# Sensorimotor Basis of Speech Motor Learning and Retention

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $685,326

## Abstract

Project Summary / Abstract
This project will test a new model of speech motor learning, whose central hypothesis is that learning and
retention are associated with plasticity not only in motor areas of the brain but in auditory and
somatosensory regions as well. The associated experiments are motivated by the results of our preliminary
work and each tests the new model in different ways. In Aim 1 we test the causal involvement in the
retention of new learning of each of the main players in the model. If plasticity in any of auditory,
somatosensory or motor cortex is central to retention, then suppression of its activity following learning
using cTBS, should lead to an impairment. Aim 2 examines the temporal order in which neuronal changes
are observed during learning. If auditory or somatosensory plasticity play a determining role in speech
motor learning, changes in these areas should be detectable early and should also predict subsequent
learning. Aim 3 examines circuit-level contributions to speech learning and retention. If plasticity in sensory
as well as motor areas underlies learning or retention, it should be possible to identify sensory as well as
motor areas whose baseline functional connectivity patterns predict subsequent learning and whose
connectivity patterns following learning predict subsequent retention. Our preliminary work on each of the
three aims supports the idea that there is plasticity in each of the primary systems which participate in
speech motor learning (auditory, somatosensory, motor).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10978626
- **Project number:** 1R01DC022097-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID J OSTRY
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $685,326
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-01 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10978626

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10978626, Sensorimotor Basis of Speech Motor Learning and Retention (1R01DC022097-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10978626. Licensed CC0.

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