Sachiko Kiyama1, Atsunobu Suzuki2, Shen-Hsing Annabel Chen3, and Toshiharu Nakai1
1National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Japan, 2Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, 3Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
The
present fMRI study explored neural changes in the Japanese elderly after four
weeks of
articulatory
training. We compared real and pseudo words (i.e., the difference in speech
plan), and hard
and
easy consonants to articulate (i.e., the difference in motor plan). Results
revealed that their training
of
pseudo words with easy consonants significantly reduced activity in various
regions including
language,
motor, visual, and cerebellar areas. This finding indicates the neuroplasticity
of the adaptive
articulation
learning ability in the elderly for newly-introduced speech sounds, especially
with easy consonants
which
do not require complex articulatory movements.
