinate activities across multiple regions in the brain. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms of temporal information processing during initiation and inhibition of speech and hand movement.