Dept. of Psychology, McGill Univ., 1205 Dr. Penfield Ave., Montréal, QC, Canada H3A 1B1.
J Neurophysiol. 2012 Jan;107(1):442-7. doi: 10.1152/jn.00029.2011. Epub 2011 Oct 19.
Interactions between auditory and somatosensory information are relevant to the neural processing of speech since speech processes and certainly speech production involves both auditory information and inputs that arise from the muscles and tissues of the vocal tract. We previously demonstrated that somatosensory inputs associated with facial skin deformation alter the perceptual processing of speech sounds. We show here that the reverse is also true, that speech sounds alter the perception of facial somatosensory inputs. As a somatosensory task, we used a robotic device to create patterns of facial skin deformation that would normally accompany speech production. We found that the perception of the facial skin deformation was altered by speech sounds in a manner that reflects the way in which auditory and somatosensory effects are linked in speech production. The modulation of orofacial somatosensory processing by auditory inputs was specific to speech and likewise to facial skin deformation. Somatosensory judgments were not affected when the skin deformation was delivered to the forearm or palm or when the facial skin deformation accompanied nonspeech sounds. The perceptual modulation that we observed in conjunction with speech sounds shows that speech sounds specifically affect neural processing in the facial somatosensory system and suggest the involvement of the somatosensory system in both the production and perceptual processing of speech.
听觉信息和躯体感觉信息之间的相互作用与言语的神经处理有关，因为言语处理，当然也包括言语产生，涉及来自肌肉和声道组织的听觉信息和输入。我们之前证明了与面部皮肤变形相关的躯体感觉输入会改变言语声音的感知处理。我们在这里表明，情况正好相反，即言语声音会改变对面部躯体感觉输入的感知。作为躯体感觉任务，我们使用机器人设备来创建通常伴随言语产生的面部皮肤变形模式。我们发现，言语声音以反映听觉和躯体感觉效应对言语产生的影响方式改变了对面部皮肤变形的感知。听觉输入对面部躯体感觉处理的调制是特异性的，仅针对言语和面部皮肤变形。当皮肤变形传递到手背或手掌时，或者当面部皮肤变形伴随着非言语声音时，躯体感觉判断不受影响。我们观察到的与言语声音一起出现的知觉调制表明，言语声音特异性地影响面部躯体感觉系统的神经处理，并提示躯体感觉系统参与言语的产生和知觉处理。
