25.04.23 - Alexis Hervais-Adelman

The role of the motor cortex in receptive language is a matter of historical and ongoing controversy. While theories of speech perception that warrant an obligatory role of motor representations for speech processing have largely been dismissed, evidence continues to emerge suggesting a causal role for motor cortical engagement when the speech signal is acoustically challenging. Moreover, a number of neuroimaging investigations implementing decoding methods have begun to reveal speech-sound representation in articulatory motor areas when listening to speech. Beyond speech processing, there is compelling evidence that brain structures typically associated with movement and action are involved at different levels of language planning and comprehension from syntax to multilingual language control.

I will present research that seeks to establish the functional role of the articulatory motor and premotor cortices in speech processing and to set the basis for creating interventions that might serve to enhance speech perception for individuals with hearing impairment. I will discuss the implications of the production-perception relationship for language evolution.