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Related Experiment Video

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Stimulating the Lip Motor Cortex with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
12:09

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Published on: June 14, 2014

Walking the talk--speech activates the leg motor cortex.

Gianpiero Liuzzi1, Tanja Ellger, Agnes Flöel

  • 1Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Germany. g.liuzzi@uke.uni-hamburg.de

Neuropsychologia
|July 9, 2008
PubMed
Summary

Speech production and silent reading activate leg motor cortex, supporting the motor theory of speech. This suggests early gestural communication involved more than just hands.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Linguistics
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Speech evolution theories propose origins in gestural communication.
  • Motor cortex (orofacial, hand) activates during speech production and perception.
  • The full extent of motor cortex involvement in speech remains under investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if speech processing activates non-brachiofacial motor areas, specifically the leg motor cortex.
  • To test the hypothesis that speech-related motor activations extend beyond orofacial and hand representations.

Main Methods:

  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) measured corticospinal excitability of leg muscle representations.
  • Participants engaged in speech production, silent reading, non-verbal tongue-mouth movements, and a visuo-attentional task.
  • Comparison of motor cortex activation across different tasks.

Main Results:

  • Speech production and silent reading significantly enhanced corticospinal excitability in leg motor representations.
  • Speech production showed stronger facilitation than non-verbal oral movements.
  • Silent reading's effect exceeded that of a visuo-attentional task, indicating speech specificity.

Conclusions:

  • Findings support a broader motor theory of speech, suggesting early gestural communication involved diverse body parts, not solely hands.
  • Speech perception and production engage widespread motor system networks.
  • The motor system plays a crucial role in processing and potentially originating spoken language.