Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, asked hearing individuals with no formal lip-reading experience to watch a silent face articulate 80 simple words.

Those individuals were asked to identify the words by saying them out loud clearly and quickly.

To make the lip-reading task easier, the test subjects were given a choice of two possible words.

They were never asked to imitate or repeat the talker.

Researchers discovered that words spoken by the test subjects sounded more like the words of the talker they lip-read than words spoken when read from a list.

That finding provided compelling evidence that unintentional speech imitation extends to lip-reading, even for normal hearing individuals with no formal lip-reading experience.

"Whether we are hearing or lipreading speech articulations, a talker’s speaking style has subtle influences on our own manner of speaking," said Professor Lawrence D. Rosenblum of the University of California, Riverside.

"This unintentional imitation could serve as a social glue, helping us to affiliate and empathize with each other."

"But it also might reflect deep aspects of the language function."

"Specifically, it adds to evidence that the speech brain is sensitive to -- and primed by -- speech articulation, whether heard or seen."

"It also adds to the evidence that a familiar talker’s speaking style can help us recognise words."

Image credit: Bekah Healey / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0