CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 247Action Observation and SynchronizationNeurobiology of Language and BilingualismPhonetics and Phonology Research

Reflections on mirror neurons and speech perception

Open access
Lotto, Andrew J., Hickok, Gregory S., Holt, Lori L.·2009·Trends in Cognitive Sciences
DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2008.11.008PMC PMC2921844
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The discovery of mirror neurons, a class of neurons that respond when a monkey performs an action and also when the monkey observes others producing the same action, has promoted a renaissance for the Motor Theory (MT) of speech perception. This is because mirror neurons seem to accomplish the same kind of one to one mapping between perception and action that MT theorizes to be the basis of human speech communication. However, this seeming correspondence is superficial, and there are theoretical and empirical reasons to temper enthusiasm about the explanatory role mirror neurons might have for speech perception. In fact, rather than providing support for MT, mirror neurons are actually inconsistent with the central tenets of MT.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.tics.2008.11.008

Cites

2 of 2 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The kind of system-level theoretical approach required in research on the functions of MNs is exemplified by studies of their role in speech perception.

    “The kind of system-level theoretical approach required in research on the functions of MNs is exemplified by studies of their role in speech perception”

    From Mirror neurons: from origin to function (2014) · cites this paper as Lotto, Hickok, & Holt, 2009

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 53

  1. [1]Liberman AM Perception of the speech code Psychol. Rev 1967 74 431 461 4170865
  2. [2]Liberman AM Mattingly IG The motor theory of speech perception revised Cognition 1985 21 1 36 4075760
  3. [3]Liberman AM Mattingly IG A specialization for speech perception Science 1989 243 489 494 2643163
  4. [4]Diehl RL Speech perception Annu. Rev. Psychol 2004 55 149 179 14744213
  5. [5]Gallese V Action recognition in the premotor cortex Brain 1996 119 593 609 8800951
  6. [6]Rizzolatti G Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions Brain Res. Cogn. Brain Res 1996 3 131 141 8713554
  7. [7]Fadiga L Motor facilitation during action observation: a magnetic stimulation study J. Neurophysiol 1995 91 176 180 7666169
  8. [8]Rizzolatti G Localization of grasp representation in humans by PET:1. Observation versus execution Exp. Brain Res 1996 111 246 252 8891654
  9. [9]Iacoboni M The role of premotor cortex in speech perception: evidence from fMRI and rTMS J. Physiol 2008 102 31 34 18440208
  10. [10]Meister IG The essential role of premotor cortex in speech perception Curr. Biol 2007 17 1692 1696 17900904 PMC5536895
  11. [11]Imada T Infant speech perception activates Broca's area: a developmental magnetoencephalography study Neuroreport 2006 17 957 962 16791084
  12. [12]Pulvermüller F Motor cortex maps articulatory features of speech sounds Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A 2006 103 7865 7870 16682637 PMC1472536
  13. [13]Gentilucci M Corballis MC From manual gesture to speech: a gradual transition Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev 2006 30 949 960 16620983
  14. [14]Bach P Tipper S Implicit action encoding influences personal-trait judgments Cognition 2007 102 151 178 16457795 PMC2079297
  15. [15]Molnar-Szakacs I Overy K Music and mirror neurons: from motion to `e'motion Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci 2006 1 235 241 18985111 PMC2555420
  16. [16]Leslie KR Functional imaging of face and hand imitation: towards a motor theory of empathy Neuroimage 2004 21 601 607 14980562
  17. [17]Fabbri-Destro M Rizzolatti G Mirror neurons and mirror systems in monkeys and humans Physiology (Bethesda) 2008 23 171 179 18556470
  18. [19]Matelli M Paxinos G Mai JK Motor cortex The Human Nervous System 2004 973 996 Elsevier 2nd edn
  19. [20]Petrides M Orofacial somatomotor responses in the macaque monkey homologue of Broca's area Nature 2005 435 1235 1238 15988526
  20. [21]Kohler E Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representations in mirror neurons Science 2002 297 846 848 12161656
  21. [22]Rizzolatti G Arbib MA Language within our grasp Trends Neurosci 1998 21 188 194 9610880
  22. [24]Gallantucci B The motor theory of speech perception reviewed Psychon. Bull. Rev 2006 13 361 377 17048719 PMC2746041
  23. [25]Massaro DW Chen TH The motor theory of speech perception revisited Psychon. Bull. Rev 2008 15 453 457 18488668
  24. [29]Lindblom B Studdert-Kennedy M On the role of formant transitions in vowel recognition J. Acoust. Soc. Am 1967 42 830 843 6075568
  25. [30]Nearey TM Static, dynamic, and relational properties in vowel perception J. Acoust. Soc. Am 1989 85 2088 2113 2659638
  26. [31]Holt LL Neighboring spectral content influences vowel identification J. Acoust. Soc. Am 2000 108 710 722 10955638
  27. [32]Liberman AM Speech: A Special Code 1996 MIT Press
  28. [33]Fadiga L Speech listening specifically modulates the excitability of tongue muscles: a TMS study Eur. J. Neurosci 2002 15 399 402 11849307
  29. [34]Rizzolatti G Functional organization of inferior area 6 in the macaque monkey Exp. Brain Res 1988 71 491 507 3416965
  30. [35]Gay T Production of bite-block vowels: acoustic equivalence J. Acoust. Soc. Am 1981 69 802 810 7240561
  31. [36]Kelso JAS Tuller B `Compensatory articulation' under conditions of reduced afferent information: a dynamic formulation J. Speech Hear. Res 1983 26 217 224 6887808
  32. [37]Tremblay S Somatosensory basis of speech production Nature 2003 423 866 869 12815431
  33. [38]Lotto AJ Perceptual compensation for coarticulation by Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) J. Acoust. Soc. Am 1997 102 1134 1140 9265760
  34. [39]Lotto AJ Kluender KR General contrast effects of speech perception: effect of preceding liquid on stop consonant identification Percept. Psychophys 1998 60 602 619 9628993
  35. [40]Holt LL Temporally non-adjacent non-linguistic sounds affect speech categorization Psychol. Sci 2005 16 305 312 15828978
  36. [41]Lotto AJ Holt LL Putting phonetic context effects into context: a commentary on Fowler (2006) Percept. Psychophys 2006 68 178 183 16773891 PMC1770950
  37. [42]Fowler CA Rosenblum LD Duplex perception: a comparison of monosyllables and slamming doors J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform 1990 16 742 754 2148589
  38. [43]Goodglass H Understanding Aphasia 1993 Academic Press
  39. [44]Goodglass H The Assessment of Aphasia and Related Disorders 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 3rd edn
  40. [45]Moineau S Exploring the processing continuum of single-word comprehension in aphasia J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res 2005 48 884 896 16378480
  41. [46]Damasio AR Aphasia N. Engl. J. Med 1992 326 531 539 1732792
  42. [47]Damasio H Sarno M Neuroanatomical correlates of the aphasias Acquired Aphasia 1991 45 71 Academic Press 2nd edn
  43. [48]Blumstein SE Gazzaniga MS The neurobiology of the sound structure of language The Cognitive Neurosciences 1995 915 929 MIT Press
  44. [49]Miceli G Some aspects of phonological impairment in aphasia Brain Lang 1980 11 159 169 7427715
  45. [50]Dronkers NF Gazzaniga MS The neural architecture of language disorders The New Cognitive Neurosciences 2000 949 958 MIT Press
  46. [51]Hickok G Poeppel D Towards a functional neuroanatomy of speech perception Trends Cogn. Sci 2000 4 131 138 10740277
  47. [52]Hickok G Poeppel D Dorsal and ventral streams: a framework for understanding aspects of the functional anatomy of language Cognition 2004 92 67 99 15037127
  48. [53]Hickok G Poeppel D The cortical organization of speech processing Nat. Rev. Neurosci 2007 8 393 402 17431404
  49. [54]Bogousslavsky J Acute transcortical mixed aphasia. A carotid occlusion syndrome with pial and watershed infarcts Brain 1988 111 631 641 3382914
  50. [56]Wilson SM Listening to speech activates motor areas involved in speech production Nat. Neurosci 2004 7 701 702 15184903
  51. [57]Skipper JI Hearing lips and seeing voices: how cortical areas supporting speech production mediate audiovisual speech perception Cereb. Cortex 2007 17 2387 2399 17218482 PMC2896890
  52. [58]van Wassenhove V Visual speech speeds up the neural processing of auditory speech Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A 2005 102 1181 1186 15647358 PMC545853
  53. [59]Guenther FH Neural modeling and imaging of the cortical interactions underlying syllable production Brain Lang 2006 96 280 301 16040108 PMC1473986

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Lotto, A. J., Hickok, G. S., & Holt, L. L.
Affiliations
  • University of Arizona (US)
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
  • Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (US)
Corresponding author
Holt, Lori L.
ORCID
Venue
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009-03
Volume
13
Issue
3
Pages
110-114
ISSN
1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.tics.2008.11.008
PMC
PMC2921844
OpenAlex
W2092889652
Cited by
247
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 25
FWCI
3.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC004674)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
Keywords
mirror neurons, speech perception, motor theory of speech perception, perception-action coupling, action observation, oral communication
MeSH terms
Animals, Humans, Imitative Behavior, Motor Activity, Motor Cortex, Neurons, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Speech Perception, Visual Perception

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review