The neurobiology of speech perception and production—Can functional imaging tell us anything we did not already know?

Our understanding of the neurobiological basis for human speech production and perception has benefited from insights from psychology, neuropsychology and neurology. In this overview, I outline some of the ways that functional imaging has added to this knowledge and argue that, as a neuroanatomical tool, functional imaging has led to some significant contributions.Learning outcomes: (1) Readers will be able to explain the limitations of basing functional anatomical explanations solely on neurological cases. (2) Readers will be able to describe some of the anatomical areas involved in the perception of speech. (3) Readers will be able to describe some of the anatomical areas involved in the production of speech. (4) Readers will be able to explain ways that functional imaging can inform our understanding of human speech and language.