Objectives and Relevance to Program Objectives: This recommended award would support costs for Professor James F. Lubker, and one of his graduate students, both from the University of Vermont, to collaborate with Professor Bjorn E. F. Lindblom, University of Stockholm, Sweden. They will research questions on how the central nervous system controls speech production. They will try to specify the goals of the central nervous system in speech and how the goals might be explained. The motor control of speech articulators represents a high-level and uniquely human form of fine motor control. Their studies will seek to determine whether speech motoric goals are differentiated from other non-reflexive motor goals, and to relate speech motor control to general motor control theory. The proposed research has important consequences for understanding language theory and the development of language. Professors Lubker and Lindblom have productively worked together for several years. Professor Lubker helped set up the laboratory he will visit in Sweden. Professor Lindblom has been a frequent visitor in Dr. Lubker's Laboratory in Vermont. The project thus contributes to an important objective of NSF's cooperative science programs with Western Europe, which is to stimulate scientific progress by bringing together scientists from the U.S. and Europe who have similar research interests and who wish to engage in mutually beneficial research cooperation. Merit of Proposal: The cooperating U.S. and foreign investigators are respected for their research accomplishments, and there is a very good prospect that this proposed research will lead to a significant contribution to scientific knowledge. The cooperation presents the U.S. Professor with an opportunity to work with one of the world's leading research groups in the field and to use highly specialized facilities abroad that are complementary to his own. The work plan has been carefully prepared, and the budget is reasonable. Both research groups will contribute to the project and will benefit significantly from the cooperation. Funding: This award will not duplicate other funding. The University of Vermont and various organizations in Sweden have funded Professor Lubker's research in Sweden in the recent past.
