A feel for words
China Daily | Updated: 2008-09-17 07:52
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A hearing-impaired girl learns to speak under the guidance of a teacher at Lanzhou Deaf Children Training Center. Cao Zhizheng |
Scientists now believe intelligible speech is learned in part through nerve signals from the vocal tract, a discovery that could open up an ambitious avenue of therapy for the deaf.
Muscles and receptors in the mouth and throat retain a memory of their position and feeling when a word is uttered, and their signals provide key input for the brain as it hones the power of speech, researchers suggest.
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