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Alan Wrench

@awrench.bsky.social
186 followers 39 following 50 posts

Developing instrumentation for imaging the tongue. Neuroanatomy and biomechanical models. Pulse-Step model of motor control. Natural sceptic.

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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Free access dataset of co-registered Ultrasound and EMA speech data. 200 sentences. Just requires free demo version of AAA software. articulateinstruments.com/ema-ultrasou...
articulateinstruments.com
EMA/ultrasound co-registered dataset -
EMA  co-registered EMA and Ultrasound dataset (Open access – no commercial licence for AAA required to analyse this dataset) This […]
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Reposted by Alan Wrench
Cell Press @cellpress.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
"The cerebellar components of the human language network" www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... @coltoncasto.bsky.social, Evelina Fedorenko & colleagues @cp-neuron.bsky.social
Casto et al. systematically examine language-res ponsive regions of the cerebellum with precision fMRI. They find one region that closely resembles the neocortical language network in its selectivity for language and response to linguistic manipulations. They also find three mixed-sele ctive regions that respond to language but also to non-linguistic inputs.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
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/
blab.wisc.edu
Join the lab
Brain, Language, & Acoustic Behavior Laboratory
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Joan Ma @drjoanma.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
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.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
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...
cell.com
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...
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Auditory-Visual Speech Association (AVISA) @avsp.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
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 ⏱️
nature.com
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.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
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.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Yup.
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Reposted by Alan Wrench
Thomas Hueber @thueber.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
🚨 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
tinyurl.com
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
x.com/i/status/195... Video of Prof Takayuki Arai with his vocal tract models at #Interspeech2025 Love this analogue demonstration.
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Jonathan A. Michaels @jonathanamichaels.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
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....
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
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
youtube.com
DeepCode
YouTube video by Zongwei Li
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Royal Society of Edinburgh workshop this September run by drjoanma.bsky.social from Queen Margaret University. rse.org.uk/event/swallo...
rse.org.uk
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.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
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.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
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...
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
"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...
biorxiv.org
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...
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Reposted by Alan Wrench
Psychological Sciences & Health | University of Strathclyde @strath-psh.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
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
link.springer.com
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...
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
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.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
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...
journals.physiology.org
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...
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
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
STEPP Lab for Sensorimotor Rehabilitation Engineering
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
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...
biorxiv.org
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...
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
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...
frontiersin.org
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
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
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.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
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.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
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.
Biomechanical tongue model demonstrating tongue protrusion with and without hyoid assist.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
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....
journals.physiology.org
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 ...
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Natural speech re-synthesis from direct cortical recordings using a pre-trained encoder-decoder framework
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Sleep apnoea device deployed clinically in UK. I presume it stimulates branches of hypoglossal nerve controlling posterior compartments of genioglossus muscle.https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/13/new-tongue-stimulating-implant-offers-hope-to-millions-with-sleep-apnoea-in-uk-first
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Reposted by Alan Wrench
Joanne Cleland @drjoannecleland.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
How do families with kids with #cleft feel about a pilot #RCT comparing #ultrasound and standard care? TLDR- they love the interventions, they don't mind the extra assessments or the randomisation...but travelling to the hospital is a major burden. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
A mixed‐methods pilot randomized control trial of ultrasound visual biofeedback versus standard intervention for children with cleft palate ± cleft lip: Parents’ and children's perspectives
Background Ultrasound visual biofeedback (UVBF) has the potential to be useful for the treatment of compensatory errors in speakers with cleft palate ± lip (CP±L), but there is little research on it.....
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Reposted by Alan Wrench
Claire Timmins @clairetimmins.bsky.social · 29/10/2024
Submissions now open for the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) conference 2025 -now open! logoth.upatras.gr/en/icpla2025/ #phonetics
logoth.upatras.gr
ICPLA2025 – Τμήμα Λογοθεραπείας
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 25/10/2024
Just published. Special issue: : Select Papers From the 8th International Conference on Speech Motor Control pubs.asha.org/toc/jslhr/67...
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 29/09/2024
Turned my recent paper into a podcast. Very American in style but very convincing. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x3tze...
dropbox.com
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 23/09/2024
Always worth virtually attending Boston Speech Motor Control Symposium (BSMCS), which next year will be held on June 12-13. sites.bu.edu/stepplab/upc...
sites.bu.edu
STEPP Lab for Sensorimotor Rehabilitation Engineering
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 11/09/2024
Not sure how reliable this review is. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1... It tables ultrasound sample rate as 10MHz and cost per session as £500 (it's actually less than £1 for consumables such as gel and wipes if you don't factor in the researcher's time).
iopscience.iop.org
Research in methodologies for modelling the oral cavity - IOPscience
Research in methodologies for modelling the oral cavity, Muhammad Suhaib Shahid, Andrew P French, Michel F Valstar, Gleb E Yakubov
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 21/08/2024
Tongues come in many shapes and sizes and yet we are still able to speak and swallow. A testament to the fine level of shape and positional control made possible by a correspondingly fine neuromuscular structure. www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/8/...
guinnessworldrecords.com
Texas woman’s tongue certified as world’s widest at almost 8 cm across
Brittany Lacayo's 7.9-cm tongue is wider than a hockey puck and almost as wide as a credit card.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 21/08/2024
Tongues come in many shapes and sizes and yet we are still able to speak and swallow. A testament to the fine level of shape and positional control made possible by a correspondingly fine neuromuscular structure. www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/8/...
guinnessworldrecords.com
Texas woman’s tongue certified as world’s widest at almost 8 cm across
Brittany Lacayo's 7.9-cm tongue is wider than a hockey puck and almost as wide as a credit card.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 10/07/2024
Just published, 'The compartmental Tongue' describes a more refined and functionally relevant lingual anatomy to teach to students. It is accompanied by 3D visual teaching aids. pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/20 sketchfab.com/ArticulateIn... github.com/articulatein...
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 04/10/2023
A brief history of neuromusculoskeletal biomechanics.
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Alan Wrench @awrench.bsky.social · 04/10/2023
A little re-post from a year ago to lead off in this place.
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