Adaptation in Speech Motor Control

Human subjects are known to adapt their motor behavior to a shift of the visual field brought about by wearing prism glasses over their eyes. We have studied the analog of this effect in speech. Using a device that can feedback transformed speech signals in real time, we exposed subjects to alterations of their own speech feedback. We found that speakers learn to adjust their production of a vowel to compensate for feedback alterations that change the vowel's perceived phonetic identity; moreover, the effect generalizes across consonant contexts and to different vowels.