Listening to speech activates motor areas involved in speech production.
To examine the role of motor areas in speech perception, we carried out a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which subjects listened passively to monosyllables and produced the same speech sounds. Listening to speech activated bilaterally a superior portion of ventral premotor cortex that largely overlapped a speech production motor area centered just posteriorly on the border of Brodmann areas 4a and 6, which we distinguished from a more ventral speech production area centered in area 4p. Our findings support the view that the motor system is recruited in mapping acoustic inputs to a phonetic code.
Wilson
Stephen M
SM
Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center and Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. stephenw@ucla.edu
Saygin
Ayşe Pinar
AP
Sereno
Martin I
MI
Iacoboni
Marco
M
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*