Open AccessWhy the Left Hemisphere Is Dominant for Speech Production: Connecting the Dots
Author(s) -
Harvey M. Sussman
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
biolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1450-3417
DOI - 10.5964/bioling.9035
Subject(s) - lateralization of brain function , speech production , psychology , babbling , syllable , categorization , neural substrate , phonology , cued speech , cognitive psychology , phonotactics , linguistics , computer science , cognition , speech recognition , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , philosophy
Evidence from seemingly disparate areas of speech/language research is reviewed to form a unified theoretical account for why the left hemisphere is specialized for speech production. Research findings from studies investigating hemispheric lateralization of infant babbling, the primacy of the syllable in phonological structure, rhyming performance in split-brain patients, rhyming ability and phonetic categorization in children diagnosed with developmental apraxia of speech, rules governing exchange errors in spoonerisms, organizational principles of neocortical control of learned motor behaviors, and multi-electrode recordings of human neuronal responses to speech sounds are described and common threads highlighted. It is suggested that the emergence, in developmental neurogenesis, of a hard-wired, syllabically-organized, neural substrate representing the phonemic sound elements of one’s language, particularly the vocalic nucleus, is the crucial factor underlying the left hemisphere’s dominance for speech production.