Alan Wrench
@awrench.bsky.social
Developing instrumentation for imaging the tongue. Neuroanatomy and biomechanical models. Pulse-Step model of motor control. Natural sceptic.
The Speech Motor Neuroscience Group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison inviting applications for an NIH-funded postdoctoral research position in the field of speech motor control and speech motor neuroscience. Details found under the “postdoctoral researchers” tab blab.wisc.edu/join-the-lab/
Join the lab
Brain, Language, & Acoustic Behavior Laboratory
blab.wisc.edu
October 15, 2025 at 12:00 AM
The Speech Motor Neuroscience Group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison inviting applications for an NIH-funded postdoctoral research position in the field of speech motor control and speech motor neuroscience. Details found under the “postdoctoral researchers” tab blab.wisc.edu/join-the-lab/
Reposted by Alan Wrench
Attending many great talks at #ESSD2025 in Athens, and a great opportunity to present our work on using the compartmental tongue theory to reshape how we quantify tongue movement in swallowing.
October 10, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Attending many great talks at #ESSD2025 in Athens, and a great opportunity to present our work on using the compartmental tongue theory to reshape how we quantify tongue movement in swallowing.
Happy World Octopus Day. Here's a recent paper demonstrating octopuses have a sense of body ownership similar to mamals and rodents.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Rubber arm illusion in octopus
The feeling of a body as belonging to oneself is called the sense of body ownership
and the centerpiece of conscious experience. Kawashima and Ikeda investigated the
sense of body ownership in an octo...
www.cell.com
October 8, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Happy World Octopus Day. Here's a recent paper demonstrating octopuses have a sense of body ownership similar to mamals and rodents.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Alan Wrench
Temporal integration in human auditory cortex is predominantly yoked to absolute time www.nature.com/articles/s41... There's a difference between integrating across absolute time & structure (say) phonemes. Do cortical computations reflect time or structure? Results showed time-yoked computations ⏱️
Temporal integration in human auditory cortex is predominantly yoked to absolute time - Nature Neuroscience
Temporal integration throughout the human auditory cortex is predominantly locked to absolute time and does not vary with the duration of speech structures such as phonemes or words.
www.nature.com
September 19, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Temporal integration in human auditory cortex is predominantly yoked to absolute time www.nature.com/articles/s41... There's a difference between integrating across absolute time & structure (say) phonemes. Do cortical computations reflect time or structure? Results showed time-yoked computations ⏱️
Co-registered EMA and ultrasound. From top left: Ultrasound with tongue contour, Ultrasound keypoints, 3D head with EMA sensors, , Spectrogram, Glossogram showing vocal tract constrictions in red cavities in blue, waveform. Movie created by AAA app. Use settings to hear audio.
September 17, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Co-registered EMA and ultrasound. From top left: Ultrasound with tongue contour, Ultrasound keypoints, 3D head with EMA sensors, , Spectrogram, Glossogram showing vocal tract constrictions in red cavities in blue, waveform. Movie created by AAA app. Use settings to hear audio.
Reposted by Alan Wrench
🚨 Open PhD Position – Grenoble, France 🚨
Join us at GIPSA-lab to explore how Speech Language Models can learn like children: through physical and social interaction. Think AI, robots, development 🧠🤖🎙️
Fully funded (3 yrs) • @cnrs.fr / @ugrenoblealpes.bsky.social
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/bde988b3
Join us at GIPSA-lab to explore how Speech Language Models can learn like children: through physical and social interaction. Think AI, robots, development 🧠🤖🎙️
Fully funded (3 yrs) • @cnrs.fr / @ugrenoblealpes.bsky.social
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/bde988b3
tinyurl.com
September 1, 2025 at 11:48 AM
🚨 Open PhD Position – Grenoble, France 🚨
Join us at GIPSA-lab to explore how Speech Language Models can learn like children: through physical and social interaction. Think AI, robots, development 🧠🤖🎙️
Fully funded (3 yrs) • @cnrs.fr / @ugrenoblealpes.bsky.social
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/bde988b3
Join us at GIPSA-lab to explore how Speech Language Models can learn like children: through physical and social interaction. Think AI, robots, development 🧠🤖🎙️
Fully funded (3 yrs) • @cnrs.fr / @ugrenoblealpes.bsky.social
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/bde988b3
x.com/i/status/195...
Video of Prof Takayuki Arai with his vocal tract models at #Interspeech2025
Love this analogue demonstration.
Video of Prof Takayuki Arai with his vocal tract models at #Interspeech2025
Love this analogue demonstration.
August 22, 2025 at 9:56 AM
x.com/i/status/195...
Video of Prof Takayuki Arai with his vocal tract models at #Interspeech2025
Love this analogue demonstration.
Video of Prof Takayuki Arai with his vocal tract models at #Interspeech2025
Love this analogue demonstration.
Reposted by Alan Wrench
We're thrilled to introduce ATHENA: Automatically Tracking Hands Expertly with No Annotations – our open-source, Python-based toolbox for 3D markerless hand tracking!
Paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10....
Paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10....
August 16, 2025 at 12:49 AM
We're thrilled to introduce ATHENA: Automatically Tracking Hands Expertly with No Annotations – our open-source, Python-based toolbox for 3D markerless hand tracking!
Paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10....
Paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10....
Really? github.com/HKUDS/DeepCode
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRgm...
Paper2Code: Convert research papers into working implementations
Text2Web: Generate frontend applications from descriptions
Text2Backend: Create scalable backend systems automatically
Auto Code Validation: Guaranteed working code
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRgm...
Paper2Code: Convert research papers into working implementations
Text2Web: Generate frontend applications from descriptions
Text2Backend: Create scalable backend systems automatically
Auto Code Validation: Guaranteed working code
DeepCode
YouTube video by Zongwei Li
www.youtube.com
August 19, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Really? github.com/HKUDS/DeepCode
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRgm...
Paper2Code: Convert research papers into working implementations
Text2Web: Generate frontend applications from descriptions
Text2Backend: Create scalable backend systems automatically
Auto Code Validation: Guaranteed working code
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRgm...
Paper2Code: Convert research papers into working implementations
Text2Web: Generate frontend applications from descriptions
Text2Backend: Create scalable backend systems automatically
Auto Code Validation: Guaranteed working code
Royal Society of Edinburgh workshop this September run by drjoanma.bsky.social from Queen Margaret University.
rse.org.uk/event/swallo...
rse.org.uk/event/swallo...
Swallowing in a new light: how ultrasound could transform care
In this hands-on, interactive workshop, you'll explore how ultrasound is opening a new window into the science of swallowing.
rse.org.uk
August 15, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Royal Society of Edinburgh workshop this September run by drjoanma.bsky.social from Queen Margaret University.
rse.org.uk/event/swallo...
rse.org.uk/event/swallo...
The work coming out of the Person lab is a must-read for me. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
This new paper shows that cerebellar output neurons encode both predictive and corrective movements, mechanistically linking feedforward and feedback control.
This new paper shows that cerebellar output neurons encode both predictive and corrective movements, mechanistically linking feedforward and feedback control.
August 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
The work coming out of the Person lab is a must-read for me. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
This new paper shows that cerebellar output neurons encode both predictive and corrective movements, mechanistically linking feedforward and feedback control.
This new paper shows that cerebellar output neurons encode both predictive and corrective movements, mechanistically linking feedforward and feedback control.
Although I no longer subscribe to the Equilibrium Point Hypothesis as currently formulated, this proposal is intriguing.
Almanzor et al. (2025). Self-organising bio-inspired reflex circuits for robust motor coordination in artificial musculoskeletal systems.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Almanzor et al. (2025). Self-organising bio-inspired reflex circuits for robust motor coordination in artificial musculoskeletal systems.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
July 19, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Although I no longer subscribe to the Equilibrium Point Hypothesis as currently formulated, this proposal is intriguing.
Almanzor et al. (2025). Self-organising bio-inspired reflex circuits for robust motor coordination in artificial musculoskeletal systems.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Almanzor et al. (2025). Self-organising bio-inspired reflex circuits for robust motor coordination in artificial musculoskeletal systems.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
"we discovered a naturally occurring PC population suppression during mouse reaching movements that scaled with the velocity of outreach and occurred shortly before the transition to the decelerative phase of movement." www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Cerebellar associative learning underlies skilled reach adaptation
Cerebellar output has been shown to enhance movement precision by scaling the decelerative phase of reaching movements in mice. We hypothesized that during reach, initial kinematics cue late-phase adj...
www.biorxiv.org
July 13, 2025 at 3:11 PM
"we discovered a naturally occurring PC population suppression during mouse reaching movements that scaled with the velocity of outreach and occurred shortly before the transition to the decelerative phase of movement." www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Alan Wrench
A new article by @maria-cairney.bsky.social, @drjoannecleland.bsky.social and colleagues reporting promising results in a trial on using #ultrasound biofeedback #speechtherapy for children with #cleft palate ± lip.
#SLT #openaccess
tinyurl.com/3jnamh7e
#SLT #openaccess
tinyurl.com/3jnamh7e
Quantitative results of SonoSpeech Cleft Pilot: a mixed-methods pilot randomised control trial of ultrasound visual biofeedback versus standard intervention for children with cleft palate ± cleft lip ...
Background Despite its growing popularity, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of ultrasound visual biofeedback speech therapy for children with cleft palate ± cleft lip (CP ± L). This stud...
link.springer.com
May 29, 2025 at 9:11 AM
A new article by @maria-cairney.bsky.social, @drjoannecleland.bsky.social and colleagues reporting promising results in a trial on using #ultrasound biofeedback #speechtherapy for children with #cleft palate ± lip.
#SLT #openaccess
tinyurl.com/3jnamh7e
#SLT #openaccess
tinyurl.com/3jnamh7e
Glossogram with dark red indicating constriction and blue diagonal (tongue compartment contracted) demonstrating peristaltic transfer of water bolus from oral-pharyngeal. This is easiest to explain as sequential extension of neuromuscular compartments of the tongue.
May 27, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Glossogram with dark red indicating constriction and blue diagonal (tongue compartment contracted) demonstrating peristaltic transfer of water bolus from oral-pharyngeal. This is easiest to explain as sequential extension of neuromuscular compartments of the tongue.
Not sure what these 50Hz pulses are doing but would be interested to know if 37Hz pulses had a different effect. journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Theta-burst stimulation over primary somatosensory cortex modulates the tactile acuity of the tongue | Journal of Neurophysiology | American Physiological Society
Emerging studies in humans have established the modulatory effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over primary somatosensory cortex (S1) on somatosensory cortex activity and pe...
journals.physiology.org
April 16, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Not sure what these 50Hz pulses are doing but would be interested to know if 37Hz pulses had a different effect. journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Boston Speech Motor Control Symposium (BSMCS) June 12-13. Hybrid conference with in-person and virtual presentations. Abstract submission deadline very soon (28th March).
sites.bu.edu/stepplab/upc...
sites.bu.edu/stepplab/upc...
STEPP Lab for Sensorimotor Rehabilitation Engineering
sites.bu.edu
March 12, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Boston Speech Motor Control Symposium (BSMCS) June 12-13. Hybrid conference with in-person and virtual presentations. Abstract submission deadline very soon (28th March).
sites.bu.edu/stepplab/upc...
sites.bu.edu/stepplab/upc...
Using two GoPro cameras, videos were recorded with 5.3K resolution (5312 x 2988) at 60 Hz resulting in estimated lip distance measures accurate to RMSE of 0.3mm. Caution though, that RMSE scores sometimes hide failures to track rarer information carrying movements.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
3D markerless tracking of speech movements with submillimeter accuracy
Speech movements are highly complex and require precise tuning of both spatial and timing of oral articulators to support intelligible communication. These properties also make measurement of speech m...
www.biorxiv.org
March 11, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Using two GoPro cameras, videos were recorded with 5.3K resolution (5312 x 2988) at 60 Hz resulting in estimated lip distance measures accurate to RMSE of 0.3mm. Caution though, that RMSE scores sometimes hide failures to track rarer information carrying movements.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Superior auricular muscle exhibits increased activity during effortful listening, suggesting that ear wiggling muscles are engaged not only reflexively but potentially as part of an attentional effort mechanism, especially in challenging auditory environments.
www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/01...
www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/01...
Ear muscle we thought humans didn’t use — except for wiggling our ears — actually activates when people listen hard
The auricular muscles, which helped our distant ancestors move their ears to improve hearing quality, activated when people were trying to listen to competing s
www.frontiersin.org
January 31, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Superior auricular muscle exhibits increased activity during effortful listening, suggesting that ear wiggling muscles are engaged not only reflexively but potentially as part of an attentional effort mechanism, especially in challenging auditory environments.
www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/01...
www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/01...
How did I not know this? All avian tongues have a bony cartilaginous structure. A hyoid linkage consisting of articulated paraglossal, basihyal, urohyal, ceratobranchial and epibranchial. Johnston, N. E. (2014). The avian tongue. Golden Gate Audubon Society, San Francisco, CA, Access Oct, 15, 2016.
January 22, 2025 at 3:12 PM
How did I not know this? All avian tongues have a bony cartilaginous structure. A hyoid linkage consisting of articulated paraglossal, basihyal, urohyal, ceratobranchial and epibranchial. Johnston, N. E. (2014). The avian tongue. Golden Gate Audubon Society, San Francisco, CA, Access Oct, 15, 2016.
Ito et al (2025) A collicular map for touch-guided tongue control. Nature, 1-9. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
They observe that lick aiming by mice does not require activity in tongue sensory, premotor and motor cortices, but instead is dependent on a lateral region of the superior colliculus.
They observe that lick aiming by mice does not require activity in tongue sensory, premotor and motor cortices, but instead is dependent on a lateral region of the superior colliculus.
January 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Ito et al (2025) A collicular map for touch-guided tongue control. Nature, 1-9. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
They observe that lick aiming by mice does not require activity in tongue sensory, premotor and motor cortices, but instead is dependent on a lateral region of the superior colliculus.
They observe that lick aiming by mice does not require activity in tongue sensory, premotor and motor cortices, but instead is dependent on a lateral region of the superior colliculus.
Inoue et al "A kinematically reasonable mechanism of tongue forward protrusion considering hyoid bone movements."
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Rightly points out that the role of the hyoid in speech is underinvestigated but the model and method used here is flawed and many questions remain.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Rightly points out that the role of the hyoid in speech is underinvestigated but the model and method used here is flawed and many questions remain.
January 4, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Inoue et al "A kinematically reasonable mechanism of tongue forward protrusion considering hyoid bone movements."
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Rightly points out that the role of the hyoid in speech is underinvestigated but the model and method used here is flawed and many questions remain.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Rightly points out that the role of the hyoid in speech is underinvestigated but the model and method used here is flawed and many questions remain.
The authors interpret activity of individual neurons in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of the basal ganglia as encoding syllable sequence order( as well as phoneme identity) during a speech production task. journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10....
Subthalamic nucleus neurons encode syllable sequence and phonetic characteristics during speech | Journal of Neurophysiology
Speech is a complex behavior that can be used to study unique contributions of the basal ganglia to motor control in the human brain. Computational models suggest that the basal ganglia encode either ...
journals.physiology.org
January 4, 2025 at 11:21 AM
The authors interpret activity of individual neurons in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of the basal ganglia as encoding syllable sequence order( as well as phoneme identity) during a speech production task. journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10....
December 29, 2024 at 11:12 AM