Speech MRI: Morphology and function

•Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) plays an increasing role in the study of speech.•The article reviews the use of MRI of the anatomical imaging of the vocal tract.•Details of imaging techniques for acoustic modelling are provided.•Existing techniques to image the upper airways during speech are described.•Remaining hurdles in speech imaging and future research directions are discussed.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) plays an increasing role in the study of speech. This article reviews the MRI literature of anatomical imaging, imaging for acoustic modelling and dynamic imaging. It describes existing imaging techniques attempting to meet the challenges of imaging the upper airway during speech and examines the remaining hurdles and future research directions.