Causal Lesion Evidence for Two Motor Speech Coordination Networks in the Brain

Speech production is supported by sensory-to-motor transformations to coordinate activity of the larynx and orofacial muscles. Here, we show that lesions to left temporal lobe areas involved in pitch processing cause reduced neural responses when repeating sentences and when humming piano melodies in a dorsal portion of the left precentral gyrus linked to laryngeal motor control. In contrast, lesions to left inferior parietal areas involved in somatosensory processing of speech cause reduced neural responses when repeating sentences but not when humming piano melodies in a ventral portion of the left precentral gyrus linked to orofacial motor control. Analyses in neurotypical participants converge in showing that the dorsal and ventral portions of the left precentral gyrus exhibit strong functional connectivity to left temporal and inferior parietal regions, respectively. These results provide causal lesion evidence that dissociable networks underlie distinct sensory-to-motor transformations supporting laryngeal and orofacial motor control for speech production.