Activation–verification in continuous speech processing: Interaction of cognitive strategies as a possible theoretical approach

This article presents an activation–verification approach to the problem of continuous speech processing in the brain. The presented model consists of two streams of processing: sequential and parallel. The sequential stream is strictly modular; the parallel stream is highly interactive and creates predictive coding variants based on initially missing linguistic information. The parallel stream predictions are incrementally verified, accepted, or rejected on the basis of the actual linguistic information perceived by the sequential stream. In this model, the brain's continuous speech processing, regarded as a whole, remains uninterrupted due to the functioning of the parallel stream. We discuss the possible application of the model to the problem of hemispheric asymmetry as reflected by studies of brain lesions and functional neuroimaging.