Very little work has been done on functional imaging of the cranial nerve nuclei in the brainstem in the context of motor control. This study is a preliminary step in understanding the functional organization and involvement of the brainstem during speech motor control. We aim to identify the impact of using contrastive sustained phonation tasks in isolating activation patterns. We provide preliminary observations of activation patterns in the cranial nerve nuclei. In the study 4 participants performed sustained phonation of [a] and [i] for 15 seconds, repeated over 12 trials. Phonation of [a] resulted in greater activation in the upper pons, in the vicinity of the trigeminal nucleus, compared to [i]. Phonation of [i] elicited activation more anterior and inferior, consistent with expected locations of the facial nucleus. Both phonemes resulted in activation in the medulla, consistent with the expected location of the hypoglossal nucleus.