About the Lab

The Speech Communication Laboratory is part of the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at the University of Florida. We are engaged in multidisciplinary research on the production and perception of speech by humans, especially adolescents with congenital auditory and motor deficits.

CRACKING THE SPEECH CODE

The UF Speech Communication Laboratory, led by Dr. Matthew Masapollo, utilizes a wide range of experimental techniques to investigate the nature and development of human speech production and perception. The primary goal of the lab is the development, testing, and refinement of a theoretical model addressing the complex relationships between speech motor control, speech perception, and phonological sensitivity. We apply this theoretical model to study neurodevelopmental disorders involving speech in collaborative projects with other labs. Browse our current research projects page for more information about our work.

By combining electromagnetic articulography and electroglottography, researchers can simultaneously record lip, tongue, jaw, and glottal motion during speech production without electromagnetic interference.

In Dr. Matthew Masapollo’s Speech Communication Laboratory, we study speech motor control in congenitally deaf children and adults using electromagnetic articulography (EMA) technology. Watch the video to see what it looks like when children and adults participate in our studies! Go Gators, Go Research!

Research areas

Timing, Sequencing, and Coordination of Speech Movements

How do talkers rapidly sequence and coordinate vocal tract movements to impart linguistic structure to the acoustic speech signal?

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Effects of Hearing Status on Speech Motor Control

How do children born with profound sensorineural hearing loss and who receive cochlear implants learn to produce articulate speech?

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Children’s Acquisition of Speech Motor Control

How do young children learn to precisely time and coordinate their own self-generated vocal tract movements to become a producer, as well as a perceiver, of speech?

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Recent news

Hearing Health Foundation reception

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The Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) hosted a cocktail reception at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, which was…

PHHP Research Day

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UF undergrads, Kayleigh Burge, Ana Rodriguez, and Abigail Lebedeker, presented results at the annual College of Public Health and Health Professions…