Recognizing speech in a novel accent: the motor theory of speech perception reframed

DOI10.1007/S00422-013-0557-3zbMATH Open1294.92011DBLPjournals/bc/Moulin-FrierA13arXiv1309.5319OpenAlexW1972513933WikidataQ86931199 ScholiaQ86931199MaRDI QIDQ402335FDOQ402335

Authors: Clément Moulin-Frier, Michael A. Arbib 

Publication date: 28 August 2014

Published in: Biological Cybernetics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The motor theory of speech perception holds that we perceive the speech of another in terms of a motor representation of that speech. However, when we have learned to recognize a foreign accent, it seems plausible that recognition of a word rarely involves reconstruction of the speech gestures of the speaker rather than the listener. To better assess the motor theory and this observation, we proceed in three stages. Part 1 places the motor theory of speech perception in a larger framework based on our earlier models of the adaptive formation of mirror neurons for grasping, and for viewing extensions of that mirror system as part of a larger system for neuro-linguistic processing, augmented by the present consideration of recognizing speech in a novel accent. Part 2 then offers a novel computational model of how a listener comes to understand the speech of someone speaking the listener's native language with a foreign accent. The core tenet of the model is that the listener uses hypotheses about the word the speaker is currently uttering to update probabilities linking the sound produced by the speaker to phonemes in the native language repertoire of the listener. This, on average, improves the recognition of later words. This model is neutral regarding the nature of the representations it uses (motor vs. auditory). It serve as a reference point for the discussion in Part 3, which proposes a dual-stream neuro-linguistic architecture to revisits claims for and against the motor theory of speech perception and the relevance of mirror neurons, and extracts some implications for the reframing of the motor theory.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1309.5319

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zbMATH Keywords

hidden Markov modelscomputational modelingforeign accentmirror neuronsmotor theory of speech perceptionneurolinguisticsspeech recognition

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Pattern recognition, speech recognition (68T10) Neural biology (92C20) Linguistics (91F20)

Cites Work

• Error bounds for convolutional codes and an asymptotically optimum decoding algorithm
• Probability Theory
• Schema design and implementation of the grasp-related mirror neuron system
• The Application of Hidden Markov Models in Speech Recognition
• Extending the mirror neuron system model. II: What did I just do? A new role for mirror neurons
• Towards multilingual interoperability in automatic speech recognition
• Decoding for channels with insertions, deletions, and substitutions with applications to speech recognition
• Extending the mirror neuron system model. I: Audible actions and invisible grasps

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