Neurophysiological evidence of efference copies to inner speech

Whitford, Thomas J.; Jack, Bradley N.; Pearson, Daniel; Griffiths, Oren; Luque, David; Harris, Anthony; Spencer, Kevin; Pelley, Mike E. Le

doi:10.7554/elife.28197

Cited by 79 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 81 publications

(125 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Movement‐specific information, however, is needed to accurately predict sensory consequences of any movement and reduce the prediction error. This also accords with previous observations which showed that the efference copy (motor command copy) conveys the details of auditory properties in inner speech scenario (Whitford et al, ). Similarly, it has been shown that beta oscillations before a movement contain information about future movement (Pape & Siegel, ; Tan et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Beta‐band oscillations play an essential role in motor–auditory interactions

Abbasi

Groß

2019

Human Brain Mapping

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the human brain, self-generated auditory stimuli elicit smaller cortical responses compared to externally generated sounds. This sensory attenuation is thought to result from predictions about the sensory consequences of self-generated actions that rely on motor commands. Previous research has implicated brain oscillations in this process. However, the specific role of these oscillations in motor-auditory interactions during sensory attenuation is still unclear. In this study, we aimed at addressing this question by using magnetoencephalography (MEG). We recorded MEG in 20 healthy participants during listening to passively presented and selfgenerated tones. Our results show that the magnitude of sensory attenuation in bilateral auditory areas is significantly correlated with the modulation of beta-band (15-30 Hz) amplitude in the motor cortex. Moreover, we observed a significant directional coupling (Granger causality) in beta-band originating from the motor cortex toward bilateral auditory areas. Our findings indicate that beta-band oscillations play an important role in mediating top-down interactions between motor and auditory cortex and, in our paradigm, suppress cortical responses to predicted sensory input. K E Y W O R D Sauditory perception, beta-band oscillation, MEG, motor-auditory interactions, prediction, sensory attenuation

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Beta‐band oscillations play an essential role in motor–auditory interactions

Abbasi

Groß

2019

Human Brain Mapping

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Such activations were evident in all self-generated verbal tasks employed in our study as well, such as word fluency and working memory (see figure 4C-E). These results are compatible with recent empiric evidence that inner speech -a purely mental action -is associated with an efference copy, previously associated only to overt movements, thus suggesting that inner speech may reflect a special type of overt speech 44 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Inter-thinker consistency of language activations during abstract thoughts

Berkovich‐Ohana

Noy

Harel

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human brain imaging typically employs structured and controlled tasks to avoid variable and inconsistent activation patterns. Here we argue against this assumption by showing that an extremely open-ended, high level cognitive task-loosely defined as "abstract thinking" leads to a precise, and highly consistent activation maps. Thus we show that activation maps generated during such cognitive process were precisely located relative to borders of well-known networks such as internal speech, visual and motor imagery. The activation patterns allowed decoding the thought condition at >95%. Surprisingly, the activated networks remained the same regardless of changes in thought content. Finally, we found a remarkably consistent activation map across individuals engaged in abstract thinking. The activation to abstract thinking bordered, but strictly avoided visual and motor networks. On the other hand, it partly overlapped with left lateralized language networks. These observations were supported by a quantitative neuronal distance metric analysis. Our results reveal that despite its high level, and varied content nature-abstract thinking activates surprisingly precise and consistent networks in the participants' brains.3 'Thinker' refers to: The agent of thought; Intellectual, one who tries to use his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas" (Wikipedia).

show abstract

“…For this reason, we are hesitant to refer to the "weaker" version of the motor theory as a theory of speech perception at all. Instead, it is a MOTOR CONTRIBUTION TO SPEECH PERCEPTION 20 rather simplistic characterization of a class of sensorimotor interactions that: (a) are observable under a limited set of circumstances in the context of speech; (b) are likely not specific to speech (Morillon et al, 2015); and (c) may even be harmful to speech perception in some cases (Hickok, 2014;Whitford et al, 2017). The straightest path toward understanding human speech processing from any perspective -sensory, motor, or sensorimotor -is to put the motor theory of speech perception to bed for good.…”

Section: Motor Contribution To Speech Perception 19mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Motor System's [Modest] Contribution to Speech Perception

Stokes¹,

Venezia²,

Hickok³

2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent evidence suggests that the motor system may have a facilitatory role in speech perception during noisy listening conditions. Studies clearly show an association between activity in auditory and motor speech systems, but also hint at a causal role for the motor system in noisy speech perception. However, in the most compelling "causal" studies performance was only measured at a single signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). If listening conditions must be noisy to invoke causal motor involvement, then effects will be contingent on the SNR at which they are tested. We used articulatory suppression to disrupt motor-speech areas while measuring phonemic identification across a range of SNRs. As controls, we also measured phoneme identification during passive listening, mandible gesturing, and foot-tapping conditions. Two-parameter (threshold, slope) psychometric functions were fit to the data in each condition. Our findings indicate: (1) no effect of experimental task on psychometric function slopes; (2) a small effect of articulatory suppression, in particular, on psychometric function thresholds. The size of the latter effect was 1 dB (~5% correct) on average, suggesting, at best, a minor modulatory role of the speech motor system in perception.

show abstract

Neurophysiological evidence of efference copies to inner speech

Cited by 79 publications

References 81 publications

Beta‐band oscillations play an essential role in motor–auditory interactions

Beta‐band oscillations play an essential role in motor–auditory interactions

Inter-thinker consistency of language activations during abstract thoughts

The Motor System's [Modest] Contribution to Speech Perception

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About