Matthew Masapollo, PhD
- Assistant Professor
- Principal Investigator of the Speech Motor Control Lab
- Associate Member, OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center
(405) 271-4214, ext. 46056
Matthew-Masapollo@ouhsc.edu
Dr. Masapollo is the principal investigator of the OUHSC Speech Motor Control Laboratory (est. 2024). He received his Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from McGill University (under Dr. Linda Polka), and then completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one in Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Science at Brown University (under Dr. James L. Morgan), the other in Speech, Language, and Hearing Science at Boston University (under Dr. Frank H. Guenther). Prior to joining the faculty at OUHSC, he also completed a year of advanced sensorimotor neuroscience training at McGill University (under Dr. David J. Ostry), which deepened his interest in the roles of auditory and somatosensory afferent inputs in speech motor control.
The overarching goal of his research program is to elucidate the human speech production mechanism, its development, and its neural basis. The mission of his lab is to: 1) Understand how the human brain produces precise and coordinated speech movements; 2) Understand how humans learn to produce coordinated speech movements early in development; and 3) Understand the contribution of auditory and somatosensory inputs to the coordination and control of speech movements. Experimentally, he focuses on kinematic analyses of speech articulator movements and functional brain imaging of speech production. Current projects focus on speech motor control in congenitally deaf cochlear implant recipients and patients with oral cavity cancer and facial nerve paralysis.
Education:
- Postdoc, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, 2017-19
- Postdoc, Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2016-17
- Ph.D., Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montreal, QC, 2016
- B.A., Cognitive and Linguistic Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2010
Societies and Organizations:
- Acoustical Society of America
- Association for Research in Otolaryngology
- Society for the Neural Control of Movement
Teaching:
- CSD 5133: Research Foundations in Communication Disorders
Research Interests:
- Sensorimotor neuroscience
- CNS networks for speech production
- Speech motor coordination and control
- Articulatory physiology
- Auditory and somatosensory inputs
Funding:
- Hearing Health Foundation, Contributions of auditory and somatosensory feedback to speech motor control in congenitally deaf 9-to-10-year-olds and adults, Emerging Research Grant. Principal investigator, 2021-23, $100,000.
Select Publications:
- Masapollo, M., Rodriguez, A., Gendron, R., Kent, K., +Thomas, H., & Nittrouer, S. (2024). Generalization of inter-articulator timing control: evidence from tongue-jaw and lip-jaw kinematics using electromagnetic articulography. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. DOI: 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00323.
- Masapollo, M., & Nittrouer, S. (2024). Immediate auditory feedback regulates inter-articulator speech coordination in service to phonetic structure. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 156(3), DOI: 10.1121/10.0028725.
- Masapollo, M., & Nittrouer, S. (2023). Inter-articulator speech coordination: timing is of the essence. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(3), 901-915.
- Masapollo, M., Nittrouer, S., Goel, J., & Oh, Y. (2021). Electromagnetic articulography appears feasible for assessment of speech motor skills in cochlear implant users. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Express Letters, DOI: 10.1121/10.0006719.4
Complete List of Published Work in PubMed Bibliography