This article presents a theoretical perspective on stuttering based on numerous findings regarding speech and nonspeech neuromotor control in individuals who stutter in combination with recent empirical data and theoretical models from the literature on the neuroscience of motor control. Specifically, this perspective on stuttering relies heavily on recent work regarding feedforward and feedback control schemes; the formation, consolidation, and updating of inverse and forward internal models of the motor systems; and cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar activation patterns during speech and nonspeech motor tasks. Against this background, we propose that stuttering may result when producing speech (a) with unstable or insufficiently activated internal models or (b) with a motor E

The functional sensorimotor nature of speech production has been demonstrated in studies examining speech adaptation to auditory and/or somatosensory feedback manipulations. These studies have focused primarily on flexible motor processes to explain their findings, without considering modifications to sensory representations resulting from the adaptation process. The present study explores whether the perceptual representation of the /s-b/ contrast may be adjusted following the alteration of auditory feedback during the production of /s/-initial words. Consistent with prior studies of speech adaptation, talkers exposed to the feedback manipulation were found to adapt their motor plans for /s/-production in order to compensate for the effects of the sensory perturbation. In addition, a shift in the /s-b/ category boundary was observed that reduced the functional impact of the auditory feedback manipulation by increasing the perceptual "distance" between the category boundary and subjects' altered /s/-stimuli-a pattern of perceptual adaptation that was not observed in two separate control groups. These results suggest that speech adaptation to altered auditory feedback is not limited to the motor domain, but rather involves changes in both motor output and auditory representations of speech sounds that together act to reduce the impact of the perturbation.

Consistent with a functional role of the motor system in speech perception, disturbing the activity of the left ventral premotor cortex by means of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been shown to impair auditory identification of syllables that were masked with white noise. However, whether this region is crucial for speech perception under normal listening conditions remains debated. To directly test this hypothesis, we applied rTMS to the left ventral premotor cortex and participants performed auditory speech tasks involving the same set of syllables but differing in the use of phonemic segmentation processes. Compared to sham stimulation, rTMS applied over the ventral premotor cortex resulted in slower phoneme discrimination requiring phonemic segmentation. No effect was observed in phoneme identification and syllable discrimination tasks that could be performed without need for phonemic segmentation. The findings demonstrate a mediating role of the ventral premotor cortex in speech segmentation under normal listening conditions and are interpreted in relation to theories assuming a link between perception and action in the human speech processing system.