Kinematic Comparison of Speech and Nonspeech Oral Tasks

描述（由申请人提供）：非言语的口腔运动通常用于评估和治疗运动言语障碍。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见解；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支持或反驳这一假设。本研究的长期目标是评估语音运动和意志非语音口腔运动共享潜在运动控制机制的假设。先前选择的研究言语和非言语口头运动控制之间关系的任务在组织和复杂性上表现出实质性的差异，这限制了合理比较的程度。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较的组织和复杂性水平。非言语任务的运动学习范式将被实施，该范式将考虑运动的目标（例如，口内气压，唇移位），顺序手势的重叠性质，以及学习和自动化的程度。在实施运动学习范式之前和之后，将比较言语和非言语手势的发音运动学特征。此外，将评估高度学习的非语音任务对其他不同相似度的非语音任务的泛化。一旦言语和非言语口头运动之间的联系和差异被探索出来，未来的研究将评估复杂的、协调的非言语任务是否可以推广到言语任务中。从非言语行为到言语产生的学习转移可能意味着这两种运动行为有一个共同的或相关的控制过程。

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.