Learning to talk affects how we hear

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've determined the act of learning to talk also changes the way speech sounds are heard.

The researchers at Haskins Laboratories, a Yale University-affiliated research laboratory, said their finding could have a major impact on improving speech disorders.

"We've found that learning is a two-way street; motor function affects sensory processing and vice-versa," said David Ostry, a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories and a professor of psychology at McGill University. "Our results suggest that learning to talk makes it easier to understand the speech of others."

Ostry said as a child learns to talk, or an adult learns a new language, a growing mastery of oral fluency is matched by an increase in the ability to distinguish different speech sounds. While these abilities may develop in isolation, Ostry said it's possible learning to talk also changes the way we hear speech sounds.

His team previously found the movement of facial muscles around the mouth plays an important role not only in the way the sounds of speech are made, but also in the way they are heard.

Ostry and study co-author Sazzad Nasir report their research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.