We investigated how articulatory complexity at the phoneme level is manifested neurobiologically in an overt production task. fMRI images were acquired from young Korean-speaking adults as they pronounced bisyllabic pseudowords in which we manipulated phonological complexity defined in terms of vowel duration and instability (viz., COMPLEX:…

The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was designed, in order to investigate the neural substrates involved in the audiovisual processing of disyllabic German words and pseudowords. Twelve dyslexic and 13 nondyslexic adults performed a lexical decision task while stimuli were presented unimodally (either aurally or…

We studied the reading performance of 340 consecutive, Italian-speaking aphasics in order to evaluate the clinical features of deep dyslexia, the functional impairments underlying semantic paralexias, and their neuranatomical correlates. Semantic paralexias were observed in 9/340 subjects (2.4%). Our data and a review of the literature show that…

This study conducted a follow-up of 13 early-onset slightly disabled Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) patients within an year, evaluating both CC area measurements in a midsagittal Magnetic Resonance (MR) image, and Dichotic Listening (DL) testing with stop consonant vowel (C-V) syllables. Patients showed a significant progressive…

Consistent with a functional role of the motor system in speech perception, disturbing the activity of the left ventral premotor cortex by means of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been shown to impair auditory identification of syllables that were masked with white noise. However, whether this region is crucial for speech…

There is no consensus regarding the fundamental phonetic units that underlie speech production. There is, however, general agreement that the frequency of occurrence of these units is a significant factor. Investigators often use the effects of manipulating frequency to support the importance of particular units. Studies of pseudoword production…

The oral spelling process for logographic languages such as Chinese is intrinsically different from alphabetic languages. In Chinese only a subset of orthographic components are pronounceable and their phonological identities (i.e., component names) do not always correspond to the sound of the whole characters. We show that such phonological…

Resilient readers are characterized by impaired phonological processing despite skilled text comprehension. We investigated orthographic and semantic processing in resilient readers to examine mechanisms of compensation for poor phonological decoding. Performance on phonological (phoneme deletion, pseudoword reading), orthographic (orthographic…

Semantic errors are commonly found in semantic dementia (SD) and some forms of stroke aphasia and provide insights into semantic processing and speech production. Low error rates are found in standard picture naming tasks in normal controls. In order to increase error rates and thus provide an experimental model of aphasic performance, this study…

This study investigated the effects of phonologic treatment for anomia in aphasia. We proposed that if treatment were directed at the level of the phonologic processor, opportunities for naming via a phonological route, as opposed to a strictly whole word route, would be enhanced, thereby improving naming. The participants, ten people with anomia…

Caramazza et al. [Caramazza, A., Chialant, D., Capasso, R., & Miceli, G. (2000). Separable processing of consonants and vowels. "Nature," 403(6768), 428-430.] report two patients who exhibit a double dissociation between consonants and vowels in speech production. The patterning of this double dissociation cannot be explained by appealing to…

The present study investigated the articulatory implementation deficits of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics and their potential neuroanatomical correlates. Five Broca's aphasics, two Wernicke's aphasics, and four age-matched normal speakers produced consonant-vowel-(consonant) real word tokens consisting of [m, n] followed by [i, e, a, o, u]. Three…

Is it necessary to posit separate, explicit distinctions between representations in order to account for dissociations between consonant and vowel processing? We argue that a cognitive model of speech production based on cumulative lower-level properties is not only sufficient but more parsimonious in accounting for aphasic and dysgraphic patient…

The architecture of the language processing system for speakers of more than one language remains an intriguing topic of research. A common finding is that speakers of multiple languages are slower at responding to language stimuli in their non-native language (L2) than monolingual speakers. This may simply reflect participants' unfamiliarity with…

Hemispheric asymmetry was examined for native English speakers identifying consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) non-words presented in standard printed form, in standard handwritten cursive form or in handwritten cursive with the letters separated by small gaps. For all three conditions, fewer errors occurred when stimuli were presented to the right…