Abstract: A major theoretical controversy in the field of speech perception is the opposition between the auditory theory and the motor theory, the focus of controversy is the role of motor representations in speech perception. The findings concerning neural mechanisms of speech perception, which are helpful for the settlement of theoretical controversy, were reviewed. The review found that the most significant and consistent activation loci lied in the posterior auditory cortex when human (even animals) perceived speech sounds, which consisted of the dorsal (Heschl’s gyrus and planum temporale) and lateral (superior temporal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus) superior temporal cortex. The motor cortex in anterior frontal lobe didn’t exhibit a consistent activation pattern, and the effects of motor representations on speech perception mainly derived from a top-down feedback mechanism in some special conditions, which seemed to be not necessary for normal speech perception.

Key words: speech perception, the auditory theory, the motor theory, neural mechanisms