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Encyclopedia entry: speech
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to the Body
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to the Body 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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speech
involves voluntary initiation and involvement of a complex set of muscles around the
larynx
, throat, and
mouth
, together with interruption of the rhythm of
breathing
and utilization of the muscles of expiration. Like other patterns of voluntary movement, speech originates in the
cerebral cortex
. Several other parts of the brain (notably the
cerebellum
), together with sensory feedback, modify and regulate the outgoing nerve impulses to the
motor neurons
whose axons activate the relevant muscles. In this instance, the motor neurons concerned are in the brain stem, and their axons travel in the lowermost cranial nerves to the muscles of the vocal apparatus. Effective speech depends also ...