Study explores potential role of visual feedback of the tongue in speech motor learning
When we speak, although we may not be aware of it, we use our auditory and somatosensory systems to monitor the results of the movements of our tongue or lips.
This sensory information plays a critical role in how we learn to speak and maintain accuracy in these behaviors throughout our lives. Since we cannot typically see our own faces and tongues while we speak, however, the potential role of visual feedback has remained less clear.
In the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, University of Montreal and McGill University researchers present a study exploring how readily speakers will integrate visual information about their tongue movements captured in real time via ultrasound during a speech motor learning task.