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Speech science studies anatomy, neurology, and acoustics to improve speech for disabled speakers and understand how the brain processes speech. Speech therapists help those with nerve damage or genetic inheritance that affects speech. Audiology studies how the brain processes speech. Speech scientists also study the acoustics of speech, including the length and vibrational strength of sound waves.
The field of speech science involves a holistic focus on the studies of anatomy, neurology, and acoustics. While a particular focus is on finding ways to improve speech for disabled speakers, another larger area of study is how the brain processes the information people choose to say and how they process what others are saying. In 2011, the science of speech just discovered how the same parts of the brain are responsible for both speaking and hearing, except for the part that moves the mouth, lips and diaphragm to make words fly.
A major goal of any language science program is to impart an understanding of how the brain develops language and processes the speech of others. In manufacturing alone, it takes about 100 muscles in the face, throat and lungs to form words suitable for speech. This doesn’t even include the brain functions needed to tie all actions to the seemingly singular action of speaking.
This fairly simple process is the main concern of speech therapists around the world. Air is produced in the lungs and pushed up, forming a general phonic shape in the throat and larynx, then a more articulate shape through contractions of the muscles of the mouth and face. Slight inflections in these muscle groups produce the myriad sounds and tones necessary for the expression of language. If someone has suffered a stroke or was born with a speech impediment, some sounds may be difficult to produce due to nerve damage or genetic inheritance, meaning that some or many of the muscles needed for normal speech are paralysed.
Another major concern of speech science is how the brain processes speech, which is known as audiology. This also combines physical and mental processes. Speech in the form of sound waves enters the listener’s ear canal and bounces off the eardrum. The tonal and vibrational energy in each specific sound is then translated in the inner ear to become neural signals that the brain can process to convey meaning.
While much of the science of speech deals with debilitating physical processes and pathological conditions, other researchers are equally interested in the acoustics of speech. Speech scientists also study the nature of sound and how it moves between the mouth and ear in bundles of vibrating molecules. The length of each wave produced by a given syllable or word will vary, as will its vibrational strength, which is known as its amplitude.
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