Douglas Shiller

It has recently been shown that talkers are capable of simultaneously adapting multiple vowels to an alteration of auditory feedback during the production of complex, variable sentences (Lametti, Smith, Watkins & Shiller, Curr Biol, 2018). The present study extends this work by examining adaptation to a more complex physical alteration of the speech motor system (palatal prosthesis) that impacts both auditory and somatosensory feedback. Acoustic and kinematic measures (electromagnetic articulography of tongue) were used to assess the initial impact of the perturbation on a range of vowels and consonants, as well as learned changes following 20 minutes of practice producing variable sentences with the prosthesis in place. Kinematic analyses revealed robust, systematic perturbation and motor learning effects across all sounds, indicating that talkers are capable of rapid adaptation in the production of multiple speech sounds across the articulatory workspace following a physical alteration of the vocal apparatus.