The general motor programmer: its specialization for speech perception & movement

Anne Maria Keane

Psychology, University of Bolton, Bolton, UK.

DOI: 10.4236/wjns.2012.23024                

Abstract

A common neural mechanism—the General Motor Programmer—is proposed by Keane (1999) to underlie both the perception of speech and the initiation of hand movement. A proposal to investigate the specific aspect of cognitive functioning this mechanism is specialized for, namely the timing or place of articulation, is outlined.

Keywords

General Motor Programmer; Common Mechanism; Speech Perception; Hand Movements

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Keane, A. M. (1999) Cerebral organization of motor programming and verbal processing as a function of degree of hand preference and familial sinistrality. Brain and Cognition, 40, 500-515. doi:10.1006/brcg.1999.1115
[2]	Oldfield, R. (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: The edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia, 9, 97-113. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(71)90067-4
[3]	Morais, J. and Darwin, C.J. (1974) Ear differences for same different reaction times to monaurally presented speech. Brain and Language, 1, 383 390. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(74)90015-7
[4]	Rastatter, M.P. and Gallaher, A.J. (1982) Reaction times of normal subjects to monaurally presented verbal and tonal stimuli. Neuropsychologia, 20, 465 473. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(82)90045-8
[5]	Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Shankweiler, D. (1970) Hemispheric specialization for speech perception. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 48, 579-594. doi:10.1121/1.1912174
[6]	Sheehan, E. P. and Smith, H. V. (1986) Cerebral lateralization and handedness and their effects on verbal and spatial reasoning. Neuropsychologia, 24, 531-540. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(86)90097-7
[7]	Keane, A. M. (2001) Motor control of the hands: The effect of familial sinistrality. International Journal of Neuroscience, 110, 25-41. doi:10.3109/00207450108994219
[8]	Keane, A. M. (2002) Direction of hand preference: The connection with speech and the influence of familial handedness. International Journal of Neuroscience, 112, 1287-1303. doi:10.1080/00207450290158205
[9]	Kimura, D. (1977) Acquisition of a motor skill after left-hemisphere damage. Brain, 100, 527 542. doi:10.1093/brain/100.3.527
[10]	Kimura, D. (1982) Left-hemisphere control of oral and brachial movements and their relation to communication. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: B: Biological Sciences, 298, 135-149. doi:10.1098/rstb.1982.0077
[11]	Liepmann, H. (1980) The left hemisphere and action. Research Bulletin, 506, 17-50.
[12]	Bradshaw, J. L. and Nettleton, N. C. (1981) The nature of hemispheric specialization in man. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4, 51-91. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00007548
[13]	Calvin, W. H. (1983) Timing sequencers as a foundation for language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 6, 210-211. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00015533
[14]	Ojemann, G. A. (1984) Common cortical and thalamic mechanisms for language and motor functions. American Journal of Physiology, 246, R901-R903.
[15]	Schwartz, J. and Tallal, P. (1980) Rate of acoustic change may underlie hemispheric specialization for speech perception. Science, 207, 1380-1381.
[16]	Boemio, A., Fromm, S., Braun, A. and Poeppel, D. (2005) Hierarchical and asymmetric temporal sensitivity in human auditory cortices. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 389-395.
[17]	Brancucci, A., D’Anselmo, A., Martello, F. and Tommasi, L. (2008) Left hemisphere specialization for duration discrimination of musical and speech sounds. Neuropsychologia, 46, 2013-2019. doi :10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.01.019
[18]	Schirmer, A. (2004) Timing speech: A review of lesion and neuroimaging findings. Cognitive Brain Research, 21, 269-287. doi:10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.04.003
[19]	Tallal, P. (1983) A precise timing mechanism may underlie a common speech perception and production area in the peri-Sylvian cortex of the dominant hemisphere. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 6, 219-220. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00015636
[20]	Tallal, P. and Newcombe, F. (1978) Impairment of auditory perception and language comprehension in dysphasia. Brain and Language, 5, 13-24. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(78)90003-2
[21]	Watson, N. V. and Kimura, D. (1989) Right-hand superiority for throwing but not for intercepting. Neuropsychologia, 27, 1399-1414. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(89)90133-4
[22]	Lomas, J. and Kimura, D. (1976) Intrahemispheric interaction between speaking and sequential manual activity. Neuropsychologia, 14, 23-33. doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(76)90004-X
[23]	McFarland, K., Ashton, R. and Jeffery C. K. (1989) Lateralized dual-task performance: The effects of spatial and muscular repositioning. Neuropsychologia, 27, 1267-1276. doi :10.1016/0028-3932(89)90039-0
[24]	Mateer, C. and Kimura, D. (1977) Impairment of non-verbal oral movements in aphasia. Brain and Language, 4, 262-276. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(77)90022-0
[25]	Howell, P. and Rosen, S. (1983) Natural auditory sensitivities as universal determiners of phonemic contrasts. Linguistics, 21, 205-235. doi:10.1515/ling.1983.21.1.205
[26]	Wallwork, J. F. (1985) Language and linguistics. 2nd Edition, Heinemann, Oxford.