AUTHOR=Tian Xing , Poeppel David TITLE=Mental imagery of speech: linking motor and perceptual systems through internal simulation and estimation JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience VOLUME=6 YEAR=2012 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00314 DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2012.00314 ISSN=1662-5161 ABSTRACT=
The neural basis of mental imagery has been investigated by localizing the underlying neural networks, mostly in motor and perceptual systems, separately. However, how modality-specific representations are top-down induced and how the action and perception systems interact in the context of mental imagery is not well understood. Imagined speech production (“articulation imagery”), which induces the kinesthetic feeling of articulator movement and its auditory consequences, provides a new angle because of the concurrent involvement of motor and perceptual systems. On the basis of previous findings in mental imagery of speech, we argue for the following regarding the induction mechanisms of mental imagery and the interaction between motor and perceptual systems: (1) Two distinct top-down mechanisms,