This book explores the processes of spoken language production and perception from a neurobiological perspective. After presenting the basics of speech processing and speech acquisition, a neurobiologically-inspired and computer-implemented neural model is described, which simulates the neural processes of speech processing and speech acquisition. This book is an introduction to the field and aimed at students and scientists in neuroscience, computer science, medicine, psychology and linguistics.

Bernd J. Kröger is a physicist (M.Sc.) and phonetician (Ph.D.). He wrote his doctoral thesis on the syntheses of female voice quality and his habilitation thesis on phonetic aspects of speech production at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Cologne. He has been a senior researcher and professor in the Medical Faculty of RWTH Aachen University since 2001. His major research topic is the development of a theory of speech processing and speech acquisition from a neurobiological perspective. Bernd J. Kröger has published over 100 papers in international journals and books. An important result of his work is, among other things, the development of a computer implemented neural model of speech processing and speech acquisition.

Trevor Bekolay is a computer scientist (M.Math) and theoretical neuroscientist (Ph.D.). He wrote his master's thesis on unsupervised and supervised learning in the Neural Engineering Framework, and his doctoral thesis on a neural model of speech recognition and synthesis. He is a co-founder of Applied Brain Research Inc., and has worked there as a senior research scientist since 2016. He is the lead developer of the Nengo neural simulator, which has been used in hundreds of published research projects.

Part A   Basics of linguistics and phonetics

2   Speech production

2.1 Words, syllables and speech sounds

2.2 Articulation

2.3 The acoustic speech signal

2.4 Disorders of speech production

Literature

3    Speech perception

                3.1 Processing stages

                3.2 Invariance and variability of the acoustic speech signal

                3.3 Interaction of speech production and speech perception

                3.4 Disorders of speech perception

                Literature

4    Speech acquisition

                4.1 Stages of speech acquisition

                4.2 Mechanisms of speech acquisition

                4.3 Disorders of speech acquisition

Literature

Part B   Basics of neurobiology and its computer simulation

5    Anatomical and functional structure of the nervous system

                5.1 The functional structure of the nervous system

                5.2 The brain

                5.3 The efferent nerves: sensory pathways

                5.4 The afferent nerves: motor pathways

                5.5 A preliminary model of language and speech processing

                Literature          

6    Neural modeling: the STAA-approach

                6.1 Nodes

                6.2 Connectionism

                6.3 Kohonen-Networks              

                Literature

7    Neural modeling: the NEF-approach

              ...