
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.

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?

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?

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?

Recent news
Masapollo to give RSD seminar on speech motor…
DEI Article in Hearing Health Magazine
PI Masapollo recently wrote an article for the Winter 2023 issue of Hearing Health Magazine on DEI issues/initiatives in the UF Speech Communication…
EMA at USF
With generous support from the University of South Florida (USF), CSD researchers, Drs. Nathan Maxfield, Catherine Rogers, and David Eddins, recently…