Inner speech: “Sound Representation in Higher Language Areas during Language Generation,”
Andrea Moro
December 2015 

The results of our experiments show that a special representation of sound is actually exploited by the brain during language generation, even in the absence of speech. Taking advantage of data collected during neurosurgical operations on awake patients, here we cross-correlated the cortical activity in the frontal and temporal language areas of a person reading aloud or mentally with the envelope of the sound of the corresponding utterances. In both cases, cortical activity and the envelope of the sound of the utterances were significantly correlated. This suggests that in hearing people, sound representation deeply informs generation of linguistic expressions at a much higher level than previously thought. This may help in designing new strategies to help people with language disorders such as aphasia.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/005516 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(6): 1868–1873
keywords:	inner speech, syntax, non-acoustic areas, broca's area, syntax, phonology
Downloaded:	363 times

 

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