AUTHOR=Ghitza Oded 

TITLE=The theta-syllable: a unit of speech information defined by cortical function

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2013

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00138

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00138

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>A recent commentary (Oscillators and syllables: a cautionary note. Cummins, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B6">2012</xref>) questions the validity of a class of speech perception models inspired by the possible role of neuronal oscillations in decoding speech (e.g., Ghitza, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B9">2011</xref>; Giraud and Poeppel, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B12">2012</xref>). In arguing against the approach, Cummins raises a cautionary flag “from a phonetician's point of view.” Here we respond to his arguments from an auditory processing viewpoint, referring to a phenomenological model of Ghitza (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B9">2011</xref>) taken as a representative of the criticized approach. We shall conclude by proposing the theta-syllable as an information unit defined by cortical function—an alternative to the conventional, ambiguously defined syllable. In the large context, the resulting discussion debate should be viewed as a subtext of acoustic and auditory phonetics vs. articulatory and motor theories of speech reception.</p>