Robin Karlin, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Parrell Lab, Waisman Center, UW-Madison
Interactions between general motor functions and linguistic knowledge in speech timing
The accurate timing of speech movements is a crucial component of natural-sounding and intelligible speech. However, it remains relatively understudied, leading to gaps in our understanding of how temporal symptoms arise in motor speech disorders. In this talk, I will present two studies from the SMAC Lab that examine speech timing as the result of the relationship between general motor functions and language-specific knowledge. In the first study, we use altered auditory feedback to probe speech motor adaptation in the duration of consonants. Speakers show more speech motor adaptation when perceived errors cross phonological category boundaries, indicating that linguistic structures impose priorities on the motor control system. In the second study, we investigate the relationship between speech timing and non-speech timing in both production and perception. Preliminary data suggests that the same neurological mechanisms are used in speech and non-speech timing, but speech production is affected by mechanisms of motor control that are not specifically temporal.