Neural Control of Speaking and Singing: The DIVA Model for Singing

Singing and speaking share similarities and have differences in their acoustic outputs, their requisite auditory-motor demands, and their underlying cognitive and neural substrates. As the neurological study of singing matures in the field of music neuroscience, it may be informative to borrow from existing literature and models from speech perception and production. This chapter defines a systems-level model of the neural control of singing, borrowing from work on the neurobiological bases of speech production and expanding on the Directions Into Velocities of Articulators (DIVA) model of speech. The DIVA model draws on control theory to model activity of each neuroanatomical region within the overall brain network that together controls speech production (Guenther, 2016). This model is appropriate for empirical comparisons between different conditions of speech, as well as for empirical comparisons between speech and other neural or cognitive functions. This chapter reviews the DIVA model for speech, including its theoretical foundations and empirical support, and addresses applications of the DIVA model towards singing: this involves considering auditory, somatosensory, and motor targets and maps, as they apply to the perception and production of pitch, timing, and timbre as interactive components of singing. This chapter then incorporates additional factors at work in song production, including the emotion and reward systems that interact with the song system, and conclude by considering how the reviewed research may inspire future work in developmental and therapeutic contexts.