Activity in anterior sensorimotor regions is found in speech production and some perception tasks. Yet, how sensorimotor integration supports these functions is unclear due to a lack of data examining the timing of activity from these regions. Beta (~20 Hz) and alpha (~10 Hz) spectral power within the EEG μ rhythm are considered indices of motor and somatosensory activity, respectively. In the current study, perception conditions required discrimination (same/different) of syllables pairs (/ba/ and /da/) in quiet and noisy conditions. Production conditions required covert and overt syllable productions and overt word production. Independent component analysis was performed on EEG data obtained during these conditions to (1) identify clusters of μ components common to all conditions and (2) examine real-time event-related spectral perturbations (ERSP) within alpha and beta bands. 17 and 15 out of 20 participants produced left and right μ-components, respectively, localized to precentral gyri. Discrimination conditions were characterized by significant (pFDR < 0.05) early alpha event-related synchronization (ERS) prior to and during stimulus presentation and later alpha event-related desynchronization (ERD) following stimulus offset. Beta ERD began early and gained strength across time. Differences were found between quiet and noisy discrimination conditions. Both overt syllable and word productions yielded similar alpha/beta ERD that began prior to production and was strongest during muscle activity. Findings during covert production were weaker than during overt production. One explanation for these findings is that μ-beta ERD indexes early predictive coding (e.g., internal modeling) and/or overt and covert attentional/motor processes. μ-alpha ERS may index inhibitory input to the premotor cortex from sensory regions prior to and during discrimination, while μ-alpha ERD may index sensory feedback during speech rehearsal and production.

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Sensorimotor integration (SMI) across the dorsal stream enables online monitoring of speech. Jenson et al. (2014) used independent component analysis (ICA) and event related spectral perturbation (ERSP) analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data to describe anterior sensorimotor (e.g., premotor cortex, PMC) activity during speech perception and production. The purpose of the current study was to identify and temporally map neural activity from posterior (i.e., auditory) regions of the dorsal stream in the same tasks. Perception tasks required “active” discrimination of syllable pairs (/ba/ and /da/) in quiet and noisy conditions. Production conditions required overt production of syllable pairs and nouns. ICA performed on concatenated raw 68 channel EEG data from all tasks identified bilateral “auditory” alpha (α) components in 15 of 29 participants localized to pSTG (left) and pMTG (right). ERSP analyses were performed to reveal fluctuations in the spectral power of the α rhythm clusters across time. Production conditions were characterized by significant α event related synchronization (ERS; pFDR < 0.05) concurrent with EMG activity from speech production, consistent with speech-induced auditory inhibition. Discrimination conditions were also characterized by α ERS following stimulus offset. Auditory α ERS in all conditions temporally aligned with PMC activity reported in Jenson et al. (2014). These findings are indicative of speech-induced suppression of auditory regions, possibly via efference copy. The presence of the same pattern following stimulus offset in discrimination conditions suggests that sensorimotor contributions following speech perception reflect covert replay, and that covert replay provides one source of the motor activity previously observed in some speech perception tasks. To our knowledge, this is the first time that inhibition of auditory regions by speech has been observed in real-time with the ICA/ERSP technique.