Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Listeners display extremely short latencies when asked to reproduce (shadow), a random series of vowel-vowel sequences. The latency of the shadowing response is as fast or faster than that obtained when the same subjects are asked simply to produce a predetermined vowel-vowel gesture as rapidly as possible. The speed of the shadowing response suggests a fast and direct linkage of the speech-analysis and speech-production mechanisms.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Porter et al. (1980) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: