Study title

This collection contains behavioural and brain activation data from 3 laboratory studies of speech imitation. Each of the three studies involved behavioural and imaging (MRI) test sessions in which participants were familiarised with novel auditory speech targets, and were asked to imitate them as closely as possible. Across the three studies, there were variations in the type of sounds imitated, and in the participant populations tested. The behavioural data in this collection contain measures of speech imitation performance, for different sound categories and at during different stages of the test session. These are expressed using selected acoustic properties of speech recordings, and based on the anatomical configurations of the vocal tract as measured with MRI. Neuroimaging data show the locations of brain activity and speech-related representations as statistical maps in normalised 3D brain space, related to the stages of speech imitation and the type of sound imitated. In addition to the three experimental studies, a database of videos depicts the dynamics of the vocal tract and the sounds of speech during the production of English sentences and syllables from 55 speakers. We are genetically programmed to acquire spoken language from our environment, and infants can master native pronunciation in multiple languages without explicit tuition. However, in adolescence and adulthood we have a limited capacity to achieve accurate pronunciation of unfamiliar languages, and even highly competent users of a language learned in adulthood might speak with a strong, non-native accent. The UK currently lies behind other EU nations in foreign language skills at school and in the workplace, therefore research into skill development has important educational and economic implications. Previous research has used functional MRI to measure how the activity of functional systems in the brain changes as new speech sounds are learned. This work has described the integration...