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Edited by James L. McClelland, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved December 1, 2009 (received for review May 1, 2009)
Abstract
Emerging neurophysiologic evidence indicates that motor systems are activated during the perception of speech, but whether this activity reflects basic processes underlying speech perception remains a matter of considerable debate. Our contribution to this debate is to report direct behavioral evidence that specific articulatory commands are activated automatically and involuntarily during speech perception. We used electropalatography to measure whether motor information activated from spoken distractors would yield specific distortions on the articulation of printed target syllables. Participants produced target syllables beginning with /k/ or /s/ while listening to the same syllables or to incongruent rhyming syllables beginning with /t/. Tongue–palate contact for target productions was measured during the articulatory closure of /k/ and during the frication of /s/. Results revealed “traces” of the incongruent distractors on target productions, with the incongruent /t/-initial distractors inducing greater alveolar contact in the articulation of /k/ and /s/ than the congruent distractors. Two further experiments established that (i) the nature of this interference effect is dependent specifically on the articulatory properties of the spoken distractors; and (ii) this interference effect is unique to spoken distractors and does not arise when distractors are presented in printed form. Results are discussed in terms of a broader emerging framework concerning the relationship between perception and action, whereby the perception of action entails activation of the motor system.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Kathy.Rastle{at}rhul.ac.uk.
Author contributions: I.Y., M.B., and K.R. designed research; I.Y. performed research; I.Y., M.H.D., M.B., and K.R. analyzed data; and M.H.D., M.B., and K.R. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0904774107/DCSupplemental.
- aDepartment of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom;
- bMedical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom; and
- cDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Edited by James L. McClelland, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved December 1, 2009 (received for review May 1, 2009)
Abstract
Emerging neurophysiologic evidence indicates that motor systems are activated during the perception of speech, but whether this activity reflects basic processes underlying speech perception remains a matter of considerable debate. Our contribution to this debate is to report direct behavioral evidence that specific articulatory commands are activated automatically and involuntarily during speech perception. We used electropalatography to measure whether motor information activated from spoken distractors would yield specific distortions on the articulation of printed target syllables. Participants produced target syllables beginning with /k/ or /s/ while listening to the same syllables or to incongruent rhyming syllables beginning with /t/. Tongue–palate contact for target productions was measured during the articulatory closure of /k/ and during the frication of /s/. Results revealed “traces” of the incongruent distractors on target productions, with the incongruent /t/-initial distractors inducing greater alveolar contact in the articulation of /k/ and /s/ than the congruent distractors. Two further experiments established that (i) the nature of this interference effect is dependent specifically on the articulatory properties of the spoken distractors; and (ii) this interference effect is unique to spoken distractors and does not arise when distractors are presented in printed form. Results are discussed in terms of a broader emerging framework concerning the relationship between perception and action, whereby the perception of action entails activation of the motor system.
- motor theory
- perception–action relationship
- speech production
- interference
- electropalatography
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Kathy.Rastle{at}rhul.ac.uk.
Author contributions: I.Y., M.B., and K.R. designed research; I.Y. performed research; I.Y., M.H.D., M.B., and K.R. analyzed data; and M.H.D., M.B., and K.R. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0904774107/DCSupplemental.
Activation of articulatory information in speech perception
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