The perception and production of Voice-Onset Time in aphasia

Abstract This study assessed aphasic and right brain-damaged non-aphasic patients' ability to label and discriminate a synthetic speech continuum differing in voice-onset time (VOT). We investigated these abilities in relation to type of aphasia and language comprehension facility, and explored the relation between perception and production of voice-onset time distinctions. Results of the perception tasks indicated that if a subject could not discriminate the stimuli, he could not reliably label them; however, a subject with a normal discrimination function might nonetheless be unable to label the stimuli reliably. These results were interpreted in relation to two levels of processing; one based upon the function of a set of property detectors, the other making use of these properties for linguistic processing. It is this latter level which seems to be selectively impaired in aphasia. Analysis of VOT production indicated that anterior aphasics have a deficit in the articulatory programming of speech sounds, whereas posterior patients have a deficit in selecting the appropriate phoneme. Finally, performance on the perception and production of VOT may be partially dissociated from language comprehension ability.

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