Pre-surgery brain recordings unveil speech planning process: Study

New York: A new study in people undergoing surgery to treat seizures related to epilepsy shows that pauses in speech reveal information about how people's brains plan and produce speech.

Analysing brain recordings of 16 patients, researchers found that pauses between electrical stimulation and speech cessation varied across brain regions.

Longer delays, up to 1.0 second, occurred in areas like the motor cortex and inferior frontal gyrus, indicating involvement in speech planning.

Shorter delays, around 0.5 seconds, were observed in other motor cortex regions, suggesting a role in speech production mechanics.

The study highlighted the significance of understanding speech planning beyond vocalization or articulation.

Senior investigator Adeen Flinker emphasized the importance of timing in mapping brain functions related to speech. The study confirms the separation of speech planning and execution regions in the brain. The findings could refine brain mapping for surgery to protect speech functions.

Future research aims to explore latency patterns in other brain areas and investigate real-time speech feedback mechanisms.