Kinematic Comparison of Speech and Nonspeech Oral Tasks

描述(申请人提供)：非言语口腔运动通常用于运动性言语障碍的评估和治疗。这种方法是基于这样的假设，即这些结构的行为提供了对潜在的运动控制机制和神经生理功能障碍的洞察；然而，非言语运动的使用是一个有争议的问题。虽然经常受到批评，但几乎没有基本的神经运动证据来支持或驳斥这一假设。这项研究的长期目标是评估言语运动和意志性非言语口头运动共享潜在的运动控制机制的假设。以前被选来研究言语和非言语口头运动控制之间的关系的任务在组织和复杂性上都表现出了实质性的差异，这限制了可以进行合理比较的程度。这项研究试图更紧密地将言语和非言语的口头手势等同于可比的组织水平和复杂性。将实施非言语任务的运动学习范式，该范式将考虑运动的目标(例如，口腔内气压、唇部位移)、连续手势的重叠性质以及学习和自动化的程度。语言和非语言手势的发音运动学特征将在实施运动学习范式之前和之后进行比较。此外，将评估高度学习的非语音任务到不同相似度的其他非语音任务的泛化。一旦探索了言语和非言语口头动作之间的联系和差异，未来的研究将评估经过自动化训练的复杂、协调的非言语任务是否会推广到言语任务。学习从非言语行为向言语产生的迁移，意味着对这两种运动行为的共同或相关的控制过程。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nonspeech oral movements are commonly used in the evaluation and treatment of motor speech disorders. This approach is based on the assumption that the behavior of these structures provides insight into the underlying motor control mechanisms and neurophysiological dysfunction; however, the use of nonspeech movements is a contentious issue. While often criticized, there is little basic neuromotor evidence to either support or refute this assumption. The long-term objectives of this research are to evaluate the hypothesis that speech movements and volitional nonspeech oral movements share underlying motor control mechanisms. Previous tasks selected to examine the relationship between speech and nonspeech oral motor control have exhibited substantive differences in organization and complexity that limit the extent to which a legitimate comparison can be made. This research attempts to more closely equate speech and nonspeech oral gestures to comparable levels of organization and complexity. A motor learning paradigm of nonspeech tasks will be implemented that will consider the goals of movement (e.g., intraoral air pressure, labial displacement), the overlapping nature of sequential gestures, and the degree of learning and automaticity. Articulatory kinematic characteristics of speech and nonspeech gestures will be compared both prior to and subsequent to implementation of the motor learning paradigm. Additionally, generalization of the highly-learned nonspeech tasks to other nonspeech tasks of varying similarity will be evaluated. Once the associations and disparities between speech and nonspeech oral movements have been explored, future research will evaluate whether complex, coordinated nonspeech tasks trained to automaticity will generalize to speech tasks. The transfer of learning from nonspeech behaviors to speech production would implicate a common or related control process for the two motor behaviors.