Representation of phonological categories: a functional role for auditory columns

A speculative model for representing phonological categories for stop place of articulation is offered. The model is analogous to neural columns in both inferotemporal cortex in the macaque for achieving constancy in object recognition and in the inferior colliculus of the barn owl for resolving ambiguous phase disparities for sound localization. Hypothetical auditory columns for encoding the vowel context-induced variability of F2 transitions are described using acoustic data from locus equation scatterplots of human speech. Such analyses serve to absorb the allophonic variability inherent in coarticulated speech utterances.