PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Emily M. Mugler
AU  - Matthew C. Tate
AU  - Karen Livescu
AU  - Jessica W. Templer
AU  - Matthew A. Goldrick
AU  - Marc W. Slutzky
TI  - Differential Representation of Articulatory Gestures and Phonemes in Motor, Premotor, and Inferior Frontal Cortices
AID  - 10.1101/220723
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 220723
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/30/220723.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/30/220723.full
AB  - Speech is a critical form of human communication and is central to our daily lives. Yet, despite decades of study, an understanding of the fundamental neural control of speech production remains incomplete. Current theories model speech production as a hierarchy from sentences and phrases down to words, syllables, speech sounds (phonemes) and the movements of speech articulator muscles used to produce these sounds (articulatory gestures). Here, we investigate the cortical representation of articulatory gestures and phonemes in speech motor, premotor, and inferior frontal cortices. Our results indicate that primary motor and premotor areas represent gestures to a greater extent than phonemes, while inferior frontal cortex represents both gestures and phonemes. These findings suggest that the cortical control of speech production shares a common representation with that of other types of movement, such as arm and hand movements.