Estimating feedforward versus feedback control of speech production through kinematic analyses of unperturbed articulatory movements

To estimate the contributions of feedforward vs. feedback control systems in speech articulation, we analyzed the correspondence between initial and final kinematics in unperturbed tongue and jaw movements for consonant-vowel (CV) and vowel-consonant (VC) syllables. If movement extents and endpoints are highly predictable from early kinematic information, then the movements were most likely completed without substantial online corrections (feedforward control); if the correspondence between early kinematics and final amplitude or position is low, online adjustments may have altered the planned trajectory (feedback control) (Messier and Kalaska, 1999). Five adult speakers produced consonant-vowel (CV) and vowel-consonant (VC) syllables with high, mid, or low vowels while movements of the tongue and jaw were tracked electromagnetically. The correspondence between the kinematic parameters peak acceleration or peak velocity and movement extent as well as between the articulators’ spatial coordinates at those kinematic landmarks and movement endpoint was examined both for movements across different target distances (i.e., across vowel height) and within target distances (i.e., within vowel height). Taken together, results suggest that jaw and tongue movements for these CV and VC syllables are mostly under feedforward control but with feedback-based contributions. One type of feedback-driven compensatory adjustment appears to regulate movement duration based on variation in peak acceleration. Results from a statistical model based on multiple regression are presented to illustrate how the relative strength of these feedback contributions can be estimated.