Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production.

The perception of action is associated with increased activity in motor regions, implicating such regions in the recognition, understanding and imitation of actions. We examined the possibility that perception of speech, both auditory and visual, would also result in changes in the excitability of t...

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Main Authors: Watkins, K, Strafella, A, Paus, T
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2003
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author Watkins, K
Strafella, A
Paus, T
author_facet Watkins, K
Strafella, A
Paus, T
author_sort Watkins, K
collection OXFORD
description The perception of action is associated with increased activity in motor regions, implicating such regions in the recognition, understanding and imitation of actions. We examined the possibility that perception of speech, both auditory and visual, would also result in changes in the excitability of the motor system underlying speech production. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied to the face area of primary motor cortex to elicit motor-evoked potentials in the lip muscles. The size of the motor-evoked potentials was compared under the following conditions: listening to speech, listening to non-verbal sounds, viewing speech-related lip movements, and viewing eye and brow movements. Compared to control conditions, listening to and viewing speech enhanced the size of the motor-evoked potential. This effect was only seen in response to stimulation of the left hemisphere; stimulation of the right hemisphere produced no changes in motor-evoked potentials in any of the conditions. In a control experiment, the size of the motor-evoked potentials elicited in the muscles of the right hand did not differ among conditions, suggesting that speech-related changes in excitability are specific to the lip muscles. These results provide evidence that both auditory and visual speech perception facilitate the excitability of the motor system involved in speech production.
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spelling oxford-uuid:b4a5d980-9d4f-4e91-ac43-d1f628297b202022-03-27T04:27:46ZSeeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b4a5d980-9d4f-4e91-ac43-d1f628297b20EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2003Watkins, KStrafella, APaus, TThe perception of action is associated with increased activity in motor regions, implicating such regions in the recognition, understanding and imitation of actions. We examined the possibility that perception of speech, both auditory and visual, would also result in changes in the excitability of the motor system underlying speech production. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied to the face area of primary motor cortex to elicit motor-evoked potentials in the lip muscles. The size of the motor-evoked potentials was compared under the following conditions: listening to speech, listening to non-verbal sounds, viewing speech-related lip movements, and viewing eye and brow movements. Compared to control conditions, listening to and viewing speech enhanced the size of the motor-evoked potential. This effect was only seen in response to stimulation of the left hemisphere; stimulation of the right hemisphere produced no changes in motor-evoked potentials in any of the conditions. In a control experiment, the size of the motor-evoked potentials elicited in the muscles of the right hand did not differ among conditions, suggesting that speech-related changes in excitability are specific to the lip muscles. These results provide evidence that both auditory and visual speech perception facilitate the excitability of the motor system involved in speech production.
spellingShingle Watkins, K
Strafella, A
Paus, T
Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production.
title Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production.
title_full Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production.
title_fullStr Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production.
title_full_unstemmed Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production.
title_short Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production.
title_sort seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production
work_keys_str_mv AT watkinsk seeingandhearingspeechexcitesthemotorsysteminvolvedinspeechproduction
AT strafellaa seeingandhearingspeechexcitesthemotorsysteminvolvedinspeechproduction
AT paust seeingandhearingspeechexcitesthemotorsysteminvolvedinspeechproduction