The overarching goal of our research program is to elucidate the human speech production mechanism, its development, and its neural basis. Current projects focus on achieving three inter-dependent aims: (1.) Understanding how the human brain coordinates and controls speech movements; (2.) Understanding how humans learn to produce coordinated speech movements early in development; and (3.) Understanding the contributions of auditory and somatosensory afferent signals to the control of coordinated speech movements. Experimentally, we focus on kinematic analyses of speech articulator movements (EMA) and functional brain-imaging (fMRI). The results of such investigations have important implications not only for our basic understanding of speech motor organization but will also facilitate the development of mechanistically driven rehabilitation protocols for patients with a wide range of sensorimotor deficits. Current projects focus on speech motor control in deaf cochlear implant recipients and oral cavity cancer patients following surgery. These basic science and clinical applications make this research portfolio appealing to NIH and NSF.

Research Aim 1: Understanding how the human brain coordinates and controls speech movements

During speech production, humans are capable of generating up to six to nine syllables per second, a skill that relies on swift and precise coordination of the articulators (lips, tongue, jaw). This project strives to elucidate how people coordinate and regulate those movements.

Research Aim 2: Understanding how humans learn to produce coordinated speech movements early in development

When first learning to talk, a fundamental challenge for children is to learn which coordinated sets of vocal tract movements produce particular speech sounds. This project studies speech motor learning in adolescents with sensorimotor deficits (e.g., hearing loss, cleft lip or palate) and their neurotypical peers. 

Research Aim 3: Understanding the contributions of auditory and somatosensory afferent signals to the control of coordinated speech movements

       
Our research goal is to explicate how sensory information (auditory, proprioceptive) goes into the brain and affects how people move their vocal tract in service to speech production. This line of investigation examines speech motor control in people who experience long-term degraded auditory and oral somatosensory inputs (e.g., deaf people who receive cochlear implants; oral cavity cancer patients following surgery or radiation procedures).