The Feel of Speech: Multisystem and Polymodal Somatosensation in Speech Production

CONCLUSIONS: The current understanding of speech somatosensation rests primarily on the two pillars of psychophysics and neuroscience. The confluence of polymodal afferent streams supports the development, maintenance, and refinement of speech production. Receptors are both canonical and noncanonical, with the latter occurring especially in the muscles innervated by the facial nerve. Somatosensory representation in the cortex is disproportionately large and provides for sensory interactions. Speech somatosensory function is robust over the lifespan, with possible declines in advanced aging. The understanding of somatosensation in speech disorders is largely disconnected from research and theory on speech production. A speech somatoscape is proposed as the generalized, system-wide sensation of speech production, with implications for speech development, speech motor control, and speech disorders.PMID:38593006 | DOI:10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00575
Source: Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Source Type: research