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Sample records for letter-speech sound processing

  1. Deficits in Letter-Speech Sound Associations but Intact Visual Conflict Processing in Dyslexia: Results from a Novel ERP-Paradigm

    OpenAIRE

    Bakos, Sarolta; Landerl, Karin; Bartling, Jürgen; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina

    2017-01-01

    The reading and spelling deficits characteristic of developmental dyslexia (dyslexia) have been related to problems in phonological processing and in learning associations between letters and speech-sounds. Even when children with dyslexia have learned the letters and their corresponding speech sounds, letter-speech sound associations might still be less automatized compared to children with age-adequate literacy skills. In order to examine automaticity in letter-speech sound associations and...

  2. Crossmodal deficit in dyslexic children: practice affects the neural timing of letter-speech sound integration

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    Gojko eŽarić

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available A failure to build solid letter-speech sound associations may contribute to reading impairments in developmental dyslexia. Whether this reduced neural integration of letters and speech sounds changes over time within individual children and how this relates to behavioral gains in reading skills remains unknown. In this research, we examined changes in event-related potential (ERP measures of letter-speech sound integration over a 6-month period during which 9-year-old dyslexic readers (n=17 followed a training in letter-speech sound coupling next to their regular reading curriculum. We presented the Dutch spoken vowels /a/ and /o/ as standard and deviant stimuli in one auditory and two audiovisual oddball conditions. In one audiovisual condition (AV0, the letter ‘a’ was presented simultaneously with the vowels, while in the other (AV200 it was preceding vowel onset for 200 ms. Prior to the training (T1, dyslexic readers showed the expected pattern of typical auditory mismatch responses, together with the absence of letter-speech sound effects in a late negativity (LN window. After the training (T2, our results showed earlier (and enhanced crossmodal effects in the LN window. Most interestingly, earlier LN latency at T2 was significantly related to higher behavioral accuracy in letter-speech sound coupling. On a more general level, the timing of the earlier mismatch negativity (MMN in the simultaneous condition (AV0 measured at T1, significantly related to reading fluency at both T1 and T2 as well as with reading gains. Our findings suggest that the reduced neural integration of letters and speech sounds in dyslexic children may show moderate improvement with reading instruction and training and that behavioral improvements relate especially to individual differences in the timing of this neural integration.

  3. A randomized controlled trial on the beneficial effects of training letter-speech sound integration on reading fluency in children with dyslexia

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fraga González, G.; Žarić, G.; Tijms, J.; Bonte, M.; Blomert, L.; van der Molen, M.W.

    2015-01-01

    A recent account of dyslexia assumes that a failure to develop automated letter-speech sound integration might be responsible for the observed lack of reading fluency. This study uses a pre-test-training-post-test design to evaluate the effects of a training program based on letter-speech sound

  4. Speech endpoint detection with non-language speech sounds for generic speech processing applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    McClain, Matthew; Romanowski, Brian

    2009-05-01

    Non-language speech sounds (NLSS) are sounds produced by humans that do not carry linguistic information. Examples of these sounds are coughs, clicks, breaths, and filled pauses such as "uh" and "um" in English. NLSS are prominent in conversational speech, but can be a significant source of errors in speech processing applications. Traditionally, these sounds are ignored by speech endpoint detection algorithms, where speech regions are identified in the audio signal prior to processing. The ability to filter NLSS as a pre-processing step can significantly enhance the performance of many speech processing applications, such as speaker identification, language identification, and automatic speech recognition. In order to be used in all such applications, NLSS detection must be performed without the use of language models that provide knowledge of the phonology and lexical structure of speech. This is especially relevant to situations where the languages used in the audio are not known apriori. We present the results of preliminary experiments using data from American and British English speakers, in which segments of audio are classified as language speech sounds (LSS) or NLSS using a set of acoustic features designed for language-agnostic NLSS detection and a hidden-Markov model (HMM) to model speech generation. The results of these experiments indicate that the features and model used are capable of detection certain types of NLSS, such as breaths and clicks, while detection of other types of NLSS such as filled pauses will require future research.

  5. A Randomized Controlled Trial on The Beneficial Effects of Training Letter-Speech Sound Integration on Reading Fluency in Children with Dyslexia.

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    Gorka Fraga González

    Full Text Available A recent account of dyslexia assumes that a failure to develop automated letter-speech sound integration might be responsible for the observed lack of reading fluency. This study uses a pre-test-training-post-test design to evaluate the effects of a training program based on letter-speech sound associations with a special focus on gains in reading fluency. A sample of 44 children with dyslexia and 23 typical readers, aged 8 to 9, was recruited. Children with dyslexia were randomly allocated to either the training program group (n = 23 or a waiting-list control group (n = 21. The training intensively focused on letter-speech sound mapping and consisted of 34 individual sessions of 45 minutes over a five month period. The children with dyslexia showed substantial reading gains for the main word reading and spelling measures after training, improving at a faster rate than typical readers and waiting-list controls. The results are interpreted within the conceptual framework assuming a multisensory integration deficit as the most proximal cause of dysfluent reading in dyslexia.ISRCTN register ISRCTN12783279.

  6. Reduced neural integration of letters and speech sounds in dyslexic children scales with individual differences in reading fluency.

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    Gojko Žarić

    Full Text Available The acquisition of letter-speech sound associations is one of the basic requirements for fluent reading acquisition and its failure may contribute to reading difficulties in developmental dyslexia. Here we investigated event-related potential (ERP measures of letter-speech sound integration in 9-year-old typical and dyslexic readers and specifically test their relation to individual differences in reading fluency. We employed an audiovisual oddball paradigm in typical readers (n = 20, dysfluent (n = 18 and severely dysfluent (n = 18 dyslexic children. In one auditory and two audiovisual conditions the Dutch spoken vowels/a/and/o/were presented as standard and deviant stimuli. In audiovisual blocks, the letter 'a' was presented either simultaneously (AV0, or 200 ms before (AV200 vowel sound onset. Across the three children groups, vowel deviancy in auditory blocks elicited comparable mismatch negativity (MMN and late negativity (LN responses. In typical readers, both audiovisual conditions (AV0 and AV200 led to enhanced MMN and LN amplitudes. In both dyslexic groups, the audiovisual LN effects were mildly reduced. Most interestingly, individual differences in reading fluency were correlated with MMN latency in the AV0 condition. A further analysis revealed that this effect was driven by a short-lived MMN effect encompassing only the N1 window in severely dysfluent dyslexics versus a longer MMN effect encompassing both the N1 and P2 windows in the other two groups. Our results confirm and extend previous findings in dyslexic children by demonstrating a deficient pattern of letter-speech sound integration depending on the level of reading dysfluency. These findings underscore the importance of considering individual differences across the entire spectrum of reading skills in addition to group differences between typical and dyslexic readers.

  7. Letter-sound processing deficits in children with developmental dyslexia: An ERP study.

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    Moll, Kristina; Hasko, Sandra; Groth, Katharina; Bartling, Jürgen; Schulte-Körne, Gerd

    2016-04-01

    The time course during letter-sound processing was investigated in children with developmental dyslexia (DD) and typically developing (TD) children using electroencephalography. Thirty-eight children with DD and 25 TD children participated in a visual-auditory oddball paradigm. Event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by standard and deviant stimuli in an early (100-190 ms) and late (560-750 ms) time window were analysed. In the early time window, ERPs elicited by the deviant stimulus were delayed and less left lateralized over fronto-temporal electrodes for children with DD compared to TD children. In the late time window, children with DD showed higher amplitudes extending more over right frontal electrodes. Longer latencies in the early time window and stronger right hemispheric activation in the late time window were associated with slower reading and naming speed. Additionally, stronger right hemispheric activation in the late time window correlated with poorer phonological awareness skills. Deficits in early stages of letter-sound processing influence later more explicit cognitive processes during letter-sound processing. Identifying the neurophysiological correlates of letter-sound processing and their relation to reading related skills provides insight into the degree of automaticity during letter-sound processing beyond behavioural measures of letter-sound-knowledge. Copyright © 2016 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Letter-Sound Reading: Teaching Preschool Children Print-to-Sound Processing

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    Wolf, Gail Marie

    2016-01-01

    This intervention study investigated the growth of letter sound reading and growth of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word decoding abilities for a representative sample of 41 US children in preschool settings. Specifically, the study evaluated the effectiveness of a 3-step letter-sound teaching intervention in teaching preschool children to…

  9. Letter-Sound Knowledge: Exploring Gender Differences in Children When They Start School Regarding Knowledge of Large Letters, Small Letters, Sound Large Letters, and Sound Small Letters

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    Hermundur Sigmundsson

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This study explored whether there is a gender difference in letter-sound knowledge when children start at school. 485 children aged 5–6 years completed assessment of letter-sound knowledge, i.e., large letters; sound of large letters; small letters; sound of small letters. The findings indicate a significant difference between girls and boys in all four factors tested in this study in favor of the girls. There are still no clear explanations to the basis of a presumed gender difference in letter-sound knowledge. That the findings have origin in neuro-biological factors cannot be excluded, however, the fact that girls probably have been exposed to more language experience/stimulation compared to boys, lends support to explanations derived from environmental aspects.

  10. The influence of (central) auditory processing disorder in speech sound disorders.

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    Barrozo, Tatiane Faria; Pagan-Neves, Luciana de Oliveira; Vilela, Nadia; Carvallo, Renata Mota Mamede; Wertzner, Haydée Fiszbein

    2016-01-01

    Considering the importance of auditory information for the acquisition and organization of phonological rules, the assessment of (central) auditory processing contributes to both the diagnosis and targeting of speech therapy in children with speech sound disorders. To study phonological measures and (central) auditory processing of children with speech sound disorder. Clinical and experimental study, with 21 subjects with speech sound disorder aged between 7.0 and 9.11 years, divided into two groups according to their (central) auditory processing disorder. The assessment comprised tests of phonology, speech inconsistency, and metalinguistic abilities. The group with (central) auditory processing disorder demonstrated greater severity of speech sound disorder. The cutoff value obtained for the process density index was the one that best characterized the occurrence of phonological processes for children above 7 years of age. The comparison among the tests evaluated between the two groups showed differences in some phonological and metalinguistic abilities. Children with an index value above 0.54 demonstrated strong tendencies towards presenting a (central) auditory processing disorder, and this measure was effective to indicate the need for evaluation in children with speech sound disorder. Copyright © 2015 Associação Brasileira de Otorrinolaringologia e Cirurgia Cérvico-Facial. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

  11. Contributions of Letter-Speech Sound Learning and Visual Print Tuning to Reading Improvement: Evidence from Brain Potential and Dyslexia Training Studies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fraga González, G.; Žarić, G.; Tijms, J.; Bonte, M.; van der Molen, M.W.

    We use a neurocognitive perspective to discuss the contribution of learning letter-speech sound (L-SS) associations and visual specialization in the initial phases of reading in dyslexic children. We review findings from associative learning studies on related cognitive skills important for

  12. Children with dyslexia show a reduced processing benefit from bimodal speech information compared to their typically developing peers.

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    Schaadt, Gesa; van der Meer, Elke; Pannekamp, Ann; Oberecker, Regine; Männel, Claudia

    2018-01-17

    During information processing, individuals benefit from bimodally presented input, as has been demonstrated for speech perception (i.e., printed letters and speech sounds) or the perception of emotional expressions (i.e., facial expression and voice tuning). While typically developing individuals show this bimodal benefit, school children with dyslexia do not. Currently, it is unknown whether the bimodal processing deficit in dyslexia also occurs for visual-auditory speech processing that is independent of reading and spelling acquisition (i.e., no letter-sound knowledge is required). Here, we tested school children with and without spelling problems on their bimodal perception of video-recorded mouth movements pronouncing syllables. We analyzed the event-related potential Mismatch Response (MMR) to visual-auditory speech information and compared this response to the MMR to monomodal speech information (i.e., auditory-only, visual-only). We found a reduced MMR with later onset to visual-auditory speech information in children with spelling problems compared to children without spelling problems. Moreover, when comparing bimodal and monomodal speech perception, we found that children without spelling problems showed significantly larger responses in the visual-auditory experiment compared to the visual-only response, whereas children with spelling problems did not. Our results suggest that children with dyslexia exhibit general difficulties in bimodal speech perception independently of letter-speech sound knowledge, as apparent in altered bimodal speech perception and lacking benefit from bimodal information. This general deficit in children with dyslexia may underlie the previously reported reduced bimodal benefit for letter-speech sound combinations and similar findings in emotion perception. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Letter-speech sound learning in children with dyslexia : From behavioral research to clinical practice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aravena, S.

    2017-01-01

    In alphabetic languages, learning to associate speech-sounds with unfamiliar characters is a critical step in becoming a proficient reader. This dissertation aimed at expanding our knowledge of this learning process and its relation to dyslexia, with an emphasis on bridging the gap between

  14. Transfer Effect of Speech-sound Learning on Auditory-motor Processing of Perceived Vocal Pitch Errors.

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    Chen, Zhaocong; Wong, Francis C K; Jones, Jeffery A; Li, Weifeng; Liu, Peng; Chen, Xi; Liu, Hanjun

    2015-08-17

    Speech perception and production are intimately linked. There is evidence that speech motor learning results in changes to auditory processing of speech. Whether speech motor control benefits from perceptual learning in speech, however, remains unclear. This event-related potential study investigated whether speech-sound learning can modulate the processing of feedback errors during vocal pitch regulation. Mandarin speakers were trained to perceive five Thai lexical tones while learning to associate pictures with spoken words over 5 days. Before and after training, participants produced sustained vowel sounds while they heard their vocal pitch feedback unexpectedly perturbed. As compared to the pre-training session, the magnitude of vocal compensation significantly decreased for the control group, but remained consistent for the trained group at the post-training session. However, the trained group had smaller and faster N1 responses to pitch perturbations and exhibited enhanced P2 responses that correlated significantly with their learning performance. These findings indicate that the cortical processing of vocal pitch regulation can be shaped by learning new speech-sound associations, suggesting that perceptual learning in speech can produce transfer effects to facilitating the neural mechanisms underlying the online monitoring of auditory feedback regarding vocal production.

  15. The role of high-level processes for oscillatory phase entrainment to speech sound

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    Benedikt eZoefel

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Constantly bombarded with input, the brain has the need to filter out relevant information while ignoring the irrelevant rest. A powerful tool may be represented by neural oscillations which entrain their high-excitability phase to important input while their low-excitability phase attenuates irrelevant information. Indeed, the alignment between brain oscillations and speech improves intelligibility and helps dissociating speakers during a cocktail party. Although well-investigated, the contribution of low- and high-level processes to phase entrainment to speech sound has only recently begun to be understood. Here, we review those findings, and concentrate on three main results: (1 Phase entrainment to speech sound is modulated by attention or predictions, likely supported by top-down signals and indicating higher-level processes involved in the brain’s adjustment to speech. (2 As phase entrainment to speech can be observed without systematic fluctuations in sound amplitude or spectral content, it does not only reflect a passive steady-state ringing of the cochlea, but entails a higher-level process. (3 The role of intelligibility for phase entrainment is debated. Recent results suggest that intelligibility modulates the behavioral consequences of entrainment, rather than directly affecting the strength of entrainment in auditory regions. We conclude that phase entrainment to speech reflects a sophisticated mechanism: Several high-level processes interact to optimally align neural oscillations with predicted events of high relevance, even when they are hidden in a continuous stream of background noise.

  16. Letter Names, Letter Sounds and Phonological Awareness: An Examination of Kindergarten Children across Letters and of Letters across Children

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    Evans, Mary Ann; Bell, Michelle; Shaw, Deborah; Moretti, Shelley; Page, Jodi

    2006-01-01

    In this study 149 kindergarten children were assessed for knowledge of letter names and letter sounds, phonological awareness, and cognitive abilities. Through this it examined child and letter characteristics influencing the acquisition of alphabetic knowledge in a naturalistic context, the relationship between letter-sound knowledge and…

  17. The influence of (central) auditory processing disorder on the severity of speech-sound disorders in children.

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    Vilela, Nadia; Barrozo, Tatiane Faria; Pagan-Neves, Luciana de Oliveira; Sanches, Seisse Gabriela Gandolfi; Wertzner, Haydée Fiszbein; Carvallo, Renata Mota Mamede

    2016-02-01

    To identify a cutoff value based on the Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised index that could indicate the likelihood of a child with a speech-sound disorder also having a (central) auditory processing disorder . Language, audiological and (central) auditory processing evaluations were administered. The participants were 27 subjects with speech-sound disorders aged 7 to 10 years and 11 months who were divided into two different groups according to their (central) auditory processing evaluation results. When a (central) auditory processing disorder was present in association with a speech disorder, the children tended to have lower scores on phonological assessments. A greater severity of speech disorder was related to a greater probability of the child having a (central) auditory processing disorder. The use of a cutoff value for the Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised index successfully distinguished between children with and without a (central) auditory processing disorder. The severity of speech-sound disorder in children was influenced by the presence of (central) auditory processing disorder. The attempt to identify a cutoff value based on a severity index was successful.

  18. Serial recall of rhythms and verbal sequences: Impacts of concurrent tasks and irrelevant sound.

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    Hall, Debbora; Gathercole, Susan E

    2011-08-01

    Rhythmic grouping enhances verbal serial recall, yet very little is known about memory for rhythmic patterns. The aim of this study was to compare the cognitive processes supporting memory for rhythmic and verbal sequences using a range of concurrent tasks and irrelevant sounds. In Experiment 1, both concurrent articulation and paced finger tapping during presentation and during a retention interval impaired rhythm recall, while letter recall was only impaired by concurrent articulation. In Experiments 2 and 3, irrelevant sound consisted of irrelevant speech or tones, changing-state or steady-state sound, and syncopated or paced sound during presentation and during a retention interval. Irrelevant speech was more damaging to rhythm and letter recall than was irrelevant tone sound, but there was no effect of changing state on rhythm recall, while letter recall accuracy was disrupted by changing-state sound. Pacing of sound did not consistently affect either rhythm or letter recall. There are similarities in the way speech and rhythms are processed that appear to extend beyond reliance on temporal coding mechanisms involved in serial-order recall.

  19. Polysyllable Speech Accuracy and Predictors of Later Literacy Development in Preschool Children With Speech Sound Disorders.

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    Masso, Sarah; Baker, Elise; McLeod, Sharynne; Wang, Cen

    2017-07-12

    The aim of this study was to determine if polysyllable accuracy in preschoolers with speech sound disorders (SSD) was related to known predictors of later literacy development: phonological processing, receptive vocabulary, and print knowledge. Polysyllables-words of three or more syllables-are important to consider because unlike monosyllables, polysyllables have been associated with phonological processing and literacy difficulties in school-aged children. They therefore have the potential to help identify preschoolers most at risk of future literacy difficulties. Participants were 93 preschool children with SSD from the Sound Start Study. Participants completed the Polysyllable Preschool Test (Baker, 2013) as well as phonological processing, receptive vocabulary, and print knowledge tasks. Cluster analysis was completed, and 2 clusters were identified: low polysyllable accuracy and moderate polysyllable accuracy. The clusters were significantly different based on 2 measures of phonological awareness and measures of receptive vocabulary, rapid naming, and digit span. The clusters were not significantly different on sound matching accuracy or letter, sound, or print concept knowledge. The participants' poor performance on print knowledge tasks suggested that as a group, they were at risk of literacy difficulties but that there was a cluster of participants at greater risk-those with both low polysyllable accuracy and poor phonological processing.

  20. Listening to an audio drama activates two processing networks, one for all sounds, another exclusively for speech.

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    Robert Boldt

    Full Text Available Earlier studies have shown considerable intersubject synchronization of brain activity when subjects watch the same movie or listen to the same story. Here we investigated the across-subjects similarity of brain responses to speech and non-speech sounds in a continuous audio drama designed for blind people. Thirteen healthy adults listened for ∼19 min to the audio drama while their brain activity was measured with 3 T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI. An intersubject-correlation (ISC map, computed across the whole experiment to assess the stimulus-driven extrinsic brain network, indicated statistically significant ISC in temporal, frontal and parietal cortices, cingulate cortex, and amygdala. Group-level independent component (IC analysis was used to parcel out the brain signals into functionally coupled networks, and the dependence of the ICs on external stimuli was tested by comparing them with the ISC map. This procedure revealed four extrinsic ICs of which two-covering non-overlapping areas of the auditory cortex-were modulated by both speech and non-speech sounds. The two other extrinsic ICs, one left-hemisphere-lateralized and the other right-hemisphere-lateralized, were speech-related and comprised the superior and middle temporal gyri, temporal poles, and the left angular and inferior orbital gyri. In areas of low ISC four ICs that were defined intrinsic fluctuated similarly as the time-courses of either the speech-sound-related or all-sounds-related extrinsic ICs. These ICs included the superior temporal gyrus, the anterior insula, and the frontal, parietal and midline occipital cortices. Taken together, substantial intersubject synchronization of cortical activity was observed in subjects listening to an audio drama, with results suggesting that speech is processed in two separate networks, one dedicated to the processing of speech sounds and the other to both speech and non-speech sounds.

  1. Musical ability and non-native speech-sound processing are linked through sensitivity to pitch and spectral information.

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    Kempe, Vera; Bublitz, Dennis; Brooks, Patricia J

    2015-05-01

    Is the observed link between musical ability and non-native speech-sound processing due to enhanced sensitivity to acoustic features underlying both musical and linguistic processing? To address this question, native English speakers (N = 118) discriminated Norwegian tonal contrasts and Norwegian vowels. Short tones differing in temporal, pitch, and spectral characteristics were used to measure sensitivity to the various acoustic features implicated in musical and speech processing. Musical ability was measured using Gordon's Advanced Measures of Musical Audiation. Results showed that sensitivity to specific acoustic features played a role in non-native speech-sound processing: Controlling for non-verbal intelligence, prior foreign language-learning experience, and sex, sensitivity to pitch and spectral information partially mediated the link between musical ability and discrimination of non-native vowels and lexical tones. The findings suggest that while sensitivity to certain acoustic features partially mediates the relationship between musical ability and non-native speech-sound processing, complex tests of musical ability also tap into other shared mechanisms. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  2. Teaching letter sounds to kindergarten English language learners using incremental rehearsal.

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    Peterson, Meredith; Brandes, Dana; Kunkel, Amy; Wilson, Jennifer; Rahn, Naomi L; Egan, Andrea; McComas, Jennifer

    2014-02-01

    Proficiency in letter-sound correspondence is important for decoding connected text. This study examined the effects of an evidence-based intervention, incremental rehearsal (IR), on the letter-sound expression of three kindergarten English language learners (ELLs) performing below the district benchmark for letter-sound fluency. Participants were native speakers of Hmong, Spanish, and Polish. A multiple-baseline design across sets of unknown letter sounds was used to evaluate the effects of IR on letter-sound expression. Visual analysis of the data showed an increase in level and trend when IR was introduced in each phase. Percentage of all non-overlapping data (PAND) ranged from 95% to 100%. All participants exceeded expected growth and reached the spring district benchmark for letter-sound fluency. Results suggest that IR is a promising intervention for increasing letter-sound expression for ELLs who evidence delays in acquiring letter sounds. Copyright © 2013 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. The influence of environmental sound training on the perception of spectrally degraded speech and environmental sounds.

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    Shafiro, Valeriy; Sheft, Stanley; Gygi, Brian; Ho, Kim Thien N

    2012-06-01

    Perceptual training with spectrally degraded environmental sounds results in improved environmental sound identification, with benefits shown to extend to untrained speech perception as well. The present study extended those findings to examine longer-term training effects as well as effects of mere repeated exposure to sounds over time. Participants received two pretests (1 week apart) prior to a week-long environmental sound training regimen, which was followed by two posttest sessions, separated by another week without training. Spectrally degraded stimuli, processed with a four-channel vocoder, consisted of a 160-item environmental sound test, word and sentence tests, and a battery of basic auditory abilities and cognitive tests. Results indicated significant improvements in all speech and environmental sound scores between the initial pretest and the last posttest with performance increments following both exposure and training. For environmental sounds (the stimulus class that was trained), the magnitude of positive change that accompanied training was much greater than that due to exposure alone, with improvement for untrained sounds roughly comparable to the speech benefit from exposure. Additional tests of auditory and cognitive abilities showed that speech and environmental sound performance were differentially correlated with tests of spectral and temporal-fine-structure processing, whereas working memory and executive function were correlated with speech, but not environmental sound perception. These findings indicate generalizability of environmental sound training and provide a basis for implementing environmental sound training programs for cochlear implant (CI) patients.

  4. Contributions of Letter-Speech Sound Learning and Visual Print Tuning to Reading Improvement: Evidence from Brain Potential and Dyslexia Training Studies

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    Gorka Fraga González

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available We use a neurocognitive perspective to discuss the contribution of learning letter-speech sound (L-SS associations and visual specialization in the initial phases of reading in dyslexic children. We review findings from associative learning studies on related cognitive skills important for establishing and consolidating L-SS associations. Then we review brain potential studies, including our own, that yielded two markers associated with reading fluency. Here we show that the marker related to visual specialization (N170 predicts word and pseudoword reading fluency in children who received additional practice in the processing of morphological word structure. Conversely, L-SS integration (indexed by mismatch negativity (MMN may only remain important when direct orthography to semantic conversion is not possible, such as in pseudoword reading. In addition, the correlation between these two markers supports the notion that multisensory integration facilitates visual specialization. Finally, we review the role of implicit learning and executive functions in audiovisual learning in dyslexia. Implications for remedial research are discussed and suggestions for future studies are presented.

  5. Emergence of category-level sensitivities in non-native speech sound learning

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    Emily eMyers

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Over the course of development, speech sounds that are contrastive in one’s native language tend to become perceived categorically: that is, listeners are unaware of variation within phonetic categories while showing excellent sensitivity to speech sounds that span linguistically meaningful phonetic category boundaries. The end stage of this developmental process is that the perceptual systems that handle acoustic-phonetic information show special tuning to native language contrasts, and as such, category-level information appears to be present at even fairly low levels of the neural processing stream. Research on adults acquiring non-native speech categories offers an avenue for investigating the interplay of category-level information and perceptual sensitivities to these sounds as speech categories emerge. In particular, one can observe the neural changes that unfold as listeners learn not only to perceive acoustic distinctions that mark non-native speech sound contrasts, but also to map these distinctions onto category-level representations. An emergent literature on the neural basis of novel and non-native speech sound learning offers new insight into this question. In this review, I will examine this literature in order to answer two key questions. First, where in the neural pathway does sensitivity to category-level phonetic information first emerge over the trajectory of speech sound learning? Second, how do frontal and temporal brain areas work in concert over the course of non-native speech sound learning? Finally, in the context of this literature I will describe a model of speech sound learning in which rapidly-adapting access to categorical information in the frontal lobes modulates the sensitivity of stable, slowly-adapting responses in the temporal lobes.

  6. Spectral integration in speech and non-speech sounds

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    Jacewicz, Ewa

    2005-04-01

    Spectral integration (or formant averaging) was proposed in vowel perception research to account for the observation that a reduction of the intensity of one of two closely spaced formants (as in /u/) produced a predictable shift in vowel quality [Delattre et al., Word 8, 195-210 (1952)]. A related observation was reported in psychoacoustics, indicating that when the components of a two-tone periodic complex differ in amplitude and frequency, its perceived pitch is shifted toward that of the more intense tone [Helmholtz, App. XIV (1875/1948)]. Subsequent research in both fields focused on the frequency interval that separates these two spectral components, in an attempt to determine the size of the bandwidth for spectral integration to occur. This talk will review the accumulated evidence for and against spectral integration within the hypothesized limit of 3.5 Bark for static and dynamic signals in speech perception and psychoacoustics. Based on similarities in the processing of speech and non-speech sounds, it is suggested that spectral integration may reflect a general property of the auditory system. A larger frequency bandwidth, possibly close to 3.5 Bark, may be utilized in integrating acoustic information, including speech, complex signals, or sound quality of a violin.

  7. Intelligibility of speech of children with speech and sound disorders

    OpenAIRE

    Ivetac, Tina

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine speech intelligibility of children with primary speech and sound disorders aged 3 to 6 years in everyday life. The research problem is based on the degree to which parents or guardians, immediate family members (sister, brother, grandparents), extended family members (aunt, uncle, cousin), child's friends, other acquaintances, child's teachers and strangers understand the speech of children with speech sound disorders. We examined whether the level ...

  8. Sound quality measures for speech in noise through a commercial hearing aid implementing digital noise reduction.

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    Ricketts, Todd A; Hornsby, Benjamin W Y

    2005-05-01

    This brief report discusses the affect of digital noise reduction (DNR) processing on aided speech recognition and sound quality measures in 14 adults fitted with a commercial hearing aid. Measures of speech recognition and sound quality were obtained in two different speech-in-noise conditions (71 dBA speech, +6 dB SNR and 75 dBA speech, +1 dB SNR). The results revealed that the presence or absence of DNR processing did not impact speech recognition in noise (either positively or negatively). Paired comparisons of sound quality for the same speech in noise signals, however, revealed a strong preference for DNR processing. These data suggest that at least one implementation of DNR processing is capable of providing improved sound quality, for speech in noise, in the absence of improved speech recognition.

  9. Visual feedback of tongue movement for novel speech sound learning

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    William F Katz

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Pronunciation training studies have yielded important information concerning the processing of audiovisual (AV information. Second language (L2 learners show increased reliance on bottom-up, multimodal input for speech perception (compared to monolingual individuals. However, little is known about the role of viewing one’s own speech articulation processes during speech training. The current study investigated whether real-time, visual feedback for tongue movement can improve a speaker’s learning of non-native speech sounds. An interactive 3D tongue visualization system based on electromagnetic articulography (EMA was used in a speech training experiment. Native speakers of American English produced a novel speech sound (/ɖ̠/; a voiced, coronal, palatal stop before, during, and after trials in which they viewed their own speech movements using the 3D model. Talkers’ productions were evaluated using kinematic (tongue-tip spatial positioning and acoustic (burst spectra measures. The results indicated a rapid gain in accuracy associated with visual feedback training. The findings are discussed with respect to neural models for multimodal speech processing.

  10. Bilateral capacity for speech sound processing in auditory comprehension: evidence from Wada procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hickok, G; Okada, K; Barr, W; Pa, J; Rogalsky, C; Donnelly, K; Barde, L; Grant, A

    2008-12-01

    Data from lesion studies suggest that the ability to perceive speech sounds, as measured by auditory comprehension tasks, is supported by temporal lobe systems in both the left and right hemisphere. For example, patients with left temporal lobe damage and auditory comprehension deficits (i.e., Wernicke's aphasics), nonetheless comprehend isolated words better than one would expect if their speech perception system had been largely destroyed (70-80% accuracy). Further, when comprehension fails in such patients their errors are more often semantically-based, than-phonemically based. The question addressed by the present study is whether this ability of the right hemisphere to process speech sounds is a result of plastic reorganization following chronic left hemisphere damage, or whether the ability exists in undamaged language systems. We sought to test these possibilities by studying auditory comprehension in acute left versus right hemisphere deactivation during Wada procedures. A series of 20 patients undergoing clinically indicated Wada procedures were asked to listen to an auditorily presented stimulus word, and then point to its matching picture on a card that contained the target picture, a semantic foil, a phonemic foil, and an unrelated foil. This task was performed under three conditions, baseline, during left carotid injection of sodium amytal, and during right carotid injection of sodium amytal. Overall, left hemisphere injection led to a significantly higher error rate than right hemisphere injection. However, consistent with lesion work, the majority (75%) of these errors were semantic in nature. These findings suggest that auditory comprehension deficits are predominantly semantic in nature, even following acute left hemisphere disruption. This, in turn, supports the hypothesis that the right hemisphere is capable of speech sound processing in the intact brain.

  11. Letter Knowledge in Parent–Child Conversations

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    Robins, Sarah; Treiman, Rebecca; Rosales, Nicole

    2014-01-01

    Learning about letters is an important component of emergent literacy. We explored the possibility that parent speech provides information about letters, and also that children’s speech reflects their own letter knowledge. By studying conversations transcribed in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000) between parents and children aged one to five, we found that alphabetic order influenced use of individual letters and letter sequences. The frequency of letters in children’s books influenced parent utterances throughout the age range studied, but children’s utterances only after age two. Conversations emphasized some literacy-relevant features of letters, such as their shapes and association with words, but not letters’ sounds. Describing these patterns and how they change over the preschool years offers important insight into the home literacy environment. PMID:25598577

  12. The Relationship Between Speech, Language, and Phonological Awareness in Preschool-Age Children With Developmental Disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barton-Hulsey, Andrea; Sevcik, Rose A; Romski, MaryAnn

    2018-05-03

    A number of intrinsic factors, including expressive speech skills, have been suggested to place children with developmental disabilities at risk for limited development of reading skills. This study examines the relationship between these factors, speech ability, and children's phonological awareness skills. A nonexperimental study design was used to examine the relationship between intrinsic skills of speech, language, print, and letter-sound knowledge to phonological awareness in 42 children with developmental disabilities between the ages of 48 and 69 months. Hierarchical multiple regression was done to determine if speech ability accounted for a unique amount of variance in phonological awareness skill beyond what would be expected by developmental skills inclusive of receptive language and print and letter-sound knowledge. A range of skill in all areas of direct assessment was found. Children with limited speech were found to have emerging skills in print knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, and phonological awareness. Speech ability did not predict a significant amount of variance in phonological awareness beyond what would be expected by developmental skills of receptive language and print and letter-sound knowledge. Children with limited speech ability were found to have receptive language and letter-sound knowledge that supported the development of phonological awareness skills. This study provides implications for practitioners and researchers concerning the factors related to early reading development in children with limited speech ability and developmental disabilities.

  13. A classification of marked hijaiyah letters' pronunciation using hidden Markov model

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    Wisesty, Untari N.; Mubarok, M. Syahrul; Adiwijaya

    2017-08-01

    Hijaiyah letters are the letters that arrange the words in Al Qur'an consisting of 28 letters. They symbolize the consonant sounds. On the other hand, the vowel sounds are symbolized by harokat/marks. Speech recognition system is a system used to process the sound signal to be data so that it can be recognized by computer. To build the system, some stages are needed i.e characteristics/feature extraction and classification. In this research, LPC and MFCC extraction method, K-Means Quantization vector and Hidden Markov Model classification are used. The data used are the 28 letters and 6 harakat with the total class of 168. After several are testing done, it can be concluded that the system can recognize the pronunciation pattern of marked hijaiyah letter very well in the training data with its highest accuracy of 96.1% using the feature of LPC extraction and 94% using the MFCC. Meanwhile, when testing system is used, the accuracy decreases up to 41%.

  14. Speech versus singing: Infants choose happier sounds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marieve eCorbeil

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Infants prefer speech to non-vocal sounds and to non-human vocalizations, and they prefer happy-sounding speech to neutral speech. They also exhibit an interest in singing, but there is little knowledge of their relative interest in speech and singing. The present study explored infants’ attention to unfamiliar audio samples of speech and singing. In Experiment 1, infants 4-13 months of age were exposed to happy-sounding infant-directed speech versus hummed lullabies by the same woman. They listened significantly longer to the speech, which had considerably greater acoustic variability and expressiveness, than to the lullabies. In Experiment 2, infants of comparable age who heard the lyrics of a Turkish children’s song spoken versus sung in a joyful/happy manner did not exhibit differential listening. Infants in Experiment 3 heard the happily sung lyrics of the Turkish children’s song versus a version that was spoken in an adult-directed or affectively neutral manner. They listened significantly longer to the sung version. Overall, happy voice quality rather than vocal mode (speech or singing was the principal contributor to infant attention, regardless of age.

  15. Auditory spatial attention to speech and complex non-speech sounds in children with autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soskey, Laura N; Allen, Paul D; Bennetto, Loisa

    2017-08-01

    One of the earliest observable impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a failure to orient to speech and other social stimuli. Auditory spatial attention, a key component of orienting to sounds in the environment, has been shown to be impaired in adults with ASD. Additionally, specific deficits in orienting to social sounds could be related to increased acoustic complexity of speech. We aimed to characterize auditory spatial attention in children with ASD and neurotypical controls, and to determine the effect of auditory stimulus complexity on spatial attention. In a spatial attention task, target and distractor sounds were played randomly in rapid succession from speakers in a free-field array. Participants attended to a central or peripheral location, and were instructed to respond to target sounds at the attended location while ignoring nearby sounds. Stimulus-specific blocks evaluated spatial attention for simple non-speech tones, speech sounds (vowels), and complex non-speech sounds matched to vowels on key acoustic properties. Children with ASD had significantly more diffuse auditory spatial attention than neurotypical children when attending front, indicated by increased responding to sounds at adjacent non-target locations. No significant differences in spatial attention emerged based on stimulus complexity. Additionally, in the ASD group, more diffuse spatial attention was associated with more severe ASD symptoms but not with general inattention symptoms. Spatial attention deficits have important implications for understanding social orienting deficits and atypical attentional processes that contribute to core deficits of ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1405-1416. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  16. Facilitated auditory detection for speech sounds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carine eSignoret

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available If it is well known that knowledge facilitates higher cognitive functions, such as visual and auditory word recognition, little is known about the influence of knowledge on detection, particularly in the auditory modality. Our study tested the influence of phonological and lexical knowledge on auditory detection. Words, pseudo words and complex non phonological sounds, energetically matched as closely as possible, were presented at a range of presentation levels from sub threshold to clearly audible. The participants performed a detection task (Experiments 1 and 2 that was followed by a two alternative forced choice recognition task in Experiment 2. The results of this second task in Experiment 2 suggest a correct recognition of words in the absence of detection with a subjective threshold approach. In the detection task of both experiments, phonological stimuli (words and pseudo words were better detected than non phonological stimuli (complex sounds, presented close to the auditory threshold. This finding suggests an advantage of speech for signal detection. An additional advantage of words over pseudo words was observed in Experiment 2, suggesting that lexical knowledge could also improve auditory detection when listeners had to recognize the stimulus in a subsequent task. Two simulations of detection performance performed on the sound signals confirmed that the advantage of speech over non speech processing could not be attributed to energetic differences in the stimuli.

  17. Neural Correlates of Phonological Processing in Speech Sound Disorder: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tkach, Jean A.; Chen, Xu; Freebairn, Lisa A.; Schmithorst, Vincent J.; Holland, Scott K.; Lewis, Barbara A.

    2011-01-01

    Speech sound disorders (SSD) are the largest group of communication disorders observed in children. One explanation for these disorders is that children with SSD fail to form stable phonological representations when acquiring the speech sound system of their language due to poor phonological memory (PM). The goal of this study was to examine PM in…

  18. Nonlinear frequency compression: effects on sound quality ratings of speech and music.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parsa, Vijay; Scollie, Susan; Glista, Danielle; Seelisch, Andreas

    2013-03-01

    Frequency lowering technologies offer an alternative amplification solution for severe to profound high frequency hearing losses. While frequency lowering technologies may improve audibility of high frequency sounds, the very nature of this processing can affect the perceived sound quality. This article reports the results from two studies that investigated the impact of a nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) algorithm on perceived sound quality. In the first study, the cutoff frequency and compression ratio parameters of the NFC algorithm were varied, and their effect on the speech quality was measured subjectively with 12 normal hearing adults, 12 normal hearing children, 13 hearing impaired adults, and 9 hearing impaired children. In the second study, 12 normal hearing and 8 hearing impaired adult listeners rated the quality of speech in quiet, speech in noise, and music after processing with a different set of NFC parameters. Results showed that the cutoff frequency parameter had more impact on sound quality ratings than the compression ratio, and that the hearing impaired adults were more tolerant to increased frequency compression than normal hearing adults. No statistically significant differences were found in the sound quality ratings of speech-in-noise and music stimuli processed through various NFC settings by hearing impaired listeners. These findings suggest that there may be an acceptable range of NFC settings for hearing impaired individuals where sound quality is not adversely affected. These results may assist an Audiologist in clinical NFC hearing aid fittings for achieving a balance between high frequency audibility and sound quality.

  19. Measuring Young Children's Alphabet Knowledge: Development and Validation of Brief Letter-Sound Knowledge Assessments

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    Piasta, Shayne B.; Phillips, Beth M.; Williams, Jeffrey M.; Bowles, Ryan P.; Anthony, Jason L.

    2016-01-01

    Early childhood teachers are increasingly encouraged to support children's development of letter-sound abilities. Assessment of letter-sound knowledge is key in planning for effective instruction, yet the letter-sound knowledge assessments currently available and suitable for preschool-age children demonstrate significant limitations. The purpose…

  20. Aging affects hemispheric asymmetry in the neural representation of speech sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellis, T J; Nicol, T; Kraus, N

    2000-01-15

    Hemispheric asymmetries in the processing of elemental speech sounds appear to be critical for normal speech perception. This study investigated the effects of age on hemispheric asymmetry observed in the neurophysiological responses to speech stimuli in three groups of normal hearing, right-handed subjects: children (ages, 8-11 years), young adults (ages, 20-25 years), and older adults (ages > 55 years). Peak-to-peak response amplitudes of the auditory cortical P1-N1 complex obtained over right and left temporal lobes were examined to determine the degree of left/right asymmetry in the neurophysiological responses elicited by synthetic speech syllables in each of the three subject groups. In addition, mismatch negativity (MMN) responses, which are elicited by acoustic change, were obtained. Whereas children and young adults demonstrated larger P1-N1-evoked response amplitudes over the left temporal lobe than over the right, responses from elderly subjects were symmetrical. In contrast, MMN responses, which reflect an echoic memory process, were symmetrical in all subject groups. The differences observed in the neurophysiological responses were accompanied by a finding of significantly poorer ability to discriminate speech syllables involving rapid spectrotemporal changes in the older adult group. This study demonstrates a biological, age-related change in the neural representation of basic speech sounds and suggests one possible underlying mechanism for the speech perception difficulties exhibited by aging adults. Furthermore, results of this study support previous findings suggesting a dissociation between neural mechanisms underlying those processes that reflect the basic representation of sound structure and those that represent auditory echoic memory and stimulus change.

  1. Evaluation of Speech Recognition of Cochlear Implant Recipients Using Adaptive, Digital Remote Microphone Technology and a Speech Enhancement Sound Processing Algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolfe, Jace; Morais, Mila; Schafer, Erin; Agrawal, Smita; Koch, Dawn

    2015-05-01

    Cochlear implant recipients often experience difficulty with understanding speech in the presence of noise. Cochlear implant manufacturers have developed sound processing algorithms designed to improve speech recognition in noise, and research has shown these technologies to be effective. Remote microphone technology utilizing adaptive, digital wireless radio transmission has also been shown to provide significant improvement in speech recognition in noise. There are no studies examining the potential improvement in speech recognition in noise when these two technologies are used simultaneously. The goal of this study was to evaluate the potential benefits and limitations associated with the simultaneous use of a sound processing algorithm designed to improve performance in noise (Advanced Bionics ClearVoice) and a remote microphone system that incorporates adaptive, digital wireless radio transmission (Phonak Roger). A two-by-two way repeated measures design was used to examine performance differences obtained without these technologies compared to the use of each technology separately as well as the simultaneous use of both technologies. Eleven Advanced Bionics (AB) cochlear implant recipients, ages 11 to 68 yr. AzBio sentence recognition was measured in quiet and in the presence of classroom noise ranging in level from 50 to 80 dBA in 5-dB steps. Performance was evaluated in four conditions: (1) No ClearVoice and no Roger, (2) ClearVoice enabled without the use of Roger, (3) ClearVoice disabled with Roger enabled, and (4) simultaneous use of ClearVoice and Roger. Speech recognition in quiet was better than speech recognition in noise for all conditions. Use of ClearVoice and Roger each provided significant improvement in speech recognition in noise. The best performance in noise was obtained with the simultaneous use of ClearVoice and Roger. ClearVoice and Roger technology each improves speech recognition in noise, particularly when used at the same time

  2. Knockdown of Dyslexia-Gene Dcdc2 Interferes with Speech Sound Discrimination in Continuous Streams.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Centanni, Tracy Michelle; Booker, Anne B; Chen, Fuyi; Sloan, Andrew M; Carraway, Ryan S; Rennaker, Robert L; LoTurco, Joseph J; Kilgard, Michael P

    2016-04-27

    Dyslexia is the most common developmental language disorder and is marked by deficits in reading and phonological awareness. One theory of dyslexia suggests that the phonological awareness deficit is due to abnormal auditory processing of speech sounds. Variants in DCDC2 and several other neural migration genes are associated with dyslexia and may contribute to auditory processing deficits. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that RNAi suppression of Dcdc2 in rats causes abnormal cortical responses to sound and impaired speech sound discrimination. In the current study, rats were subjected in utero to RNA interference targeting of the gene Dcdc2 or a scrambled sequence. Primary auditory cortex (A1) responses were acquired from 11 rats (5 with Dcdc2 RNAi; DC-) before any behavioral training. A separate group of 8 rats (3 DC-) were trained on a variety of speech sound discrimination tasks, and auditory cortex responses were acquired following training. Dcdc2 RNAi nearly eliminated the ability of rats to identify specific speech sounds from a continuous train of speech sounds but did not impair performance during discrimination of isolated speech sounds. The neural responses to speech sounds in A1 were not degraded as a function of presentation rate before training. These results suggest that A1 is not directly involved in the impaired speech discrimination caused by Dcdc2 RNAi. This result contrasts earlier results using Kiaa0319 RNAi and suggests that different dyslexia genes may cause different deficits in the speech processing circuitry, which may explain differential responses to therapy. Although dyslexia is diagnosed through reading difficulty, there is a great deal of variation in the phenotypes of these individuals. The underlying neural and genetic mechanisms causing these differences are still widely debated. In the current study, we demonstrate that suppression of a candidate-dyslexia gene causes deficits on tasks of rapid stimulus processing

  3. Effect of gap detection threshold on consistency of speech in children with speech sound disorder.

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    Sayyahi, Fateme; Soleymani, Zahra; Akbari, Mohammad; Bijankhan, Mahmood; Dolatshahi, Behrooz

    2017-02-01

    The present study examined the relationship between gap detection threshold and speech error consistency in children with speech sound disorder. The participants were children five to six years of age who were categorized into three groups of typical speech, consistent speech disorder (CSD) and inconsistent speech disorder (ISD).The phonetic gap detection threshold test was used for this study, which is a valid test comprised six syllables with inter-stimulus intervals between 20-300ms. The participants were asked to listen to the recorded stimuli three times and indicate whether they heard one or two sounds. There was no significant difference between the typical and CSD groups (p=0.55), but there were significant differences in performance between the ISD and CSD groups and the ISD and typical groups (p=0.00). The ISD group discriminated between speech sounds at a higher threshold. Children with inconsistent speech errors could not distinguish speech sounds during time-limited phonetic discrimination. It is suggested that inconsistency in speech is a representation of inconsistency in auditory perception, which causes by high gap detection threshold. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Subtyping Children with Speech Sound Disorders by Endophenotypes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Barbara A.; Avrich, Allison A.; Freebairn, Lisa A.; Taylor, H. Gerry; Iyengar, Sudha K.; Stein, Catherine M.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: The present study examined associations of 5 endophenotypes (i.e., measurable skills that are closely associated with speech sound disorders and are useful in detecting genetic influences on speech sound production), oral motor skills, phonological memory, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and speeded naming, with 3 clinical criteria…

  5. Developmental changes in brain activation involved in the production of novel speech sounds in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hashizume, Hiroshi; Taki, Yasuyuki; Sassa, Yuko; Thyreau, Benjamin; Asano, Michiko; Asano, Kohei; Takeuchi, Hikaru; Nouchi, Rui; Kotozaki, Yuka; Jeong, Hyeonjeong; Sugiura, Motoaki; Kawashima, Ryuta

    2014-08-01

    Older children are more successful at producing unfamiliar, non-native speech sounds than younger children during the initial stages of learning. To reveal the neuronal underpinning of the age-related increase in the accuracy of non-native speech production, we examined the developmental changes in activation involved in the production of novel speech sounds using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Healthy right-handed children (aged 6-18 years) were scanned while performing an overt repetition task and a perceptual task involving aurally presented non-native and native syllables. Productions of non-native speech sounds were recorded and evaluated by native speakers. The mouth regions in the bilateral primary sensorimotor areas were activated more significantly during the repetition task relative to the perceptual task. The hemodynamic response in the left inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis (IFG pOp) specific to non-native speech sound production (defined by prior hypothesis) increased with age. Additionally, the accuracy of non-native speech sound production increased with age. These results provide the first evidence of developmental changes in the neural processes underlying the production of novel speech sounds. Our data further suggest that the recruitment of the left IFG pOp during the production of novel speech sounds was possibly enhanced due to the maturation of the neuronal circuits needed for speech motor planning. This, in turn, would lead to improvement in the ability to immediately imitate non-native speech. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Predictive Brain Mechanisms in Sound-to-Meaning Mapping during Speech Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyu, Bingjiang; Ge, Jianqiao; Niu, Zhendong; Tan, Li Hai; Gao, Jia-Hong

    2016-10-19

    Spoken language comprehension relies not only on the identification of individual words, but also on the expectations arising from contextual information. A distributed frontotemporal network is known to facilitate the mapping of speech sounds onto their corresponding meanings. However, how prior expectations influence this efficient mapping at the neuroanatomical level, especially in terms of individual words, remains unclear. Using fMRI, we addressed this question in the framework of the dual-stream model by scanning native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, a language highly dependent on context. We found that, within the ventral pathway, the violated expectations elicited stronger activations in the left anterior superior temporal gyrus and the ventral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for the phonological-semantic prediction of spoken words. Functional connectivity analysis showed that expectations were mediated by both top-down modulation from the left ventral IFG to the anterior temporal regions and enhanced cross-stream integration through strengthened connections between different subregions of the left IFG. By further investigating the dynamic causality within the dual-stream model, we elucidated how the human brain accomplishes sound-to-meaning mapping for words in a predictive manner. In daily communication via spoken language, one of the core processes is understanding the words being used. Effortless and efficient information exchange via speech relies not only on the identification of individual spoken words, but also on the contextual information giving rise to expected meanings. Despite the accumulating evidence for the bottom-up perception of auditory input, it is still not fully understood how the top-down modulation is achieved in the extensive frontotemporal cortical network. Here, we provide a comprehensive description of the neural substrates underlying sound-to-meaning mapping and demonstrate how the dual-stream model functions in the modulation of

  7. Implications of diadochokinesia in children with speech sound disorder.

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    Wertzner, Haydée Fiszbein; Pagan-Neves, Luciana de Oliveira; Alves, Renata Ramos; Barrozo, Tatiane Faria

    2013-01-01

    To verify the performance of children with and without speech sound disorder in oral motor skills measured by oral diadochokinesia according to age and gender and to compare the results by two different methods of analysis. Participants were 72 subjects aged from 5 years to 7 years and 11 months divided into four subgroups according to the presence of speech sound disorder (Study Group and Control Group) and age (6 years and 5 months). Diadochokinesia skills were assessed by the repetition of the sequences 'pa', 'ta', 'ka' and 'pataka' measured both manually and by the software Motor Speech Profile®. Gender was statistically different for both groups but it did not influence on the number of sequences per second produced. Correlation between the number of sequences per second and age was observed for all sequences (except for 'ka') only for the control group children. Comparison between groups did not indicate differences between the number of sequences per second and age. Results presented strong agreement between the values of oral diadochokinesia measured manually and by MSP. This research demonstrated the importance of using different methods of analysis on the functional evaluation of oro-motor processing aspects of children with speech sound disorder and evidenced the oro-motor difficulties on children aged under than eight years old.

  8. Applications of Hilbert Spectral Analysis for Speech and Sound Signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Norden E.

    2003-01-01

    A new method for analyzing nonlinear and nonstationary data has been developed, and the natural applications are to speech and sound signals. The key part of the method is the Empirical Mode Decomposition method with which any complicated data set can be decomposed into a finite and often small number of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF). An IMF is defined as any function having the same numbers of zero-crossing and extrema, and also having symmetric envelopes defined by the local maxima and minima respectively. The IMF also admits well-behaved Hilbert transform. This decomposition method is adaptive, and, therefore, highly efficient. Since the decomposition is based on the local characteristic time scale of the data, it is applicable to nonlinear and nonstationary processes. With the Hilbert transform, the Intrinsic Mode Functions yield instantaneous frequencies as functions of time, which give sharp identifications of imbedded structures. This method invention can be used to process all acoustic signals. Specifically, it can process the speech signals for Speech synthesis, Speaker identification and verification, Speech recognition, and Sound signal enhancement and filtering. Additionally, as the acoustical signals from machinery are essentially the way the machines are talking to us. Therefore, the acoustical signals, from the machines, either from sound through air or vibration on the machines, can tell us the operating conditions of the machines. Thus, we can use the acoustic signal to diagnosis the problems of machines.

  9. Effects of sounds of locomotion on speech perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matz Larsson

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Human locomotion typically creates noise, a possible consequence of which is the masking of sound signals originating in the surroundings. When walking side by side, people often subconsciously synchronize their steps. The neurophysiological and evolutionary background of this behavior is unclear. The present study investigated the potential of sound created by walking to mask perception of speech and compared the masking produced by walking in step with that produced by unsynchronized walking. The masking sound (footsteps on gravel and the target sound (speech were presented through the same speaker to 15 normal-hearing subjects. The original recorded walking sound was modified to mimic the sound of two individuals walking in pace or walking out of synchrony. The participants were instructed to adjust the sound level of the target sound until they could just comprehend the speech signal ("just follow conversation" or JFC level when presented simultaneously with synchronized or unsynchronized walking sound at 40 dBA, 50 dBA, 60 dBA, or 70 dBA. Synchronized walking sounds produced slightly less masking of speech than did unsynchronized sound. The median JFC threshold in the synchronized condition was 38.5 dBA, while the corresponding value for the unsynchronized condition was 41.2 dBA. Combined results at all sound pressure levels showed an improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR for synchronized footsteps; the median difference was 2.7 dB and the mean difference was 1.2 dB [P < 0.001, repeated-measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA]. The difference was significant for masker levels of 50 dBA and 60 dBA, but not for 40 dBA or 70 dBA. This study provides evidence that synchronized walking may reduce the masking potential of footsteps.

  10. The neural basis of sublexical speech and corresponding nonspeech processing: a combined EEG-MEG study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuuluvainen, Soila; Nevalainen, Päivi; Sorokin, Alexander; Mittag, Maria; Partanen, Eino; Putkinen, Vesa; Seppänen, Miia; Kähkönen, Seppo; Kujala, Teija

    2014-03-01

    We addressed the neural organization of speech versus nonspeech sound processing by investigating preattentive cortical auditory processing of changes in five features of a consonant-vowel syllable (consonant, vowel, sound duration, frequency, and intensity) and their acoustically matched nonspeech counterparts in a simultaneous EEG-MEG recording of mismatch negativity (MMN/MMNm). Overall, speech-sound processing was enhanced compared to nonspeech sound processing. This effect was strongest for changes which affect word meaning (consonant, vowel, and vowel duration) in the left and for the vowel identity change in the right hemisphere also. Furthermore, in the right hemisphere, speech-sound frequency and intensity changes were processed faster than their nonspeech counterparts, and there was a trend for speech-enhancement in frequency processing. In summary, the results support the proposed existence of long-term memory traces for speech sounds in the auditory cortices, and indicate at least partly distinct neural substrates for speech and nonspeech sound processing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, A. Lynn, Ed.; McLeod, Sharynne, Ed.; McCauley, Rebecca J., Ed.

    2010-01-01

    With detailed discussion and invaluable video footage of 23 treatment interventions for speech sound disorders (SSDs) in children, this textbook and DVD set should be part of every speech-language pathologist's professional preparation. Focusing on children with functional or motor-based speech disorders from early childhood through the early…

  12. Perceptual sensitivity to spectral properties of earlier sounds during speech categorization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stilp, Christian E; Assgari, Ashley A

    2018-02-28

    Speech perception is heavily influenced by surrounding sounds. When spectral properties differ between earlier (context) and later (target) sounds, this can produce spectral contrast effects (SCEs) that bias perception of later sounds. For example, when context sounds have more energy in low-F 1 frequency regions, listeners report more high-F 1 responses to a target vowel, and vice versa. SCEs have been reported using various approaches for a wide range of stimuli, but most often, large spectral peaks were added to the context to bias speech categorization. This obscures the lower limit of perceptual sensitivity to spectral properties of earlier sounds, i.e., when SCEs begin to bias speech categorization. Listeners categorized vowels (/ɪ/-/ɛ/, Experiment 1) or consonants (/d/-/g/, Experiment 2) following a context sentence with little spectral amplification (+1 to +4 dB) in frequency regions known to produce SCEs. In both experiments, +3 and +4 dB amplification in key frequency regions of the context produced SCEs, but lesser amplification was insufficient to bias performance. This establishes a lower limit of perceptual sensitivity where spectral differences across sounds can bias subsequent speech categorization. These results are consistent with proposed adaptation-based mechanisms that potentially underlie SCEs in auditory perception. Recent sounds can change what speech sounds we hear later. This can occur when the average frequency composition of earlier sounds differs from that of later sounds, biasing how they are perceived. These "spectral contrast effects" are widely observed when sounds' frequency compositions differ substantially. We reveal the lower limit of these effects, as +3 dB amplification of key frequency regions in earlier sounds was enough to bias categorization of the following vowel or consonant sound. Speech categorization being biased by very small spectral differences across sounds suggests that spectral contrast effects occur

  13. Comparing Feedback Types in Multimedia Learning of Speech by Young Children With Common Speech Sound Disorders: Research Protocol for a Pretest Posttest Independent Measures Control Trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doubé, Wendy; Carding, Paul; Flanagan, Kieran; Kaufman, Jordy; Armitage, Hannah

    2018-01-01

    Children with speech sound disorders benefit from feedback about the accuracy of sounds they make. Home practice can reinforce feedback received from speech pathologists. Games in mobile device applications could encourage home practice, but those currently available are of limited value because they are unlikely to elaborate "Correct"/"Incorrect" feedback with information that can assist in improving the accuracy of the sound. This protocol proposes a "Wizard of Oz" experiment that aims to provide evidence for the provision of effective multimedia feedback for speech sound development. Children with two common speech sound disorders will play a game on a mobile device and make speech sounds when prompted by the game. A human "Wizard" will provide feedback on the accuracy of the sound but the children will perceive the feedback as coming from the game. Groups of 30 young children will be randomly allocated to one of five conditions: four types of feedback and a control which does not play the game. The results of this experiment will inform not only speech sound therapy, but also other types of language learning, both in general, and in multimedia applications. This experiment is a cost-effective precursor to the development of a mobile application that employs pedagogically and clinically sound processes for speech development in young children.

  14. Precision of working memory for speech sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joseph, Sabine; Iverson, Paul; Manohar, Sanjay; Fox, Zoe; Scott, Sophie K; Husain, Masud

    2015-01-01

    Memory for speech sounds is a key component of models of verbal working memory (WM). But how good is verbal WM? Most investigations assess this using binary report measures to derive a fixed number of items that can be stored. However, recent findings in visual WM have challenged such "quantized" views by employing measures of recall precision with an analogue response scale. WM for speech sounds might rely on both continuous and categorical storage mechanisms. Using a novel speech matching paradigm, we measured WM recall precision for phonemes. Vowel qualities were sampled from a formant space continuum. A probe vowel had to be adjusted to match the vowel quality of a target on a continuous, analogue response scale. Crucially, this provided an index of the variability of a memory representation around its true value and thus allowed us to estimate how memories were distorted from the original sounds. Memory load affected the quality of speech sound recall in two ways. First, there was a gradual decline in recall precision with increasing number of items, consistent with the view that WM representations of speech sounds become noisier with an increase in the number of items held in memory, just as for vision. Based on multidimensional scaling (MDS), the level of noise appeared to be reflected in distortions of the formant space. Second, as memory load increased, there was evidence of greater clustering of participants' responses around particular vowels. A mixture model captured both continuous and categorical responses, demonstrating a shift from continuous to categorical memory with increasing WM load. This suggests that direct acoustic storage can be used for single items, but when more items must be stored, categorical representations must be used.

  15. Evolution of non-speech sound memory in postlingual deafness: implications for cochlear implant rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazard, D S; Giraud, A L; Truy, E; Lee, H J

    2011-07-01

    Neurofunctional patterns assessed before or after cochlear implantation (CI) are informative markers of implantation outcome. Because phonological memory reorganization in post-lingual deafness is predictive of the outcome, we investigated, using a cross-sectional approach, whether memory of non-speech sounds (NSS) produced by animals or objects (i.e. non-human sounds) is also reorganized, and how this relates to speech perception after CI. We used an fMRI auditory imagery task in which sounds were evoked by pictures of noisy items for post-lingual deaf candidates for CI and for normal-hearing subjects. When deaf subjects imagined sounds, the left inferior frontal gyrus, the right posterior temporal gyrus and the right amygdala were less activated compared to controls. Activity levels in these regions decreased with duration of auditory deprivation, indicating declining NSS representations. Whole brain correlations with duration of auditory deprivation and with speech scores after CI showed an activity decline in dorsal, fronto-parietal, cortical regions, and an activity increase in ventral cortical regions, the right anterior temporal pole and the hippocampal gyrus. Both dorsal and ventral reorganizations predicted poor speech perception outcome after CI. These results suggest that post-CI speech perception relies, at least partially, on the integrity of a neural system used for processing NSS that is based on audio-visual and articulatory mapping processes. When this neural system is reorganized, post-lingual deaf subjects resort to inefficient semantic- and memory-based strategies. These results complement those of other studies on speech processing, suggesting that both speech and NSS representations need to be maintained during deafness to ensure the success of CI. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Comparing Feedback Types in Multimedia Learning of Speech by Young Children With Common Speech Sound Disorders: Research Protocol for a Pretest Posttest Independent Measures Control Trial

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doubé, Wendy; Carding, Paul; Flanagan, Kieran; Kaufman, Jordy; Armitage, Hannah

    2018-01-01

    Children with speech sound disorders benefit from feedback about the accuracy of sounds they make. Home practice can reinforce feedback received from speech pathologists. Games in mobile device applications could encourage home practice, but those currently available are of limited value because they are unlikely to elaborate “Correct”/”Incorrect” feedback with information that can assist in improving the accuracy of the sound. This protocol proposes a “Wizard of Oz” experiment that aims to provide evidence for the provision of effective multimedia feedback for speech sound development. Children with two common speech sound disorders will play a game on a mobile device and make speech sounds when prompted by the game. A human “Wizard” will provide feedback on the accuracy of the sound but the children will perceive the feedback as coming from the game. Groups of 30 young children will be randomly allocated to one of five conditions: four types of feedback and a control which does not play the game. The results of this experiment will inform not only speech sound therapy, but also other types of language learning, both in general, and in multimedia applications. This experiment is a cost-effective precursor to the development of a mobile application that employs pedagogically and clinically sound processes for speech development in young children. PMID:29674986

  17. Comparing Feedback Types in Multimedia Learning of Speech by Young Children With Common Speech Sound Disorders: Research Protocol for a Pretest Posttest Independent Measures Control Trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wendy Doubé

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Children with speech sound disorders benefit from feedback about the accuracy of sounds they make. Home practice can reinforce feedback received from speech pathologists. Games in mobile device applications could encourage home practice, but those currently available are of limited value because they are unlikely to elaborate “Correct”/”Incorrect” feedback with information that can assist in improving the accuracy of the sound. This protocol proposes a “Wizard of Oz” experiment that aims to provide evidence for the provision of effective multimedia feedback for speech sound development. Children with two common speech sound disorders will play a game on a mobile device and make speech sounds when prompted by the game. A human “Wizard” will provide feedback on the accuracy of the sound but the children will perceive the feedback as coming from the game. Groups of 30 young children will be randomly allocated to one of five conditions: four types of feedback and a control which does not play the game. The results of this experiment will inform not only speech sound therapy, but also other types of language learning, both in general, and in multimedia applications. This experiment is a cost-effective precursor to the development of a mobile application that employs pedagogically and clinically sound processes for speech development in young children.

  18. Sound and speech detection and classification in a Health Smart Home.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleury, A; Noury, N; Vacher, M; Glasson, H; Seri, J F

    2008-01-01

    Improvements in medicine increase life expectancy in the world and create a new bottleneck at the entrance of specialized and equipped institutions. To allow elderly people to stay at home, researchers work on ways to monitor them in their own environment, with non-invasive sensors. To meet this goal, smart homes, equipped with lots of sensors, deliver information on the activities of the person and can help detect distress situations. In this paper, we present a global speech and sound recognition system that can be set-up in a flat. We placed eight microphones in the Health Smart Home of Grenoble (a real living flat of 47m(2)) and we automatically analyze and sort out the different sounds recorded in the flat and the speech uttered (to detect normal or distress french sentences). We introduce the methods for the sound and speech recognition, the post-processing of the data and finally the experimental results obtained in real conditions in the flat.

  19. Toward a Model of Pediatric Speech Sound Disorders (SSD) for Differential Diagnosis and Therapy Planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Terband, Hayo; Maassen, Bernardus; Maas, Edwin; van Lieshout, Pascal; Maassen, Ben; Terband, Hayo

    2016-01-01

    The classification and differentiation of pediatric speech sound disorders (SSD) is one of the main questions in the field of speech- and language pathology. Terms for classifying childhood and SSD and motor speech disorders (MSD) refer to speech production processes, and a variety of methods of

  20. Investigating the neural correlates of voice versus speech-sound directed information in pre-school children.

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    Nora Maria Raschle

    Full Text Available Studies in sleeping newborns and infants propose that the superior temporal sulcus is involved in speech processing soon after birth. Speech processing also implicitly requires the analysis of the human voice, which conveys both linguistic and extra-linguistic information. However, due to technical and practical challenges when neuroimaging young children, evidence of neural correlates of speech and/or voice processing in toddlers and young children remains scarce. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI in 20 typically developing preschool children (average age  = 5.8 y; range 5.2-6.8 y to investigate brain activation during judgments about vocal identity versus the initial speech sound of spoken object words. FMRI results reveal common brain regions responsible for voice-specific and speech-sound specific processing of spoken object words including bilateral primary and secondary language areas of the brain. Contrasting voice-specific with speech-sound specific processing predominantly activates the anterior part of the right-hemispheric superior temporal sulcus. Furthermore, the right STS is functionally correlated with left-hemispheric temporal and right-hemispheric prefrontal regions. This finding underlines the importance of the right superior temporal sulcus as a temporal voice area and indicates that this brain region is specialized, and functions similarly to adults by the age of five. We thus extend previous knowledge of voice-specific regions and their functional connections to the young brain which may further our understanding of the neuronal mechanism of speech-specific processing in children with developmental disorders, such as autism or specific language impairments.

  1. A homology sound-based algorithm for speech signal interference

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Yi-jiao; Chen, Hou-jin; Li, Ju-peng; Zhang, Zhan-song

    2015-12-01

    Aiming at secure analog speech communication, a homology sound-based algorithm for speech signal interference is proposed in this paper. We first split speech signal into phonetic fragments by a short-term energy method and establish an interference noise cache library with the phonetic fragments. Then we implement the homology sound interference by mixing the randomly selected interferential fragments and the original speech in real time. The computer simulation results indicated that the interference produced by this algorithm has advantages of real time, randomness, and high correlation with the original signal, comparing with the traditional noise interference methods such as white noise interference. After further studies, the proposed algorithm may be readily used in secure speech communication.

  2. Analysis of speech sounds is left-hemisphere predominant at 100-150ms after sound onset.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rinne, T; Alho, K; Alku, P; Holi, M; Sinkkonen, J; Virtanen, J; Bertrand, O; Näätänen, R

    1999-04-06

    Hemispheric specialization of human speech processing has been found in brain imaging studies using fMRI and PET. Due to the restricted time resolution, these methods cannot, however, determine the stage of auditory processing at which this specialization first emerges. We used a dense electrode array covering the whole scalp to record the mismatch negativity (MMN), an event-related brain potential (ERP) automatically elicited by occasional changes in sounds, which ranged from non-phonetic (tones) to phonetic (vowels). MMN can be used to probe auditory central processing on a millisecond scale with no attention-dependent task requirements. Our results indicate that speech processing occurs predominantly in the left hemisphere at the early, pre-attentive level of auditory analysis.

  3. Cross-Modal Correspondence between Brightness and Chinese Speech Sound with Aspiration

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    Sachiko Hirata

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Phonetic symbolism is the phenomenon of speech sounds evoking images based on sensory experiences; it is often discussed with cross-modal correspondence. By using Garner's task, Hirata, Kita, and Ukita (2009 showed the cross-modal congruence between brightness and voiced/voiceless consonants in Japanese speech sound, which is known as phonetic symbolism. In the present study, we examined the effect of the meaning of mimetics (lexical words whose sound reflects its meaning, like “ding-dong” in Japanese language on the cross-modal correspondence. We conducted an experiment with Chinese speech sounds with or without aspiration using Chinese people. Chinese vocabulary also contains mimetics but the existence of aspiration doesn't relate to the meaning of Chinese mimetics. As a result, Chinese speech sounds with aspiration, which resemble voiceless consonants, were matched with white color, whereas those without aspiration were matched with black. This result is identical to its pattern in Japanese people and consequently suggests that cross-modal correspondence occurs without the effect of the meaning of mimetics. The problem that whether these cross-modal correspondences are purely based on physical properties of speech sound or affected from phonetic properties remains for further study.

  4. The effects of bilingualism on children's perception of speech sounds

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brasileiro, I.

    2009-01-01

    The general topic addressed by this dissertation is that of bilingualism, and more specifically, the topic of bilingual acquisition of speech sounds. The central question in this study is the following: does bilingualism affect children’s perceptual development of speech sounds? The term bilingual

  5. Multi-sensory learning and learning to read.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blomert, Leo; Froyen, Dries

    2010-09-01

    The basis of literacy acquisition in alphabetic orthographies is the learning of the associations between the letters and the corresponding speech sounds. In spite of this primacy in learning to read, there is only scarce knowledge on how this audiovisual integration process works and which mechanisms are involved. Recent electrophysiological studies of letter-speech sound processing have revealed that normally developing readers take years to automate these associations and dyslexic readers hardly exhibit automation of these associations. It is argued that the reason for this effortful learning may reside in the nature of the audiovisual process that is recruited for the integration of in principle arbitrarily linked elements. It is shown that letter-speech sound integration does not resemble the processes involved in the integration of natural audiovisual objects such as audiovisual speech. The automatic symmetrical recruitment of the assumedly uni-sensory visual and auditory cortices in audiovisual speech integration does not occur for letter and speech sound integration. It is also argued that letter-speech sound integration only partly resembles the integration of arbitrarily linked unfamiliar audiovisual objects. Letter-sound integration and artificial audiovisual objects share the necessity of a narrow time window for integration to occur. However, they differ from these artificial objects, because they constitute an integration of partly familiar elements which acquire meaning through the learning of an orthography. Although letter-speech sound pairs share similarities with audiovisual speech processing as well as with unfamiliar, arbitrary objects, it seems that letter-speech sound pairs develop into unique audiovisual objects that furthermore have to be processed in a unique way in order to enable fluent reading and thus very likely recruit other neurobiological learning mechanisms than the ones involved in learning natural or arbitrary unfamiliar

  6. Varying acoustic-phonemic ambiguity reveals that talker normalization is obligatory in speech processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Ja Young; Hu, Elly R; Perrachione, Tyler K

    2018-04-01

    The nondeterministic relationship between speech acoustics and abstract phonemic representations imposes a challenge for listeners to maintain perceptual constancy despite the highly variable acoustic realization of speech. Talker normalization facilitates speech processing by reducing the degrees of freedom for mapping between encountered speech and phonemic representations. While this process has been proposed to facilitate the perception of ambiguous speech sounds, it is currently unknown whether talker normalization is affected by the degree of potential ambiguity in acoustic-phonemic mapping. We explored the effects of talker normalization on speech processing in a series of speeded classification paradigms, parametrically manipulating the potential for inconsistent acoustic-phonemic relationships across talkers for both consonants and vowels. Listeners identified words with varying potential acoustic-phonemic ambiguity across talkers (e.g., beet/boat vs. boot/boat) spoken by single or mixed talkers. Auditory categorization of words was always slower when listening to mixed talkers compared to a single talker, even when there was no potential acoustic ambiguity between target sounds. Moreover, the processing cost imposed by mixed talkers was greatest when words had the most potential acoustic-phonemic overlap across talkers. Models of acoustic dissimilarity between target speech sounds did not account for the pattern of results. These results suggest (a) that talker normalization incurs the greatest processing cost when disambiguating highly confusable sounds and (b) that talker normalization appears to be an obligatory component of speech perception, taking place even when the acoustic-phonemic relationships across sounds are unambiguous.

  7. Parent-administered computer-assisted tutoring targeting letter-sound knowledge: Evaluation via multiple-baseline across three preschool students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DuBois, Matthew R; Volpe, Robert J; Burns, Matthew K; Hoffman, Jessica A

    2016-12-01

    Knowledge of letters sounds has been identified as a primary objective of preschool instruction and intervention. Despite this designation, large disparities exist in the number of letter sounds children know at school entry. Enhancing caregivers' ability to teach their preschool-aged children letter sounds may represent an effective practice for reducing this variability and ensuring that more children are prepared to experience early school success. This study used a non-concurrent multiple-baseline-across-participants design to evaluate the effectiveness of caregivers (N=3) delivering a computer-assisted tutoring program (Tutoring Buddy) targeting letter sound knowledge to their preschool-aged children. Visual analyses and effect size estimates derived from Percentage of All Non-Overlapping Data (PAND) statistics indicated consistent results for letter sound acquisition, as 6weeks of intervention yielded large effects for letter sound knowledge (LSK) across all three children. Large effect sizes were also found for letter sound fluency (LSF) and nonsense word fluency (NWF) for two children. All three caregivers rated the intervention as highly usable and were able to administer it with high levels of fidelity. Taken together, the results of the present study found Tutoring Buddy to be an effective, simple, and usable way for the caregivers to support their children's literacy development. Copyright © 2016 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Multisensory integration of speech sounds with letters vs. visual speech : only visual speech induces the mismatch negativity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stekelenburg, J.J.; Keetels, M.N.; Vroomen, J.H.M.

    2018-01-01

    Numerous studies have demonstrated that the vision of lip movements can alter the perception of auditory speech syllables (McGurk effect). While there is ample evidence for integration of text and auditory speech, there are only a few studies on the orthographic equivalent of the McGurk effect.

  9. Speech Abilities in Preschool Children with Speech Sound Disorder with and without Co-Occurring Language Impairment

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    Macrae, Toby; Tyler, Ann A.

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: The authors compared preschool children with co-occurring speech sound disorder (SSD) and language impairment (LI) to children with SSD only in their numbers and types of speech sound errors. Method: In this post hoc quasi-experimental study, independent samples t tests were used to compare the groups in the standard score from different…

  10. Musical and linguistic expertise influence pre-attentive and attentive processing of non-speech sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marie, Céline; Kujala, Teija; Besson, Mireille

    2012-04-01

    The aim of this experiment was two-fold. Our first goal was to determine whether linguistic expertise influences the pre-attentive [as reflected by the Mismatch Negativity - (MMN)] and the attentive processing (as reflected by behavioural discrimination accuracy) of non-speech, harmonic sounds. The second was to directly compare the effects of linguistic and musical expertise. To this end, we compared non-musician native speakers of a quantity language, Finnish, in which duration is a phonemically contrastive cue, with French musicians and French non-musicians. Results revealed that pre-attentive and attentive processing of duration deviants was enhanced in Finn non-musicians and French musicians compared to French non-musicians. By contrast, MMN in French musicians was larger than in both Finns and French non-musicians for frequency deviants, whereas no between-group differences were found for intensity deviants. By showing similar effects of linguistic and musical expertise, these results argue in favor of common processing of duration in music and speech. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.

  11. Polysyllable Speech Accuracy and Predictors of Later Literacy Development in Preschool Children with Speech Sound Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masso, Sarah; Baker, Elise; McLeod, Sharynne; Wang, Cen

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine if polysyllable accuracy in preschoolers with speech sound disorders (SSD) was related to known predictors of later literacy development: phonological processing, receptive vocabulary, and print knowledge. Polysyllables--words of three or more syllables--are important to consider because unlike…

  12. A Pilot Investigation of Speech Sound Disorder Intervention Delivered by Telehealth to School-Age Children

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    Sue Grogan-Johnson

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available This article describes a school-based telehealth service delivery model and reports outcomes made by school-age students with speech sound disorders in a rural Ohio school district. Speech therapy using computer-based speech sound intervention materials was provided either by live interactive videoconferencing (telehealth, or conventional side-by-side intervention.  Progress was measured using pre- and post-intervention scores on the Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 (Goldman & Fristoe, 2002. Students in both service delivery models made significant improvements in speech sound production, with students in the telehealth condition demonstrating greater mastery of their Individual Education Plan (IEP goals. Live interactive videoconferencing thus appears to be a viable method for delivering intervention for speech sound disorders to children in a rural, public school setting. Keywords:  Telehealth, telerehabilitation, videoconferencing, speech sound disorder, speech therapy, speech-language pathology; E-Helper

  13. Temporal factors affecting somatosensory-auditory interactions in speech processing

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    Takayuki eIto

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Speech perception is known to rely on both auditory and visual information. However, sound specific somatosensory input has been shown also to influence speech perceptual processing (Ito et al., 2009. In the present study we addressed further the relationship between somatosensory information and speech perceptual processing by addressing the hypothesis that the temporal relationship between orofacial movement and sound processing contributes to somatosensory-auditory interaction in speech perception. We examined the changes in event-related potentials in response to multisensory synchronous (simultaneous and asynchronous (90 ms lag and lead somatosensory and auditory stimulation compared to individual unisensory auditory and somatosensory stimulation alone. We used a robotic device to apply facial skin somatosensory deformations that were similar in timing and duration to those experienced in speech production. Following synchronous multisensory stimulation the amplitude of the event-related potential was reliably different from the two unisensory potentials. More importantly, the magnitude of the event-related potential difference varied as a function of the relative timing of the somatosensory-auditory stimulation. Event-related activity change due to stimulus timing was seen between 160-220 ms following somatosensory onset, mostly around the parietal area. The results demonstrate a dynamic modulation of somatosensory-auditory convergence and suggest the contribution of somatosensory information for speech processing process is dependent on the specific temporal order of sensory inputs in speech production.

  14. Dynamic Assessment of Phonological Awareness for Children with Speech Sound Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gillam, Sandra Laing; Ford, Mikenzi Bentley

    2012-01-01

    The current study was designed to examine the relationships between performance on a nonverbal phoneme deletion task administered in a dynamic assessment format with performance on measures of phoneme deletion, word-level reading, and speech sound production that required verbal responses for school-age children with speech sound disorders (SSDs).…

  15. International aspirations for speech-language pathologists' practice with multilingual children with speech sound disorders: development of a position paper.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Sharynne; Verdon, Sarah; Bowen, Caroline

    2013-01-01

    A major challenge for the speech-language pathology profession in many cultures is to address the mismatch between the "linguistic homogeneity of the speech-language pathology profession and the linguistic diversity of its clientele" (Caesar & Kohler, 2007, p. 198). This paper outlines the development of the Multilingual Children with Speech Sound Disorders: Position Paper created to guide speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') facilitation of multilingual children's speech. An international expert panel was assembled comprising 57 researchers (SLPs, linguists, phoneticians, and speech scientists) with knowledge about multilingual children's speech, or children with speech sound disorders. Combined, they had worked in 33 countries and used 26 languages in professional practice. Fourteen panel members met for a one-day workshop to identify key points for inclusion in the position paper. Subsequently, 42 additional panel members participated online to contribute to drafts of the position paper. A thematic analysis was undertaken of the major areas of discussion using two data sources: (a) face-to-face workshop transcript (133 pages) and (b) online discussion artifacts (104 pages). Finally, a moderator with international expertise in working with children with speech sound disorders facilitated the incorporation of the panel's recommendations. The following themes were identified: definitions, scope, framework, evidence, challenges, practices, and consideration of a multilingual audience. The resulting position paper contains guidelines for providing services to multilingual children with speech sound disorders (http://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/position-paper). The paper is structured using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Children and Youth Version (World Health Organization, 2007) and incorporates recommendations for (a) children and families, (b) SLPs' assessment and intervention, (c) SLPs' professional

  16. Cognitive Bias for Learning Speech Sounds From a Continuous Signal Space Seems Nonlinguistic

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    Sabine van der Ham

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available When learning language, humans have a tendency to produce more extreme distributions of speech sounds than those observed most frequently: In rapid, casual speech, vowel sounds are centralized, yet cross-linguistically, peripheral vowels occur almost universally. We investigate whether adults’ generalization behavior reveals selective pressure for communication when they learn skewed distributions of speech-like sounds from a continuous signal space. The domain-specific hypothesis predicts that the emergence of sound categories is driven by a cognitive bias to make these categories maximally distinct, resulting in more skewed distributions in participants’ reproductions. However, our participants showed more centered distributions, which goes against this hypothesis, indicating that there are no strong innate linguistic biases that affect learning these speech-like sounds. The centralization behavior can be explained by a lack of communicative pressure to maintain categories.

  17. Between-Word Simplification Patterns in the Continuous Speech of Children with Speech Sound Disorders

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    Klein, Harriet B.; Liu-Shea, May

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: This study was designed to identify and describe between-word simplification patterns in the continuous speech of children with speech sound disorders. It was hypothesized that word combinations would reveal phonological changes that were unobserved with single words, possibly accounting for discrepancies between the intelligibility of…

  18. Intensive treatment with ultrasound visual feedback for speech sound errors in childhood apraxia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonathan L Preston

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Ultrasound imaging is an adjunct to traditional speech therapy that has shown to be beneficial in the remediation of speech sound errors. Ultrasound biofeedback can be utilized during therapy to provide clients additional knowledge about their tongue shapes when attempting to produce sounds that are in error. The additional feedback may assist children with childhood apraxia of speech in stabilizing motor patterns, thereby facilitating more consistent and accurate productions of sounds and syllables. However, due to its specialized nature, ultrasound visual feedback is a technology that is not widely available to clients. Short-term intensive treatment programs are one option that can be utilized to expand access to ultrasound biofeedback. Schema-based motor learning theory suggests that short-term intensive treatment programs (massed practice may assist children in acquiring more accurate motor patterns. In this case series, three participants ages 10-14 diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech attended 16 hours of speech therapy over a two-week period to address residual speech sound errors. Two participants had distortions on rhotic sounds, while the third participant demonstrated lateralization of sibilant sounds. During therapy, cues were provided to assist participants in obtaining a tongue shape that facilitated a correct production of the erred sound. Additional practice without ultrasound was also included. Results suggested that all participants showed signs of acquisition of sounds in error. Generalization and retention results were mixed. One participant showed generalization and retention of sounds that were treated; one showed generalization but limited retention; and the third showed no evidence of generalization or retention. Individual characteristics that may facilitate generalization are discussed. Short-term intensive treatment programs using ultrasound biofeedback may result in the acquisition of more accurate motor

  19. The functional anatomy of speech perception: Dorsal and ventral processing pathways

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hickok, Gregory

    2003-04-01

    Drawing on recent developments in the cortical organization of vision, and on data from a variety of sources, Hickok and Poeppel (2000) have proposed a new model of the functional anatomy of speech perception. The model posits that early cortical stages of speech perception involve auditory fields in the superior temporal gyrus bilaterally (although asymmetrically). This cortical processing system then diverges into two broad processing streams, a ventral stream, involved in mapping sound onto meaning, and a dorsal stream, involved in mapping sound onto articulatory-based representations. The ventral stream projects ventrolaterally toward inferior posterior temporal cortex which serves as an interface between sound and meaning. The dorsal stream projects dorsoposteriorly toward the parietal lobe and ultimately to frontal regions. This network provides a mechanism for the development and maintenance of ``parity'' between auditory and motor representations of speech. Although the dorsal stream represents a tight connection between speech perception and speech production, it is not a critical component of the speech perception process under ecologically natural listening conditions. Some degree of bi-directionality in both the dorsal and ventral pathways is also proposed. A variety of recent empirical tests of this model have provided further support for the proposal.

  20. Mechanisms underlying speech sound discrimination and categorization in humans and zebra finches

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Burgering, Merel A.; ten Cate, Carel; Vroomen, Jean

    Speech sound categorization in birds seems in many ways comparable to that by humans, but it is unclear what mechanisms underlie such categorization. To examine this, we trained zebra finches and humans to discriminate two pairs of edited speech sounds that varied either along one dimension (vowel

  1. Auditory cortex processes variation in our own speech.

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    Kevin R Sitek

    Full Text Available As we talk, we unconsciously adjust our speech to ensure it sounds the way we intend it to sound. However, because speech production involves complex motor planning and execution, no two utterances of the same sound will be exactly the same. Here, we show that auditory cortex is sensitive to natural variations in self-produced speech from utterance to utterance. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs from ninety-nine subjects while they uttered "ah" and while they listened to those speech sounds played back. Subjects' utterances were sorted based on their formant deviations from the previous utterance. Typically, the N1 ERP component is suppressed during talking compared to listening. By comparing ERPs to the least and most variable utterances, we found that N1 was less suppressed to utterances that differed greatly from their preceding neighbors. In contrast, an utterance's difference from the median formant values did not affect N1. Trial-to-trial pitch (f0 deviation and pitch difference from the median similarly did not affect N1. We discuss mechanisms that may underlie the change in N1 suppression resulting from trial-to-trial formant change. Deviant utterances require additional auditory cortical processing, suggesting that speaking-induced suppression mechanisms are optimally tuned for a specific production.

  2. Auditory Cortex Processes Variation in Our Own Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sitek, Kevin R.; Mathalon, Daniel H.; Roach, Brian J.; Houde, John F.; Niziolek, Caroline A.; Ford, Judith M.

    2013-01-01

    As we talk, we unconsciously adjust our speech to ensure it sounds the way we intend it to sound. However, because speech production involves complex motor planning and execution, no two utterances of the same sound will be exactly the same. Here, we show that auditory cortex is sensitive to natural variations in self-produced speech from utterance to utterance. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from ninety-nine subjects while they uttered “ah” and while they listened to those speech sounds played back. Subjects' utterances were sorted based on their formant deviations from the previous utterance. Typically, the N1 ERP component is suppressed during talking compared to listening. By comparing ERPs to the least and most variable utterances, we found that N1 was less suppressed to utterances that differed greatly from their preceding neighbors. In contrast, an utterance's difference from the median formant values did not affect N1. Trial-to-trial pitch (f0) deviation and pitch difference from the median similarly did not affect N1. We discuss mechanisms that may underlie the change in N1 suppression resulting from trial-to-trial formant change. Deviant utterances require additional auditory cortical processing, suggesting that speaking-induced suppression mechanisms are optimally tuned for a specific production. PMID:24349399

  3. Phoneme Compression: processing of the speech signal and effects on speech intelligibility in hearing-Impaired listeners

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    A. Goedegebure (Andre)

    2005-01-01

    textabstractHearing-aid users often continue to have problems with poor speech understanding in difficult acoustical conditions. Another generally accounted problem is that certain sounds become too loud whereas other sounds are still not audible. Dynamic range compression is a signal processing

  4. Office noise: Can headphones and masking sound attenuate distraction by background speech?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jahncke, Helena; Björkeholm, Patrik; Marsh, John E; Odelius, Johan; Sörqvist, Patrik

    2016-11-22

    Background speech is one of the most disturbing noise sources at shared workplaces in terms of both annoyance and performance-related disruption. Therefore, it is important to identify techniques that can efficiently protect performance against distraction. It is also important that the techniques are perceived as satisfactory and are subjectively evaluated as effective in their capacity to reduce distraction. The aim of the current study was to compare three methods of attenuating distraction from background speech: masking a background voice with nature sound through headphones, masking a background voice with other voices through headphones and merely wearing headphones (without masking) as a way to attenuate the background sound. Quiet was deployed as a baseline condition. Thirty students participated in an experiment employing a repeated measures design. Performance (serial short-term memory) was impaired by background speech (1 voice), but this impairment was attenuated when the speech was masked - and in particular when it was masked by nature sound. Furthermore, perceived workload was lowest in the quiet condition and significantly higher in all other sound conditions. Notably, the headphones tested as a sound-attenuating device (i.e. without masking) did not protect against the effects of background speech on performance and subjective work load. Nature sound was the only masking condition that worked as a protector of performance, at least in the context of the serial recall task. However, despite the attenuation of distraction by nature sound, perceived workload was still high - suggesting that it is difficult to find a masker that is both effective and perceived as satisfactory.

  5. Music and language expertise influence the categorization of speech and musical sounds: behavioral and electrophysiological measurements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elmer, Stefan; Klein, Carina; Kühnis, Jürg; Liem, Franziskus; Meyer, Martin; Jäncke, Lutz

    2014-10-01

    In this study, we used high-density EEG to evaluate whether speech and music expertise has an influence on the categorization of expertise-related and unrelated sounds. With this purpose in mind, we compared the categorization of speech, music, and neutral sounds between professional musicians, simultaneous interpreters (SIs), and controls in response to morphed speech-noise, music-noise, and speech-music continua. Our hypothesis was that music and language expertise will strengthen the memory representations of prototypical sounds, which act as a perceptual magnet for morphed variants. This means that the prototype would "attract" variants. This so-called magnet effect should be manifested by an increased assignment of morphed items to the trained category, by a reduced maximal slope of the psychometric function, as well as by differential event-related brain responses reflecting memory comparison processes (i.e., N400 and P600 responses). As a main result, we provide first evidence for a domain-specific behavioral bias of musicians and SIs toward the trained categories, namely music and speech. In addition, SIs showed a bias toward musical items, indicating that interpreting training has a generic influence on the cognitive representation of spectrotemporal signals with similar acoustic properties to speech sounds. Notably, EEG measurements revealed clear distinct N400 and P600 responses to both prototypical and ambiguous items between the three groups at anterior, central, and posterior scalp sites. These differential N400 and P600 responses represent synchronous activity occurring across widely distributed brain networks, and indicate a dynamical recruitment of memory processes that vary as a function of training and expertise.

  6. Irrelevant sound disrupts speech production: exploring the relationship between short-term memory and experimentally induced slips of the tongue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saito, Satoru; Baddeley, Alan

    2004-10-01

    To explore the relationship between short-term memory and speech production, we developed a speech error induction technique. The technique, which was adapted from a Japanese word game, exposed participants to an auditory distractor word immediately before the utterance of a target word. In Experiment 1, the distractor words that were phonologically similar to the target word led to a greater number of errors in speaking the target than did the dissimilar distractor words. Furthermore, the speech error scores were significantly correlated with memory span scores. In Experiment 2, memory span scores were again correlated with the rate of the speech errors that were induced from the task-irrelevant speech sounds. Experiment 3 showed a strong irrelevant-sound effect in the serial recall of nonwords. The magnitude of the irrelevant-sound effects was not affected by phonological similarity between the to-be-remembered nonwords and the irrelevant-sound materials. Analysis of recall errors in Experiment 3 also suggested that there were no essential differences in recall error patterns between the dissimilar and similar irrelevant-sound conditions. We proposed two different underlying mechanisms in immediate memory, one operating via the phonological short-term memory store and the other via the processes underpinning speech production.

  7. Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children. Communication Disorders across Languages

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Sharynne; Goldstein, Brian

    2012-01-01

    Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children explores both multilingual and multicultural aspects of children with speech sound disorders. The 30 chapters have been written by 44 authors from 16 different countries about 112 languages and dialects. The book is designed to translate research into clinical practice. It is divided into…

  8. Patterns and risk factors associated with speech sounds and language disorders in pakistan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arshad, H.; Ghayas, M.S.; Madiha, A.

    2013-01-01

    To observe the patterns of speech sounds and language disorders. To find out associated risk factors of speech sounds and language disorders. Background: Communication is the very essence of modern society. Communication disorders impacts quality of life. Patterns and factors associated with speech sounds and language impairments were explored. The association was seen with different environmental factors. Methodology: The patients included in the study were 200 whose age ranged between two and sixteen years presented in speech therapy clinic OPD Mayo Hospital. A cross-sectional survey questionnaire assessed the patient's bio data, socioeconomic background, family history of communication disorders and bilingualism. It was a descriptive study and was conducted through cross-sectional survey. Data was analysed by SPSS version 16. Results: Results reveal Language disorders were relatively more prevalent in males than those of speech sound disorders. Bilingualism was found as having insignificant effect on these disorders. It was concluded from this study that the socioeconomic status and family history were significant risk factors. Conclusion: Gender, socioeconomic status, family history can play as risk for developing speech sounds and language disorders. There is a grave need to understand patterns of communication disorders in the light of Pakistani society and culture. It is recommended to conduct further studies to determine risk factors and patterns of these impairments. (author)

  9. Teaching Letter Sounds in Preschool, Kindergarten, and Special Education: Five Strategies to Ease the Memory Burden

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordon, Lynn

    2010-01-01

    Teaching students the most frequent sounds of the alphabet letters is the first crucial step in good phonics instruction. But beginning letter and sound lessons, especially if poorly taught or too rapidly paced, can be overwhelming and confusing for some young children and struggling readers. How can we simplify the cognitive task for such…

  10. Hemispheric lateralization in an analysis of speech sounds. Left hemisphere dominance replicated in Japanese subjects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koyama, S; Gunji, A; Yabe, H; Oiwa, S; Akahane-Yamada, R; Kakigi, R; Näätänen, R

    2000-09-01

    Evoked magnetic responses to speech sounds [R. Näätänen, A. Lehtokoski, M. Lennes, M. Cheour, M. Huotilainen, A. Iivonen, M. Vainio, P. Alku, R.J. Ilmoniemi, A. Luuk, J. Allik, J. Sinkkonen and K. Alho, Language-specific phoneme representations revealed by electric and magnetic brain responses. Nature, 385 (1997) 432-434.] were recorded from 13 Japanese subjects (right-handed). Infrequently presented vowels ([o]) among repetitive vowels ([e]) elicited the magnetic counterpart of mismatch negativity, MMNm (Bilateral, nine subjects; Left hemisphere alone, three subjects; Right hemisphere alone, one subject). The estimated source of the MMNm was stronger in the left than in the right auditory cortex. The sources were located posteriorly in the left than in the right auditory cortex. These findings are consistent with the results obtained in Finnish [R. Näätänen, A. Lehtokoski, M. Lennes, M. Cheour, M. Huotilainen, A. Iivonen, M.Vainio, P.Alku, R.J. Ilmoniemi, A. Luuk, J. Allik, J. Sinkkonen and K. Alho, Language-specific phoneme representations revealed by electric and magnetic brain responses. Nature, 385 (1997) 432-434.][T. Rinne, K. Alho, P. Alku, M. Holi, J. Sinkkonen, J. Virtanen, O. Bertrand and R. Näätänen, Analysis of speech sounds is left-hemisphere predominant at 100-150 ms after sound onset. Neuroreport, 10 (1999) 1113-1117.] and English [K. Alho, J.F. Connolly, M. Cheour, A. Lehtokoski, M. Huotilainen, J. Virtanen, R. Aulanko and R.J. Ilmoniemi, Hemispheric lateralization in preattentive processing of speech sounds. Neurosci. Lett., 258 (1998) 9-12.] subjects. Instead of the P1m observed in Finnish [M. Tervaniemi, A. Kujala, K. Alho, J. Virtanen, R.J. Ilmoniemi and R. Näätänen, Functional specialization of the human auditory cortex in processing phonetic and musical sounds: A magnetoencephalographic (MEG) study. Neuroimage, 9 (1999) 330-336.] and English [K. Alho, J. F. Connolly, M. Cheour, A. Lehtokoski, M. Huotilainen, J. Virtanen, R. Aulanko

  11. What characterizes changing-state speech in affecting short-term memory? An EEG study on the irrelevant sound effect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlittmeier, Sabine J; Weisz, Nathan; Bertrand, Olivier

    2011-12-01

    The irrelevant sound effect (ISE) describes reduced verbal short-term memory during irrelevant changing-state sounds which consist of different and distinct auditory tokens. Steady-state sounds lack such changing-state features and do not impair performance. An EEG experiment (N=16) explored the distinguishing neurophysiological aspects of detrimental changing-state speech (3-token sequence) compared to ineffective steady-state speech (1-token sequence) on serial recall performance. We analyzed evoked and induced activity related to the memory items as well as spectral activity during the retention phase. The main finding is that the behavioral sound effect was exclusively reflected by attenuated token-induced gamma activation most pronounced between 50-60 Hz and 50-100 ms post-stimulus onset. Changing-state speech seems to disrupt a behaviorally relevant ongoing process during target presentation (e.g., the serial binding of the items). Copyright © 2011 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  12. Recent advances in nonlinear speech processing

    CERN Document Server

    Faundez-Zanuy, Marcos; Esposito, Antonietta; Cordasco, Gennaro; Drugman, Thomas; Solé-Casals, Jordi; Morabito, Francesco

    2016-01-01

    This book presents recent advances in nonlinear speech processing beyond nonlinear techniques. It shows that it exploits heuristic and psychological models of human interaction in order to succeed in the implementations of socially believable VUIs and applications for human health and psychological support. The book takes into account the multifunctional role of speech and what is “outside of the box” (see Björn Schuller’s foreword). To this aim, the book is organized in 6 sections, each collecting a small number of short chapters reporting advances “inside” and “outside” themes related to nonlinear speech research. The themes emphasize theoretical and practical issues for modelling socially believable speech interfaces, ranging from efforts to capture the nature of sound changes in linguistic contexts and the timing nature of speech; labors to identify and detect speech features that help in the diagnosis of psychological and neuronal disease, attempts to improve the effectiveness and performa...

  13. Experience with speech sounds is not necessary for cue trading by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mary Flaherty

    Full Text Available The influence of experience with human speech sounds on speech perception in budgerigars, vocal mimics whose speech exposure can be tightly controlled in a laboratory setting, was measured. Budgerigars were divided into groups that differed in auditory exposure and then tested on a cue-trading identification paradigm with synthetic speech. Phonetic cue trading is a perceptual phenomenon observed when changes on one cue dimension are offset by changes in another cue dimension while still maintaining the same phonetic percept. The current study examined whether budgerigars would trade the cues of voice onset time (VOT and the first formant onset frequency when identifying syllable initial stop consonants and if this would be influenced by exposure to speech sounds. There were a total of four different exposure groups: No speech exposure (completely isolated, Passive speech exposure (regular exposure to human speech, and two Speech-trained groups. After the exposure period, all budgerigars were tested for phonetic cue trading using operant conditioning procedures. Birds were trained to peck keys in response to different synthetic speech sounds that began with "d" or "t" and varied in VOT and frequency of the first formant at voicing onset. Once training performance criteria were met, budgerigars were presented with the entire intermediate series, including ambiguous sounds. Responses on these trials were used to determine which speech cues were used, if a trading relation between VOT and the onset frequency of the first formant was present, and whether speech exposure had an influence on perception. Cue trading was found in all birds and these results were largely similar to those of a group of humans. Results indicated that prior speech experience was not a requirement for cue trading by budgerigars. The results are consistent with theories that explain phonetic cue trading in terms of a rich auditory encoding of the speech signal.

  14. Relationship between individual differences in speech processing and cognitive functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ou, Jinghua; Law, Sam-Po; Fung, Roxana

    2015-12-01

    A growing body of research has suggested that cognitive abilities may play a role in individual differences in speech processing. The present study took advantage of a widespread linguistic phenomenon of sound change to systematically assess the relationships between speech processing and various components of attention and working memory in the auditory and visual modalities among typically developed Cantonese-speaking individuals. The individual variations in speech processing are captured in an ongoing sound change-tone merging in Hong Kong Cantonese, in which typically developed native speakers are reported to lose the distinctions between some tonal contrasts in perception and/or production. Three groups of participants were recruited, with a first group of good perception and production, a second group of good perception but poor production, and a third group of good production but poor perception. Our findings revealed that modality-independent abilities of attentional switching/control and working memory might contribute to individual differences in patterns of speech perception and production as well as discrimination latencies among typically developed speakers. The findings not only have the potential to generalize to speech processing in other languages, but also broaden our understanding of the omnipresent phenomenon of language change in all languages.

  15. The Clinical Practice of Speech and Language Therapists with Children with Phonologically Based Speech Sound Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliveira, Carla; Lousada, Marisa; Jesus, Luis M. T.

    2015-01-01

    Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) represent a large number of speech and language therapists' caseloads. The intervention with children who have SSD can involve different therapy approaches, and these may be articulatory or phonologically based. Some international studies reveal a widespread application of articulatory based approaches in…

  16. The speech perception skills of children with and without speech sound disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hearnshaw, Stephanie; Baker, Elise; Munro, Natalie

    To investigate whether Australian-English speaking children with and without speech sound disorder (SSD) differ in their overall speech perception accuracy. Additionally, to investigate differences in the perception of specific phonemes and the association between speech perception and speech production skills. Twenty-five Australian-English speaking children aged 48-60 months participated in this study. The SSD group included 12 children and the typically developing (TD) group included 13 children. Children completed routine speech and language assessments in addition to an experimental Australian-English lexical and phonetic judgement task based on Rvachew's Speech Assessment and Interactive Learning System (SAILS) program (Rvachew, 2009). This task included eight words across four word-initial phonemes-/k, ɹ, ʃ, s/. Children with SSD showed significantly poorer perceptual accuracy on the lexical and phonetic judgement task compared with TD peers. The phonemes /ɹ/ and /s/ were most frequently perceived in error across both groups. Additionally, the phoneme /ɹ/ was most commonly produced in error. There was also a positive correlation between overall speech perception and speech production scores. Children with SSD perceived speech less accurately than their typically developing peers. The findings suggest that an Australian-English variation of a lexical and phonetic judgement task similar to the SAILS program is promising and worthy of a larger scale study. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Differences between the production of [s] and [ʃ] in the speech of adults, typically developing children, and children with speech sound disorders: An ultrasound study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francisco, Danira Tavares; Wertzner, Haydée Fiszbein

    2017-01-01

    This study describes the criteria that are used in ultrasound to measure the differences between the tongue contours that produce [s] and [ʃ] sounds in the speech of adults, typically developing children (TDC), and children with speech sound disorder (SSD) with the phonological process of palatal fronting. Overlapping images of the tongue contours that resulted from 35 subjects producing the [s] and [ʃ] sounds were analysed to select 11 spokes on the radial grid that were spread over the tongue contour. The difference was calculated between the mean contour of the [s] and [ʃ] sounds for each spoke. A cluster analysis produced groups with some consistency in the pattern of articulation across subjects and differentiated adults and TDC to some extent and children with SSD with a high level of success. Children with SSD were less likely to show differentiation of the tongue contours between the articulation of [s] and [ʃ].

  18. Hearing aid processing of loud speech and noise signals: Consequences for loudness perception and listening comfort

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schmidt, Erik

    2007-01-01

    sounds, has found that both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners prefer loud sounds to be closer to the most comfortable loudness-level, than suggested by common non-linear fitting rules. During this project, two listening experiments were carried out. In the first experiment, hearing aid users......Hearing aid processing of loud speech and noise signals: Consequences for loudness perception and listening comfort. Sound processing in hearing aids is determined by the fitting rule. The fitting rule describes how the hearing aid should amplify speech and sounds in the surroundings......, such that they become audible again for the hearing impaired person. The general goal is to place all sounds within the hearing aid users’ audible range, such that speech intelligibility and listening comfort become as good as possible. Amplification strategies in hearing aids are in many cases based on empirical...

  19. Speech sound disorder at 4 years: prevalence, comorbidities, and predictors in a community cohort of children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eadie, Patricia; Morgan, Angela; Ukoumunne, Obioha C; Ttofari Eecen, Kyriaki; Wake, Melissa; Reilly, Sheena

    2015-06-01

    The epidemiology of preschool speech sound disorder is poorly understood. Our aims were to determine: the prevalence of idiopathic speech sound disorder; the comorbidity of speech sound disorder with language and pre-literacy difficulties; and the factors contributing to speech outcome at 4 years. One thousand four hundred and ninety-four participants from an Australian longitudinal cohort completed speech, language, and pre-literacy assessments at 4 years. Prevalence of speech sound disorder (SSD) was defined by standard score performance of ≤79 on a speech assessment. Logistic regression examined predictors of SSD within four domains: child and family; parent-reported speech; cognitive-linguistic; and parent-reported motor skills. At 4 years the prevalence of speech disorder in an Australian cohort was 3.4%. Comorbidity with SSD was 40.8% for language disorder and 20.8% for poor pre-literacy skills. Sex, maternal vocabulary, socio-economic status, and family history of speech and language difficulties predicted SSD, as did 2-year speech, language, and motor skills. Together these variables provided good discrimination of SSD (area under the curve=0.78). This is the first epidemiological study to demonstrate prevalence of SSD at 4 years of age that was consistent with previous clinical studies. Early detection of SSD at 4 years should focus on family variables and speech, language, and motor skills measured at 2 years. © 2014 Mac Keith Press.

  20. Neural Correlates of Indicators of Sound Change in Cantonese: Evidence from Cortical and Subcortical Processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maggu, Akshay R; Liu, Fang; Antoniou, Mark; Wong, Patrick C M

    2016-01-01

    Across time, languages undergo changes in phonetic, syntactic, and semantic dimensions. Social, cognitive, and cultural factors contribute to sound change, a phenomenon in which the phonetics of a language undergo changes over time. Individuals who misperceive and produce speech in a slightly divergent manner (called innovators ) contribute to variability in the society, eventually leading to sound change. However, the cause of variability in these individuals is still unknown. In this study, we examined whether such misperceptions are represented in neural processes of the auditory system. We investigated behavioral, subcortical (via FFR), and cortical (via P300) manifestations of sound change processing in Cantonese, a Chinese language in which several lexical tones are merging. Across the merging categories, we observed a similar gradation of speech perception abilities in both behavior and the brain (subcortical and cortical processes). Further, we also found that behavioral evidence of tone merging correlated with subjects' encoding at the subcortical and cortical levels. These findings indicate that tone-merger categories, that are indicators of sound change in Cantonese, are represented neurophysiologically with high fidelity. Using our results, we speculate that innovators encode speech in a slightly deviant neurophysiological manner, and thus produce speech divergently that eventually spreads across the community and contributes to sound change.

  1. Sound localization and speech identification in the frontal median plane with a hear-through headset

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hoffmann, Pablo F.; Møller, Anders Kalsgaard; Christensen, Flemming

    2014-01-01

    signals can be superimposed via earphone reproduction. An important aspect of the hear-through headset is its transparency, i.e. how close to real life can the electronically amplied sounds be perceived. Here we report experiments conducted to evaluate the auditory transparency of a hear-through headset...... prototype by comparing human performance in natural, hear-through, and fully occluded conditions for two spatial tasks: frontal vertical-plane sound localization and speech-on-speech spatial release from masking. Results showed that localization performance was impaired by the hear-through headset relative...... to the natural condition though not as much as in the fully occluded condition. Localization was affected the least when the sound source was in front of the listeners. Different from the vertical localization performance, results from the speech task suggest that normal speech-on-speech spatial release from...

  2. Use of a Deep Recurrent Neural Network to Reduce Wind Noise: Effects on Judged Speech Intelligibility and Sound Quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keshavarzi, Mahmoud; Goehring, Tobias; Zakis, Justin; Turner, Richard E; Moore, Brian C J

    2018-01-01

    Despite great advances in hearing-aid technology, users still experience problems with noise in windy environments. The potential benefits of using a deep recurrent neural network (RNN) for reducing wind noise were assessed. The RNN was trained using recordings of the output of the two microphones of a behind-the-ear hearing aid in response to male and female speech at various azimuths in the presence of noise produced by wind from various azimuths with a velocity of 3 m/s, using the "clean" speech as a reference. A paired-comparison procedure was used to compare all possible combinations of three conditions for subjective intelligibility and for sound quality or comfort. The conditions were unprocessed noisy speech, noisy speech processed using the RNN, and noisy speech that was high-pass filtered (which also reduced wind noise). Eighteen native English-speaking participants were tested, nine with normal hearing and nine with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment. Frequency-dependent linear amplification was provided for the latter. Processing using the RNN was significantly preferred over no processing by both subject groups for both subjective intelligibility and sound quality, although the magnitude of the preferences was small. High-pass filtering (HPF) was not significantly preferred over no processing. Although RNN was significantly preferred over HPF only for sound quality for the hearing-impaired participants, for the results as a whole, there was a preference for RNN over HPF. Overall, the results suggest that reduction of wind noise using an RNN is possible and might have beneficial effects when used in hearing aids.

  3. Use of a Deep Recurrent Neural Network to Reduce Wind Noise: Effects on Judged Speech Intelligibility and Sound Quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keshavarzi, Mahmoud; Goehring, Tobias; Zakis, Justin; Turner, Richard E.; Moore, Brian C. J.

    2018-01-01

    Despite great advances in hearing-aid technology, users still experience problems with noise in windy environments. The potential benefits of using a deep recurrent neural network (RNN) for reducing wind noise were assessed. The RNN was trained using recordings of the output of the two microphones of a behind-the-ear hearing aid in response to male and female speech at various azimuths in the presence of noise produced by wind from various azimuths with a velocity of 3 m/s, using the “clean” speech as a reference. A paired-comparison procedure was used to compare all possible combinations of three conditions for subjective intelligibility and for sound quality or comfort. The conditions were unprocessed noisy speech, noisy speech processed using the RNN, and noisy speech that was high-pass filtered (which also reduced wind noise). Eighteen native English-speaking participants were tested, nine with normal hearing and nine with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment. Frequency-dependent linear amplification was provided for the latter. Processing using the RNN was significantly preferred over no processing by both subject groups for both subjective intelligibility and sound quality, although the magnitude of the preferences was small. High-pass filtering (HPF) was not significantly preferred over no processing. Although RNN was significantly preferred over HPF only for sound quality for the hearing-impaired participants, for the results as a whole, there was a preference for RNN over HPF. Overall, the results suggest that reduction of wind noise using an RNN is possible and might have beneficial effects when used in hearing aids. PMID:29708061

  4. Identifying Residual Speech Sound Disorders in Bilingual Children: A Japanese-English Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Preston, Jonathan L.; Seki, Ayumi

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: To describe (a) the assessment of residual speech sound disorders (SSDs) in bilinguals by distinguishing speech patterns associated with second language acquisition from patterns associated with misarticulations and (b) how assessment of domains such as speech motor control and phonological awareness can provide a more complete…

  5. Severe Speech Sound Disorders: An Integrated Multimodal Intervention

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Amie M.; Hengst, Julie A.; DeThorne, Laura S.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: This study introduces an integrated multimodal intervention (IMI) and examines its effectiveness for the treatment of persistent and severe speech sound disorders (SSD) in young children. The IMI is an activity-based intervention that focuses simultaneously on increasing the "quantity" of a child's meaningful productions of target words…

  6. Focal versus distributed temporal cortex activity for speech sound category assignment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouton, Sophie; Chambon, Valérian; Tyrand, Rémi; Seeck, Margitta; Karkar, Sami; van de Ville, Dimitri; Giraud, Anne-Lise

    2018-01-01

    Percepts and words can be decoded from distributed neural activity measures. However, the existence of widespread representations might conflict with the more classical notions of hierarchical processing and efficient coding, which are especially relevant in speech processing. Using fMRI and magnetoencephalography during syllable identification, we show that sensory and decisional activity colocalize to a restricted part of the posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG). Next, using intracortical recordings, we demonstrate that early and focal neural activity in this region distinguishes correct from incorrect decisions and can be machine-decoded to classify syllables. Crucially, significant machine decoding was possible from neuronal activity sampled across different regions of the temporal and frontal lobes, despite weak or absent sensory or decision-related responses. These findings show that speech-sound categorization relies on an efficient readout of focal pSTG neural activity, while more distributed activity patterns, although classifiable by machine learning, instead reflect collateral processes of sensory perception and decision. PMID:29363598

  7. Preschool Speech Error Patterns Predict Articulation and Phonological Awareness Outcomes in Children with Histories of Speech Sound Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Preston, Jonathan L.; Hull, Margaret; Edwards, Mary Louise

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To determine if speech error patterns in preschoolers with speech sound disorders (SSDs) predict articulation and phonological awareness (PA) outcomes almost 4 years later. Method: Twenty-five children with histories of preschool SSDs (and normal receptive language) were tested at an average age of 4;6 (years;months) and were followed up…

  8. Atypical central auditory speech-sound discrimination in children who stutter as indexed by the mismatch negativity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jansson-Verkasalo, E.; Eggers, K.; Järvenpää, A.; Suominen, K.; Van Den Bergh, B.R.H.; de Nil, L.; Kujala, T.

    2014-01-01

    Purpose Recent theoretical conceptualizations suggest that disfluencies in stuttering may arise from several factors, one of them being atypical auditory processing. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether speech sound encoding and central auditory discrimination, are

  9. Auditory Brainstem Response to Complex Sounds Predicts Self-Reported Speech-in-Noise Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Samira; Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; White-Schwoch, Travis; Kraus, Nina

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To compare the ability of the auditory brainstem response to complex sounds (cABR) to predict subjective ratings of speech understanding in noise on the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ; Gatehouse & Noble, 2004) relative to the predictive ability of the Quick Speech-in-Noise test (QuickSIN; Killion, Niquette,…

  10. Musicians' Enhanced Neural Differentiation of Speech Sounds Arises Early in Life: Developmental Evidence from Ages 3 to 30

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strait, Dana L.; O'Connell, Samantha; Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Kraus, Nina

    2014-01-01

    The perception and neural representation of acoustically similar speech sounds underlie language development. Music training hones the perception of minute acoustic differences that distinguish sounds; this training may generalize to speech processing given that adult musicians have enhanced neural differentiation of similar speech syllables compared with nonmusicians. Here, we asked whether this neural advantage in musicians is present early in life by assessing musically trained and untrained children as young as age 3. We assessed auditory brainstem responses to the speech syllables /ba/ and /ga/ as well as auditory and visual cognitive abilities in musicians and nonmusicians across 3 developmental time-points: preschoolers, school-aged children, and adults. Cross-phase analyses objectively measured the degree to which subcortical responses differed to these speech syllables in musicians and nonmusicians for each age group. Results reveal that musicians exhibit enhanced neural differentiation of stop consonants early in life and with as little as a few years of training. Furthermore, the extent of subcortical stop consonant distinction correlates with auditory-specific cognitive abilities (i.e., auditory working memory and attention). Results are interpreted according to a corticofugal framework for auditory learning in which subcortical processing enhancements are engendered by strengthened cognitive control over auditory function in musicians. PMID:23599166

  11. Modeling auditory processing and speech perception in hearing-impaired listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jepsen, Morten Løve

    in a diagnostic rhyme test. The framework was constructed such that discrimination errors originating from the front-end and the back-end were separated. The front-end was fitted to individual listeners with cochlear hearing loss according to non-speech data, and speech data were obtained in the same listeners......A better understanding of how the human auditory system represents and analyzes sounds and how hearing impairment affects such processing is of great interest for researchers in the fields of auditory neuroscience, audiology, and speech communication as well as for applications in hearing......-instrument and speech technology. In this thesis, the primary focus was on the development and evaluation of a computational model of human auditory signal-processing and perception. The model was initially designed to simulate the normal-hearing auditory system with particular focus on the nonlinear processing...

  12. What does learner speech sound like? A case study on adult learners of isiXhosa

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Badenhorst, Jaco

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available moved during recording or by a sound/beep that results from the press of a button and an obstruction of the device microphone. • Low volume: Speech is too soft to understand what is being said. • Whispering: Speaker whispers during recording. • Laughter...-processing categories. If any of these categories were marked for a particular utterance, the utterance was discarded. The event categories were combined as follows: • Option 1: Empty, Whispering, Laughter, Background speech, Transcription mismatch • Option 2: Empty...

  13. IEP goals for school-age children with speech sound disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farquharson, Kelly; Tambyraja, Sherine R; Justice, Laura M; Redle, Erin E

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the current study was to describe the current state of practice for writing Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals for children with speech sound disorders (SSDs). IEP goals for 146 children receiving services for SSDs within public school systems across two states were coded for their dominant theoretical framework and overall quality. A dichotomous scheme was used for theoretical framework coding: cognitive-linguistic or sensory-motor. Goal quality was determined by examining 7 specific indicators outlined by an empirically tested rating tool. In total, 147 long-term and 490 short-term goals were coded. The results revealed no dominant theoretical framework for long-term goals, whereas short-term goals largely reflected a sensory-motor framework. In terms of quality, the majority of speech production goals were functional and generalizable in nature, but were not able to be easily targeted during common daily tasks or by other members of the IEP team. Short-term goals were consistently rated higher in quality domains when compared to long-term goals. The current state of practice for writing IEP goals for children with SSDs indicates that theoretical framework may be eclectic in nature and likely written to support the individual needs of children with speech sound disorders. Further investigation is warranted to determine the relations between goal quality and child outcomes. (1) Identify two predominant theoretical frameworks and discuss how they apply to IEP goal writing. (2) Discuss quality indicators as they relate to IEP goals for children with speech sound disorders. (3) Discuss the relationship between long-term goals level of quality and related theoretical frameworks. (4) Identify the areas in which business-as-usual IEP goals exhibit strong quality.

  14. Atypical speech versus non-speech detection and discrimination in 4- to 6- yr old children with autism spectrum disorder: An ERP study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alena Galilee

    Full Text Available Previous event-related potential (ERP research utilizing oddball stimulus paradigms suggests diminished processing of speech versus non-speech sounds in children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD. However, brain mechanisms underlying these speech processing abnormalities, and to what extent they are related to poor language abilities in this population remain unknown. In the current study, we utilized a novel paired repetition paradigm in order to investigate ERP responses associated with the detection and discrimination of speech and non-speech sounds in 4- to 6-year old children with ASD, compared with gender and verbal age matched controls. ERPs were recorded while children passively listened to pairs of stimuli that were either both speech sounds, both non-speech sounds, speech followed by non-speech, or non-speech followed by speech. Control participants exhibited N330 match/mismatch responses measured from temporal electrodes, reflecting speech versus non-speech detection, bilaterally, whereas children with ASD exhibited this effect only over temporal electrodes in the left hemisphere. Furthermore, while the control groups exhibited match/mismatch effects at approximately 600 ms (central N600, temporal P600 when a non-speech sound was followed by a speech sound, these effects were absent in the ASD group. These findings suggest that children with ASD fail to activate right hemisphere mechanisms, likely associated with social or emotional aspects of speech detection, when distinguishing non-speech from speech stimuli. Together, these results demonstrate the presence of atypical speech versus non-speech processing in children with ASD when compared with typically developing children matched on verbal age.

  15. Atypical speech versus non-speech detection and discrimination in 4- to 6- yr old children with autism spectrum disorder: An ERP study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galilee, Alena; Stefanidou, Chrysi; McCleery, Joseph P

    2017-01-01

    Previous event-related potential (ERP) research utilizing oddball stimulus paradigms suggests diminished processing of speech versus non-speech sounds in children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, brain mechanisms underlying these speech processing abnormalities, and to what extent they are related to poor language abilities in this population remain unknown. In the current study, we utilized a novel paired repetition paradigm in order to investigate ERP responses associated with the detection and discrimination of speech and non-speech sounds in 4- to 6-year old children with ASD, compared with gender and verbal age matched controls. ERPs were recorded while children passively listened to pairs of stimuli that were either both speech sounds, both non-speech sounds, speech followed by non-speech, or non-speech followed by speech. Control participants exhibited N330 match/mismatch responses measured from temporal electrodes, reflecting speech versus non-speech detection, bilaterally, whereas children with ASD exhibited this effect only over temporal electrodes in the left hemisphere. Furthermore, while the control groups exhibited match/mismatch effects at approximately 600 ms (central N600, temporal P600) when a non-speech sound was followed by a speech sound, these effects were absent in the ASD group. These findings suggest that children with ASD fail to activate right hemisphere mechanisms, likely associated with social or emotional aspects of speech detection, when distinguishing non-speech from speech stimuli. Together, these results demonstrate the presence of atypical speech versus non-speech processing in children with ASD when compared with typically developing children matched on verbal age.

  16. Processing Complex Sounds Passing through the Rostral Brainstem: The New Early Filter Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marsh, John E.; Campbell, Tom A.

    2016-01-01

    The rostral brainstem receives both “bottom-up” input from the ascending auditory system and “top-down” descending corticofugal connections. Speech information passing through the inferior colliculus of elderly listeners reflects the periodicity envelope of a speech syllable. This information arguably also reflects a composite of temporal-fine-structure (TFS) information from the higher frequency vowel harmonics of that repeated syllable. The amplitude of those higher frequency harmonics, bearing even higher frequency TFS information, correlates positively with the word recognition ability of elderly listeners under reverberatory conditions. Also relevant is that working memory capacity (WMC), which is subject to age-related decline, constrains the processing of sounds at the level of the brainstem. Turning to the effects of a visually presented sensory or memory load on auditory processes, there is a load-dependent reduction of that processing, as manifest in the auditory brainstem responses (ABR) evoked by to-be-ignored clicks. Wave V decreases in amplitude with increases in the visually presented memory load. A visually presented sensory load also produces a load-dependent reduction of a slightly different sort: The sensory load of visually presented information limits the disruptive effects of background sound upon working memory performance. A new early filter model is thus advanced whereby systems within the frontal lobe (affected by sensory or memory load) cholinergically influence top-down corticofugal connections. Those corticofugal connections constrain the processing of complex sounds such as speech at the level of the brainstem. Selective attention thereby limits the distracting effects of background sound entering the higher auditory system via the inferior colliculus. Processing TFS in the brainstem relates to perception of speech under adverse conditions. Attentional selectivity is crucial when the signal heard is degraded or masked: e

  17. An exploratory study of early letter-sound knowledge in a low socio-economic context in South Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shelley O'Carroll

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper explores one aspect of early literacy development in a low socio-economic context in South Africa. Assessments conducted with a sample of children from two disadvantaged communities in Cape Town indicated that in this context, almost half of the learners entering Grade One were unable to recognise any letters. A Grade R intervention conducted by volunteers showed that children from this context were able to learn letter-sounds in Grade R through a programme that focused on teaching letter-sounds in the context of building language skills, emergent writing and concepts about print. In order to strengthen the effectiveness of the intervention, the volunteer programme was supplemented by support for the Grade R teacher and teaching assistant. Follow-up assessments of one of the intervention groups at the end of Grade One revealed significant correlations between early Grade One letter knowledge and end of Grade One word reading and spelling skills. The findings of this exploratory study are in line with research that shows the importance of letter-sound knowledge in the earliest stages of learning to read. This raises concerns about the historical lack of emphasis in the Grade R curriculum on this aspect of early literacy development. Although the study has a narrow focus and conclusions cannot be drawn about other aspects of early literacy learning in this context, the results suggest an urgent need for quality Grade R teacher training programmes with a specific focus on emergent literacy.

  18. Sound of mind : electrophysiological and behavioural evidence for the role of context, variation and informativity in human speech processing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nixon, Jessie Sophia

    2014-01-01

    Spoken communication involves transmission of a message which takes physical form in acoustic waves. Within any given language, acoustic cues pattern in language-specific ways along language-specific acoustic dimensions to create speech sound contrasts. These cues are utilized by listeners to

  19. Peripheral auditory processing and speech reception in impaired hearing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Strelcyk, Olaf

    One of the most common complaints of people with impaired hearing concerns their difficulty with understanding speech. Particularly in the presence of background noise, hearing-impaired people often encounter great difficulties with speech communication. In most cases, the problem persists even...... if reduced audibility has been compensated for by hearing aids. It has been hypothesized that part of the difficulty arises from changes in the perception of sounds that are well above hearing threshold, such as reduced frequency selectivity and deficits in the processing of temporal fine structure (TFS......) at the output of the inner-ear (cochlear) filters. The purpose of this work was to investigate these aspects in detail. One chapter studies relations between frequency selectivity, TFS processing, and speech reception in listeners with normal and impaired hearing, using behavioral listening experiments. While...

  20. When speaker identity is unavoidable: Neural processing of speaker identity cues in natural speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuninetti, Alba; Chládková, Kateřina; Peter, Varghese; Schiller, Niels O; Escudero, Paola

    2017-11-01

    Speech sound acoustic properties vary largely across speakers and accents. When perceiving speech, adult listeners normally disregard non-linguistic variation caused by speaker or accent differences, in order to comprehend the linguistic message, e.g. to correctly identify a speech sound or a word. Here we tested whether the process of normalizing speaker and accent differences, facilitating the recognition of linguistic information, is found at the level of neural processing, and whether it is modulated by the listeners' native language. In a multi-deviant oddball paradigm, native and nonnative speakers of Dutch were exposed to naturally-produced Dutch vowels varying in speaker, sex, accent, and phoneme identity. Unexpectedly, the analysis of mismatch negativity (MMN) amplitudes elicited by each type of change shows a large degree of early perceptual sensitivity to non-linguistic cues. This finding on perception of naturally-produced stimuli contrasts with previous studies examining the perception of synthetic stimuli wherein adult listeners automatically disregard acoustic cues to speaker identity. The present finding bears relevance to speech normalization theories, suggesting that at an unattended level of processing, listeners are indeed sensitive to changes in fundamental frequency in natural speech tokens. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Use of Authentic-Speech Technique for Teaching Sound Recognition to EFL Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sersen, William J.

    2011-01-01

    The main objective of this research was to test an authentic-speech technique for improving the sound-recognition skills of EFL (English as a foreign language) students at Roi-Et Rajabhat University. The secondary objective was to determine the correlation, if any, between students' self-evaluation of sound-recognition progress and the actual…

  2. CNTNAP2 Is Significantly Associated With Speech Sound Disorder in the Chinese Han Population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Yun-Jing; Wang, Yue-Ping; Yang, Wen-Zhu; Sun, Hong-Wei; Ma, Hong-Wei; Zhao, Ya-Ru

    2015-11-01

    Speech sound disorder is the most common communication disorder. Some investigations support the possibility that the CNTNAP2 gene might be involved in the pathogenesis of speech-related diseases. To investigate single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the CNTNAP2 gene, 300 unrelated speech sound disorder patients and 200 normal controls were included in the study. Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms were amplified and directly sequenced. Significant differences were found in the genotype (P = .0003) and allele (P = .0056) frequencies of rs2538976 between patients and controls. The excess frequency of the A allele in the patient group remained significant after Bonferroni correction (P = .0280). A significant haplotype association with rs2710102T/+rs17236239A/+2538976A/+2710117A (P = 4.10e-006) was identified. A neighboring single-nucleotide polymorphism, rs10608123, was found in complete linkage disequilibrium with rs2538976, and the genotypes exactly corresponded to each other. The authors propose that these CNTNAP2 variants increase the susceptibility to speech sound disorder. The single-nucleotide polymorphisms rs10608123 and rs2538976 may merge into one single-nucleotide polymorphism. © The Author(s) 2015.

  3. Speech abilities in preschool children with speech sound disorder with and without co-occurring language impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macrae, Toby; Tyler, Ann A

    2014-10-01

    The authors compared preschool children with co-occurring speech sound disorder (SSD) and language impairment (LI) to children with SSD only in their numbers and types of speech sound errors. In this post hoc quasi-experimental study, independent samples t tests were used to compare the groups in the standard score from different tests of articulation/phonology, percent consonants correct, and the number of omission, substitution, distortion, typical, and atypical error patterns used in the production of different wordlists that had similar levels of phonetic and structural complexity. In comparison with children with SSD only, children with SSD and LI used similar numbers but different types of errors, including more omission patterns ( p < .001, d = 1.55) and fewer distortion patterns ( p = .022, d = 1.03). There were no significant differences in substitution, typical, and atypical error pattern use. Frequent omission error pattern use may reflect a more compromised linguistic system characterized by absent phonological representations for target sounds (see Shriberg et al., 2005). Research is required to examine the diagnostic potential of early frequent omission error pattern use in predicting later diagnoses of co-occurring SSD and LI and/or reading problems.

  4. The Hierarchical Cortical Organization of Human Speech Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Heer, Wendy A; Huth, Alexander G; Griffiths, Thomas L; Gallant, Jack L; Theunissen, Frédéric E

    2017-07-05

    Speech comprehension requires that the brain extract semantic meaning from the spectral features represented at the cochlea. To investigate this process, we performed an fMRI experiment in which five men and two women passively listened to several hours of natural narrative speech. We then used voxelwise modeling to predict BOLD responses based on three different feature spaces that represent the spectral, articulatory, and semantic properties of speech. The amount of variance explained by each feature space was then assessed using a separate validation dataset. Because some responses might be explained equally well by more than one feature space, we used a variance partitioning analysis to determine the fraction of the variance that was uniquely explained by each feature space. Consistent with previous studies, we found that speech comprehension involves hierarchical representations starting in primary auditory areas and moving laterally on the temporal lobe: spectral features are found in the core of A1, mixtures of spectral and articulatory in STG, mixtures of articulatory and semantic in STS, and semantic in STS and beyond. Our data also show that both hemispheres are equally and actively involved in speech perception and interpretation. Further, responses as early in the auditory hierarchy as in STS are more correlated with semantic than spectral representations. These results illustrate the importance of using natural speech in neurolinguistic research. Our methodology also provides an efficient way to simultaneously test multiple specific hypotheses about the representations of speech without using block designs and segmented or synthetic speech. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To investigate the processing steps performed by the human brain to transform natural speech sound into meaningful language, we used models based on a hierarchical set of speech features to predict BOLD responses of individual voxels recorded in an fMRI experiment while subjects listened to

  5. Lexical and phonological variability in preschool children with speech sound disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macrae, Toby; Tyler, Ann A; Lewis, Kerry E

    2014-02-01

    The authors of this study examined relationships between measures of word and speech error variability and between these and other speech and language measures in preschool children with speech sound disorder (SSD). In this correlational study, 18 preschool children with SSD, age-appropriate receptive vocabulary, and normal oral motor functioning and hearing were assessed across 2 sessions. Experimental measures included word and speech error variability, receptive vocabulary, nonword repetition (NWR), and expressive language. Pearson product–moment correlation coefficients were calculated among the experimental measures. The correlation between word and speech error variability was slight and nonsignificant. The correlation between word variability and receptive vocabulary was moderate and negative, although nonsignificant. High word variability was associated with small receptive vocabularies. The correlations between speech error variability and NWR and between speech error variability and the mean length of children's utterances were moderate and negative, although both were nonsignificant. High speech error variability was associated with poor NWR and language scores. High word variability may reflect unstable lexical representations, whereas high speech error variability may reflect indistinct phonological representations. Preschool children with SSD who show abnormally high levels of different types of speech variability may require slightly different approaches to intervention.

  6. Phonological Encoding in Speech-Sound Disorder: Evidence from a Cross-Modal Priming Experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Munson, Benjamin; Krause, Miriam O. P.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Psycholinguistic models of language production provide a framework for determining the locus of language breakdown that leads to speech-sound disorder (SSD) in children. Aims: To examine whether children with SSD differ from their age-matched peers with typical speech and language development (TD) in the ability phonologically to…

  7. A causal test of the motor theory of speech perception: a case of impaired speech production and spared speech perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stasenko, Alena; Bonn, Cory; Teghipco, Alex; Garcea, Frank E; Sweet, Catherine; Dombovy, Mary; McDonough, Joyce; Mahon, Bradford Z

    2015-01-01

    The debate about the causal role of the motor system in speech perception has been reignited by demonstrations that motor processes are engaged during the processing of speech sounds. Here, we evaluate which aspects of auditory speech processing are affected, and which are not, in a stroke patient with dysfunction of the speech motor system. We found that the patient showed a normal phonemic categorical boundary when discriminating two non-words that differ by a minimal pair (e.g., ADA-AGA). However, using the same stimuli, the patient was unable to identify or label the non-word stimuli (using a button-press response). A control task showed that he could identify speech sounds by speaker gender, ruling out a general labelling impairment. These data suggest that while the motor system is not causally involved in perception of the speech signal, it may be used when other cues (e.g., meaning, context) are not available.

  8. Speech-Sound Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Barbara A.; Short, Elizabeth J.; Iyengar, Sudha K.; Taylor, H. Gerry; Freebairn, Lisa; Tag, Jessica; Avrich, Allison A.; Stein, Catherine M.

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the association of speech-sound disorders (SSD) with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by the severity of the SSD and the mode of transmission of SSD within the pedigrees of children with SSD. Participants and Methods: The participants were 412 children who were enrolled…

  9. The Prevalence of Stuttering, Voice, and Speech-Sound Disorders in Primary School Students in Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKinnon, David H.; McLeod, Sharynne; Reilly, Sheena

    2007-01-01

    Purpose: The aims of this study were threefold: to report teachers' estimates of the prevalence of speech disorders (specifically, stuttering, voice, and speech-sound disorders); to consider correspondence between the prevalence of speech disorders and gender, grade level, and socioeconomic status; and to describe the level of support provided to…

  10. Do Irrelevant Sounds Impair the Maintenance of All Characteristics of Speech in Memory?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabriel, D.; Gaudrain, E.; Lebrun-Guillaud, G.; Sheppard, F.; Tomescu, I. M.; Schnider, A.

    2012-01-01

    Several studies have shown that maintaining in memory some attributes of speech, such as the content or pitch of an interlocutor's message, is markedly reduced in the presence of background sounds made of spectrotemporal variations. However, experimental paradigms showing this interference have only focused on one attribute of speech at a time,…

  11. Speech-language pathologists' practices regarding assessment, analysis, target selection, intervention, and service delivery for children with speech sound disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mcleod, Sharynne; Baker, Elise

    2014-01-01

    A survey of 231 Australian speech-language pathologists (SLPs) was undertaken to describe practices regarding assessment, analysis, target selection, intervention, and service delivery for children with speech sound disorders (SSD). The participants typically worked in private practice, education, or community health settings and 67.6% had a waiting list for services. For each child, most of the SLPs spent 10-40 min in pre-assessment activities, 30-60 min undertaking face-to-face assessments, and 30-60 min completing paperwork after assessments. During an assessment SLPs typically conducted a parent interview, single-word speech sampling, collected a connected speech sample, and used informal tests. They also determined children's stimulability and estimated intelligibility. With multilingual children, informal assessment procedures and English-only tests were commonly used and SLPs relied on family members or interpreters to assist. Common analysis techniques included determination of phonological processes, substitutions-omissions-distortions-additions (SODA), and phonetic inventory. Participants placed high priority on selecting target sounds that were stimulable, early developing, and in error across all word positions and 60.3% felt very confident or confident selecting an appropriate intervention approach. Eight intervention approaches were frequently used: auditory discrimination, minimal pairs, cued articulation, phonological awareness, traditional articulation therapy, auditory bombardment, Nuffield Centre Dyspraxia Programme, and core vocabulary. Children typically received individual therapy with an SLP in a clinic setting. Parents often observed and participated in sessions and SLPs typically included siblings and grandparents in intervention sessions. Parent training and home programs were more frequently used than the group therapy. Two-thirds kept up-to-date by reading journal articles monthly or every 6 months. There were many similarities with

  12. The letter knowledge assessment tool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedro, Cassandra; Lousada, Marisa; Pereira, Rita; Hall, Andreia; Jesus, Luis M T

    2017-10-10

    There is a need to develop letter knowledge assessment tools to characterise the letter knowledge in Portuguese pre-schoolers and to compare it with pre-schoolers from other countries, but there are no tools for this purpose in Portugal. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and validation procedures of the Prova de Avaliação de Competências de Pré-Literacia (PACPL), which assesses letter knowledge. This study includes data that has been gathered in two phases: pilot and main study. In the pilot study, an expert panel of six speech and language pathologists analysed the instrument. Children (n = 216) aged 5;0-7;11 participated in the main study that reports data related to the psychometric characteristics of the PACPL. Content validity, internal consistency, reliability and contributing factors to performance were examined statistically. A modified Bland-Altman method revealed good agreement amongst evaluators. The main study showed that the PACPL has a very good internal consistency and high inter-rater (96.2% of agreement and a Cohen's k value of 0.92) and intra-rater (95.6% of agreement and a Cohen's k value of 0.91) agreement. Construct validity of the PCAPL was also assured (Cronbach's α of 0.982). Significant differences were found between age groups with children increasing their letter knowledge with age. In addition, they were better at identifying than at producing both letter names and letter sounds. The PACPL is a valid and reliable instrument to assess letter knowledge in Portuguese children.

  13. Transfer of Training between Music and Speech: Common Processing, Attention, and Memory

    OpenAIRE

    Besson, Mireille; Chobert, Julie; Marie, Céline

    2011-01-01

    After a brief historical perspective of the relationship between language and music, we review our work on transfer of training from music to speech that aimed at testing the general hypothesis that musicians should be more sensitive than non-musicians to speech sounds. In light of recent results in the literature, we argue that when long-term experience in one domain influences acoustic processing in the other domain, results can be interpreted as common acoustic processing. But when long-te...

  14. Evidence for the treatment of co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorder: A clinical case series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unicomb, Rachael; Hewat, Sally; Spencer, Elizabeth; Harrison, Elisabeth

    2017-06-01

    There is a paucity of evidence to guide treatment for children with co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorder. Some guidelines suggest treating the two disorders simultaneously using indirect treatment approaches; however, the research supporting these recommendations is over 20 years old. In this clinical case series, we investigate whether these co-occurring disorders could be treated concurrently using direct treatment approaches supported by up-to-date, high-level evidence, and whether this could be done in an efficacious, safe and efficient manner. Five pre-school-aged participants received individual concurrent, direct intervention for both stuttering and speech sound disorder. All participants used the Lidcombe Program, as manualised. Direct treatment for speech sound disorder was individualised based on analysis of each child's sound system. At 12 months post commencement of treatment, all except one participant had completed the Lidcombe Program, and were less than 1.0% syllables stuttered on samples gathered within and beyond the clinic. These four participants completed Stage 1 of the Lidcombe Program in between 14 and 22 clinic visits, consistent with current benchmark data for this programme. At the same assessment point, all five participants exhibited significant increases in percentage of consonants correct and were in alignment with age-expected estimates of this measure. Further, they were treated in an average number of clinic visits that compares favourably with other research on treatment for speech sound disorder. These preliminary results indicate that young children with co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorder may be treated concurrently using direct treatment approaches. This method of service delivery may have implications for cost and time efficiency and may also address the crucial need for early intervention in both disorders. These positive findings highlight the need for further research in the area and contribute to

  15. A comparison of sound quality judgments for monaural and binaural hearing aid processed stimuli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balfour, P B; Hawkins, D B

    1992-10-01

    Fifteen adults with bilaterally symmetrical mild and/or moderate sensorineural hearing loss completed a paired-comparison task designed to elicit sound quality preference judgments for monaural/binaural hearing aid processed signals. Three stimuli (speech-in-quiet, speech-in-noise, and music) were recorded separately in three listening environments (audiometric test booth, living room, and a music/lecture hall) through hearing aids placed on a Knowles Electronics Manikin for Acoustics Research. Judgments were made on eight separate sound quality dimensions (brightness, clarity, fullness, loudness, nearness, overall impression, smoothness, and spaciousness) for each of the three stimuli in three listening environments. Results revealed a distinct binaural preference for all eight sound quality dimensions independent of listening environment. Binaural preferences were strongest for overall impression, fullness, and spaciousness. Stimulus type effect was significant only for fullness and spaciousness, where binaural preferences were strongest for speech-in-quiet. After binaural preference data were obtained, subjects ranked each sound quality dimension with respect to its importance for binaural listening relative to monaural. Clarity was ranked highest in importance and brightness was ranked least important. The key to demonstration of improved binaural hearing aid sound quality may be the use of a paired-comparison format.

  16. Profile of Australian preschool children with speech sound disorders at risk for literacy difficulties

    OpenAIRE

    McLeod, S.; Crowe, K.; Masso, S.; Baker, E.; McCormack, J.; Wren, Y.; Roulstone, S.; Howland, C.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Speech sound disorders are a common communication difficulty in preschool children. Teachers indicate difficulty identifying and supporting these children.\\ud \\ud Aim: To describe speech and language characteristics of children identified by their parents and/or teachers as having possible communication concerns.\\ud \\ud Method: 275 Australian 4- to 5-year-old children from 45 preschools whose parents and teachers were concerned about their talking participated in speech-language p...

  17. Profile of Australian Preschool Children with Speech Sound Disorders at Risk for Literacy Difficulties

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Sharynne; Crowe, Kathryn; Masso, Sarah; Baker, Elise; McCormack, Jane; Wren, Yvonne; Roulstone, Susan; Howland, Charlotte

    2017-01-01

    Speech sound disorders are a common communication difficulty in preschool children. Teachers indicate difficulty identifying and supporting these children. The aim of this research was to describe speech and language characteristics of children identified by their parents and/or teachers as having possible communication concerns. 275 Australian 4-…

  18. Critical contrastive rhetoric: The influence of L2 letter writing instruction on L1letter writing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehrnoosh Fakharzadeh

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The present study employed critical contrastive rhetoric to investigate the L2 to L1 transfer of organizational pattern and directness level of speech acts in business complaint letters. By examining the L1 complaint letters of 30 tourism university students in two phases of study, pre and post instruction of English complaint letter, the study revealed that the rhetorical organization of Persian letters are in a state of hybridity. The post instruction comparison of letters, however, showed a tendency towards applying English conventions both in organization and directness level of complaint speech act in the L1 complaint letters. The results also revealed that after instruction the expert in the field of tourism viewed some letters as inappropriate in terms of politeness which is reflected through some lexical items.

  19. Differential Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorder (Phonological Disorder): Audiological Assessment beyond the Pure-tone Audiogram.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iliadou, Vasiliki Vivian; Chermak, Gail D; Bamiou, Doris-Eva

    2015-04-01

    According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, diagnosis of speech sound disorder (SSD) requires a determination that it is not the result of other congenital or acquired conditions, including hearing loss or neurological conditions that may present with similar symptomatology. To examine peripheral and central auditory function for the purpose of determining whether a peripheral or central auditory disorder was an underlying factor or contributed to the child's SSD. Central auditory processing disorder clinic pediatric case reports. Three clinical cases are reviewed of children with diagnosed SSD who were referred for audiological evaluation by their speech-language pathologists as a result of slower than expected progress in therapy. Audiological testing revealed auditory deficits involving peripheral auditory function or the central auditory nervous system. These cases demonstrate the importance of increasing awareness among professionals of the need to fully evaluate the auditory system to identify auditory deficits that could contribute to a patient's speech sound (phonological) disorder. Audiological assessment in cases of suspected SSD should not be limited to pure-tone audiometry given its limitations in revealing the full range of peripheral and central auditory deficits, deficits which can compromise treatment of SSD. American Academy of Audiology.

  20. Visual Speech Fills in Both Discrimination and Identification of Non-Intact Auditory Speech in Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jerger, Susan; Damian, Markus F.; McAlpine, Rachel P.; Abdi, Herve

    2018-01-01

    To communicate, children must discriminate and identify speech sounds. Because visual speech plays an important role in this process, we explored how visual speech influences phoneme discrimination and identification by children. Critical items had intact visual speech (e.g. baez) coupled to non-intact (excised onsets) auditory speech (signified…

  1. Part-of-speech effects on text-to-speech synthesis

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Schlunz, GI

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available One of the goals of text-to-speech (TTS) systems is to produce natural-sounding synthesised speech. Towards this end various natural language processing (NLP) tasks are performed to model the prosodic aspects of the TTS voice. One of the fundamental...

  2. Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Partanen, Eino; Kujala, Teija; Näätänen, Risto; Liitola, Auli; Sambeth, Anke; Huotilainen, Minna

    2013-09-10

    Learning, the foundation of adaptive and intelligent behavior, is based on plastic changes in neural assemblies, reflected by the modulation of electric brain responses. In infancy, auditory learning implicates the formation and strengthening of neural long-term memory traces, improving discrimination skills, in particular those forming the prerequisites for speech perception and understanding. Although previous behavioral observations show that newborns react differentially to unfamiliar sounds vs. familiar sound material that they were exposed to as fetuses, the neural basis of fetal learning has not thus far been investigated. Here we demonstrate direct neural correlates of human fetal learning of speech-like auditory stimuli. We presented variants of words to fetuses; unlike infants with no exposure to these stimuli, the exposed fetuses showed enhanced brain activity (mismatch responses) in response to pitch changes for the trained variants after birth. Furthermore, a significant correlation existed between the amount of prenatal exposure and brain activity, with greater activity being associated with a higher amount of prenatal speech exposure. Moreover, the learning effect was generalized to other types of similar speech sounds not included in the training material. Consequently, our results indicate neural commitment specifically tuned to the speech features heard before birth and their memory representations.

  3. Does seeing an Asian face make speech sound more accented?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Yi; Samuel, Arthur G

    2017-08-01

    Prior studies have reported that seeing an Asian face makes American English sound more accented. The current study investigates whether this effect is perceptual, or if it instead occurs at a later decision stage. We first replicated the finding that showing static Asian and Caucasian faces can shift people's reports about the accentedness of speech accompanying the pictures. When we changed the static pictures to dubbed videos, reducing the demand characteristics, the shift in reported accentedness largely disappeared. By including unambiguous items along with the original ambiguous items, we introduced a contrast bias and actually reversed the shift, with the Asian-face videos yielding lower judgments of accentedness than the Caucasian-face videos. By changing to a mixed rather than blocked design, so that the ethnicity of the videos varied from trial to trial, we eliminated the difference in accentedness rating. Finally, we tested participants' perception of accented speech using the selective adaptation paradigm. After establishing that an auditory-only accented adaptor shifted the perception of how accented test words are, we found that no such adaptation effect occurred when the adapting sounds relied on visual information (Asian vs. Caucasian videos) to influence the accentedness of an ambiguous auditory adaptor. Collectively, the results demonstrate that visual information can affect the interpretation, but not the perception, of accented speech.

  4. Perception of environmental sounds by experienced cochlear implant patients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shafiro, Valeriy; Gygi, Brian; Cheng, Min-Yu; Vachhani, Jay; Mulvey, Megan

    2011-01-01

    Objectives Environmental sound perception serves an important ecological function by providing listeners with information about objects and events in their immediate environment. Environmental sounds such as car horns, baby cries or chirping birds can alert listeners to imminent dangers as well as contribute to one's sense of awareness and well being. Perception of environmental sounds as acoustically and semantically complex stimuli, may also involve some factors common to the processing of speech. However, very limited research has investigated the abilities of cochlear implant (CI) patients to identify common environmental sounds, despite patients' general enthusiasm about them. This project (1) investigated the ability of patients with modern-day CIs to perceive environmental sounds, (2) explored associations among speech, environmental sounds and basic auditory abilities, and (3) examined acoustic factors that might be involved in environmental sound perception. Design Seventeen experienced postlingually-deafened CI patients participated in the study. Environmental sound perception was assessed with a large-item test composed of 40 sound sources, each represented by four different tokens. The relationship between speech and environmental sound perception, and the role of working memory and some basic auditory abilities were examined based on patient performance on a battery of speech tests (HINT, CNC, and individual consonant and vowel tests), tests of basic auditory abilities (audiometric thresholds, gap detection, temporal pattern and temporal order for tones tests) and a backward digit recall test. Results The results indicated substantially reduced ability to identify common environmental sounds in CI patients (45.3%). Except for vowels, all speech test scores significantly correlated with the environmental sound test scores: r = 0.73 for HINT in quiet, r = 0.69 for HINT in noise, r = 0.70 for CNC, r = 0.64 for consonants and r = 0.48 for vowels. HINT and

  5. Is the Speech Transmission Index (STI) a robust measure of sound system speech intelligibility performance?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mapp, Peter

    2002-11-01

    Although RaSTI is a good indicator of the speech intelligibility capability of auditoria and similar spaces, during the past 2-3 years it has been shown that RaSTI is not a robust predictor of sound system intelligibility performance. Instead, it is now recommended, within both national and international codes and standards, that full STI measurement and analysis be employed. However, new research is reported, that indicates that STI is not as flawless, nor robust as many believe. The paper highlights a number of potential error mechanisms. It is shown that the measurement technique and signal excitation stimulus can have a significant effect on the overall result and accuracy, particularly where DSP-based equipment is employed. It is also shown that in its current state of development, STI is not capable of appropriately accounting for a number of fundamental speech and system attributes, including typical sound system frequency response variations and anomalies. This is particularly shown to be the case when a system is operating under reverberant conditions. Comparisons between actual system measurements and corresponding word score data are reported where errors of up to 50 implications for VA and PA system performance verification will be discussed.

  6. Psychometric characteristics of single-word tests of children's speech sound production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flipsen, Peter; Ogiela, Diane A

    2015-04-01

    Our understanding of test construction has improved since the now-classic review by McCauley and Swisher (1984). The current review article examines the psychometric characteristics of current single-word tests of speech sound production in an attempt to determine whether our tests have improved since then. It also provides a resource that clinicians may use to help them make test selection decisions for their particular client populations. Ten tests published since 1990 were reviewed to determine whether they met the 10 criteria set out by McCauley and Swisher (1984), as well as 7 additional criteria. All of the tests reviewed met at least 3 of McCauley and Swisher's (1984) original criteria, and 9 of 10 tests met at least 5 of them. Most of the tests met some of the additional criteria as well. The state of the art for single-word tests of speech sound production in children appears to have improved in the last 30 years. There remains, however, room for improvement.

  7. Balancing speech intelligibility versus sound exposure in selection of personal hearing protection equipment for Chinook aircrews

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wijngaarden, S.J. van; Rots, G.

    2001-01-01

    Background: Aircrews are often exposed to high ambient sound levels, especially in military aviation. Since long-term exposure to such noise may cause hearing damage, selection of adequate hearing protective devices is crucial. Such devices also affect speech intelligibility. When speech

  8. Parental Beliefs and Experiences Regarding Involvement in Intervention for Their Child with Speech Sound Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watts Pappas, Nicole; McAllister, Lindy; McLeod, Sharynne

    2016-01-01

    Parental beliefs and experiences regarding involvement in speech intervention for their child with mild to moderate speech sound disorder (SSD) were explored using multiple, sequential interviews conducted during a course of treatment. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with seven parents of six children with SSD: (1) after their child's initial…

  9. Visual stimuli in intervention approaches for pre-schoolers diagnosed with phonological delay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedro, Cassandra Ferreira; Lousada, Marisa; Hall, Andreia; Jesus, Luis M T

    2018-04-01

    The aim of this study was to develop and content validate specific speech and language intervention picture cards: The Letter-Sound (L&S) cards. The present study was also focused on assessing the influence of these cards on letter-sound correspondences and speech sound production. An expert panel of six speech and language therapists analysed and discussed the L&S cards based on several criteria previously established. A Speech and Language Therapist carried out a 6-week therapeutic intervention with a group of seven Portuguese phonologically delayed pre-schoolers aged 5;3 to 6;5. The modified Bland-Altman method revealed good agreement among evaluators, that is the majority of the values was between the agreement limits. Additional outcome measures were collected before and after the therapeutic intervention process. Results indicate that the L&S cards facilitate the acquisition of letter-sound correspondences. Regarding speech sound production, some improvements were also observed at word level. The L&S cards are therefore likely to give phonetic cues, which are crucial for the correct production of therapeutic targets. These visual cues seemed to have helped children with phonological delay develop the above-mentioned skills.

  10. Exploring Australian speech-language pathologists' use and perceptions ofnon-speech oral motor exercises.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rumbach, Anna F; Rose, Tanya A; Cheah, Mynn

    2018-01-29

    To explore Australian speech-language pathologists' use of non-speech oral motor exercises, and rationales for using/not using non-speech oral motor exercises in clinical practice. A total of 124 speech-language pathologists practising in Australia, working with paediatric and/or adult clients with speech sound difficulties, completed an online survey. The majority of speech-language pathologists reported that they did not use non-speech oral motor exercises when working with paediatric or adult clients with speech sound difficulties. However, more than half of the speech-language pathologists working with adult clients who have dysarthria reported using non-speech oral motor exercises with this population. The most frequently reported rationale for using non-speech oral motor exercises in speech sound difficulty management was to improve awareness/placement of articulators. The majority of speech-language pathologists agreed there is no clear clinical or research evidence base to support non-speech oral motor exercise use with clients who have speech sound difficulties. This study provides an overview of Australian speech-language pathologists' reported use and perceptions of non-speech oral motor exercises' applicability and efficacy in treating paediatric and adult clients who have speech sound difficulties. The research findings provide speech-language pathologists with insight into how and why non-speech oral motor exercises are currently used, and adds to the knowledge base regarding Australian speech-language pathology practice of non-speech oral motor exercises in the treatment of speech sound difficulties. Implications for Rehabilitation Non-speech oral motor exercises refer to oral motor activities which do not involve speech, but involve the manipulation or stimulation of oral structures including the lips, tongue, jaw, and soft palate. Non-speech oral motor exercises are intended to improve the function (e.g., movement, strength) of oral structures. The

  11. When Does Speech Sound Disorder Matter for Literacy? The Role of Disordered Speech Errors, Co-Occurring Language Impairment and Family Risk of Dyslexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Carroll, Julia M.; Leavett, Ruth; Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J.

    2017-01-01

    Background: This study considers the role of early speech difficulties in literacy development, in the context of additional risk factors. Method: Children were identified with speech sound disorder (SSD) at the age of 3½ years, on the basis of performance on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology. Their literacy skills were…

  12. Transfer of training between music and speech: common processing, attention and memory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mireille eBesson

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available After a brief historical perspective of the relationship between language and music, we review our work on transfer of training from music to speech that aimed at testing the general hypothesis that musicians should be more sensitive than nonmusicians to speech sounds. In light of recent results in the literature, we argue that when long-term experience in one domain influences acoustic processing in the other domain, results can be interpreted as common acoustic processing. But when long-term experience in one domain influences the building-up of abstract and specific percepts in another domain, results are taken as evidence for transfer of training effects. Moreover, we also discuss the influence of attention and working memory on transfer effects and we highlight the usefulness of the Event-Related Potentials method to disentangle the different processes that unfold in the course of music and speech perception. Finally, we give an overview of an on-going longitudinal project with children aimed at testing transfer effects from music to different levels and aspects of speech processing.

  13. Transfer of Training between Music and Speech: Common Processing, Attention, and Memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Besson, Mireille; Chobert, Julie; Marie, Céline

    2011-01-01

    After a brief historical perspective of the relationship between language and music, we review our work on transfer of training from music to speech that aimed at testing the general hypothesis that musicians should be more sensitive than non-musicians to speech sounds. In light of recent results in the literature, we argue that when long-term experience in one domain influences acoustic processing in the other domain, results can be interpreted as common acoustic processing. But when long-term experience in one domain influences the building-up of abstract and specific percepts in another domain, results are taken as evidence for transfer of training effects. Moreover, we also discuss the influence of attention and working memory on transfer effects and we highlight the usefulness of the event-related potentials method to disentangle the different processes that unfold in the course of music and speech perception. Finally, we give an overview of an on-going longitudinal project with children aimed at testing transfer effects from music to different levels and aspects of speech processing.

  14. Learning foreign sounds in an alien world: videogame training improves non-native speech categorization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Sung-joo; Holt, Lori L

    2011-01-01

    Although speech categories are defined by multiple acoustic dimensions, some are perceptually weighted more than others and there are residual effects of native-language weightings in non-native speech perception. Recent research on nonlinguistic sound category learning suggests that the distribution characteristics of experienced sounds influence perceptual cue weights: Increasing variability across a dimension leads listeners to rely upon it less in subsequent category learning (Holt & Lotto, 2006). The present experiment investigated the implications of this among native Japanese learning English /r/-/l/ categories. Training was accomplished using a videogame paradigm that emphasizes associations among sound categories, visual information, and players' responses to videogame characters rather than overt categorization or explicit feedback. Subjects who played the game for 2.5h across 5 days exhibited improvements in /r/-/l/ perception on par with 2-4 weeks of explicit categorization training in previous research and exhibited a shift toward more native-like perceptual cue weights. Copyright © 2011 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  15. Speech and non-speech processing in children with phonological disorders: an electrophysiological study

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    Isabela Crivellaro Gonçalves

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To determine whether neurophysiological auditory brainstem responses to clicks and repeated speech stimuli differ between typically developing children and children with phonological disorders. INTRODUCTION: Phonological disorders are language impairments resulting from inadequate use of adult phonological language rules and are among the most common speech and language disorders in children (prevalence: 8 - 9%. Our hypothesis is that children with phonological disorders have basic differences in the way that their brains encode acoustic signals at brainstem level when compared to normal counterparts. METHODS: We recorded click and speech evoked auditory brainstem responses in 18 typically developing children (control group and in 18 children who were clinically diagnosed with phonological disorders (research group. The age range of the children was from 7-11 years. RESULTS: The research group exhibited significantly longer latency responses to click stimuli (waves I, III and V and speech stimuli (waves V and A when compared to the control group. DISCUSSION: These results suggest that the abnormal encoding of speech sounds may be a biological marker of phonological disorders. However, these results cannot define the biological origins of phonological problems. We also observed that speech-evoked auditory brainstem responses had a higher specificity/sensitivity for identifying phonological disorders than click-evoked auditory brainstem responses. CONCLUSIONS: Early stages of the auditory pathway processing of an acoustic stimulus are not similar in typically developing children and those with phonological disorders. These findings suggest that there are brainstem auditory pathway abnormalities in children with phonological disorders.

  16. Speech Sound Disorders in Preschool Children: Correspondence between Clinical Diagnosis and Teacher and Parent Report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrison, Linda J.; McLeod, Sharynne; McAllister, Lindy; McCormack, Jane

    2017-01-01

    This study sought to assess the level of correspondence between parent and teacher report of concern about young children's speech and specialist assessment of speech sound disorders (SSD). A sample of 157 children aged 4-5 years was recruited in preschools and long day care centres in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW). SSD was assessed…

  17. Dissociating Cortical Activity during Processing of Native and Non-Native Audiovisual Speech from Early to Late Infancy

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    Eswen Fava

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Initially, infants are capable of discriminating phonetic contrasts across the world’s languages. Starting between seven and ten months of age, they gradually lose this ability through a process of perceptual narrowing. Although traditionally investigated with isolated speech sounds, such narrowing occurs in a variety of perceptual domains (e.g., faces, visual speech. Thus far, tracking the developmental trajectory of this tuning process has been focused primarily on auditory speech alone, and generally using isolated sounds. But infants learn from speech produced by people talking to them, meaning they learn from a complex audiovisual signal. Here, we use near-infrared spectroscopy to measure blood concentration changes in the bilateral temporal cortices of infants in three different age groups: 3-to-6 months, 7-to-10 months, and 11-to-14-months. Critically, all three groups of infants were tested with continuous audiovisual speech in both their native and another, unfamiliar language. We found that at each age range, infants showed different patterns of cortical activity in response to the native and non-native stimuli. Infants in the youngest group showed bilateral cortical activity that was greater overall in response to non-native relative to native speech; the oldest group showed left lateralized activity in response to native relative to non-native speech. These results highlight perceptual tuning as a dynamic process that happens across modalities and at different levels of stimulus complexity.

  18. Not all sounds sound the same: Parkinson's disease affects differently emotion processing in music and in speech prosody.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lima, César F; Garrett, Carolina; Castro, São Luís

    2013-01-01

    Does emotion processing in music and speech prosody recruit common neurocognitive mechanisms? To examine this question, we implemented a cross-domain comparative design in Parkinson's disease (PD). Twenty-four patients and 25 controls performed emotion recognition tasks for music and spoken sentences. In music, patients had impaired recognition of happiness and peacefulness, and intact recognition of sadness and fear; this pattern was independent of general cognitive and perceptual abilities. In speech, patients had a small global impairment, which was significantly mediated by executive dysfunction. Hence, PD affected differently musical and prosodic emotions. This dissociation indicates that the mechanisms underlying the two domains are partly independent.

  19. Discrimination and preference of speech and non-speech sounds in autism patients%孤独症患者言语及非言语声音辨识和偏好特征

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    王崇颖; 江鸣山; 徐旸; 马斐然; 石锋

    2011-01-01

    Objective:To explore the discrimination and preference of speech and non-speech sounds in autism patients. Methods: Ten people (5 children vs. 5 adults) diagnosed with autism according to the criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fourth Version ( DSM-Ⅳ) were selected from database of Nankai University Center for Behavioural Science. Together with 10 healthy controls with matched age, people with autism were tested by three experiments on speech sounds, pure tone and intonation which were recorded and modified by Praat, a voice analysis software. Their discrimination and preference were collected orally. The exact probability values were calculated. Results: The results showed that there were no significant differences on the discrimination of speech sounds, pure tone and intonation between autism patients and controls ( P > 0. 05) while controls preferred speech and non-speech sounds with higher pitch than autism ( e. g. , - 100Hz/ +50Hz. 2 vs. 7. P < 0. 05:50Hz/250Hz. 4 vs. 10. P < 0. 05) and autism preferred non-speech sounds with lower pitch ( 100Hz/250Hz. 6 vs. 3.P < 0. 05). No significant difference on the preference of intonation between autism and controls ( P > 0. 05) was found. Conclusion:lt shows that people with autism have impaired auditory processing on speech and non-speech sounds.%目的:探究孤独症患者对言语及非言语声音的辨识和偏好特征.方法:从南开大学医学院行为医学中心患者数据库中选取根据美国精神障碍诊断与统计手册第4版(DSM-Ⅳ)诊断标准确诊的孤独症患者10名(儿童和成年人各5例),选取与年龄匹配的正常对照10名.所有被试均接受由专业的语音软件Praat录制和生成的语音音高、纯音音高和韵律的实验测试,口头报告其对言语及非言语声音的辨识和偏好结果.结果:孤独症患者在语音音高、纯音音高和韵律的辨识上和正常对照组差异无统计学意义(均P>0.05).

  20. A sparse neural code for some speech sounds but not for others.

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    Mathias Scharinger

    Full Text Available The precise neural mechanisms underlying speech sound representations are still a matter of debate. Proponents of 'sparse representations' assume that on the level of speech sounds, only contrastive or otherwise not predictable information is stored in long-term memory. Here, in a passive oddball paradigm, we challenge the neural foundations of such a 'sparse' representation; we use words that differ only in their penultimate consonant ("coronal" [t] vs. "dorsal" [k] place of articulation and for example distinguish between the German nouns Latz ([lats]; bib and Lachs ([laks]; salmon. Changes from standard [t] to deviant [k] and vice versa elicited a discernible Mismatch Negativity (MMN response. Crucially, however, the MMN for the deviant [lats] was stronger than the MMN for the deviant [laks]. Source localization showed this difference to be due to enhanced brain activity in right superior temporal cortex. These findings reflect a difference in phonological 'sparsity': Coronal [t] segments, but not dorsal [k] segments, are based on more sparse representations and elicit less specific neural predictions; sensory deviations from this prediction are more readily 'tolerated' and accordingly trigger weaker MMNs. The results foster the neurocomputational reality of 'representationally sparse' models of speech perception that are compatible with more general predictive mechanisms in auditory perception.

  1. Digital speech processing using Matlab

    CERN Document Server

    Gopi, E S

    2014-01-01

    Digital Speech Processing Using Matlab deals with digital speech pattern recognition, speech production model, speech feature extraction, and speech compression. The book is written in a manner that is suitable for beginners pursuing basic research in digital speech processing. Matlab illustrations are provided for most topics to enable better understanding of concepts. This book also deals with the basic pattern recognition techniques (illustrated with speech signals using Matlab) such as PCA, LDA, ICA, SVM, HMM, GMM, BPN, and KSOM.

  2. The phonological memory profile of preschool children who make atypical speech sound errors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waring, Rebecca; Eadie, Patricia; Rickard Liow, Susan; Dodd, Barbara

    2018-01-01

    Previous research indicates that children with speech sound disorders (SSD) have underlying phonological memory deficits. The SSD population, however, is diverse. While children who make consistent atypical speech errors (phonological disorder/PhDis) are known to have executive function deficits in rule abstraction and cognitive flexibility, little is known about their memory profile. Sixteen monolingual preschool children with atypical speech errors (PhDis) were matched individually to age-and-gender peers with typically developing speech (TDS). The two groups were compared on forward recall of familiar words (pointing response), reverse recall of familiar words (pointing response), and reverse recall of digits (spoken response) and a receptive vocabulary task. There were no differences between children with TDS and children with PhDis on forward recall or vocabulary tasks. However, children with TDS significantly outperformed children with PhDis on the two reverse recall tasks. Findings suggest that atypical speech errors are associated with impaired phonological working memory, implicating executive function impairment in specific subtypes of SSD.

  3. Understanding speech when wearing communication headsets and hearing protectors with subband processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brammer, Anthony J; Yu, Gongqiang; Bernstein, Eric R; Cherniack, Martin G; Peterson, Donald R; Tufts, Jennifer B

    2014-08-01

    An adaptive, delayless, subband feed-forward control structure is employed to improve the speech signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the communication channel of a circumaural headset/hearing protector (HPD) from 90 Hz to 11.3 kHz, and to provide active noise control (ANC) from 50 to 800 Hz to complement the passive attenuation of the HPD. The task involves optimizing the speech SNR for each communication channel subband, subject to limiting the maximum sound level at the ear, maintaining a speech SNR preferred by users, and reducing large inter-band gain differences to improve speech quality. The performance of a proof-of-concept device has been evaluated in a pseudo-diffuse sound field when worn by human subjects under conditions of environmental noise and speech that do not pose a risk to hearing, and by simulation for other conditions. For the environmental noises employed in this study, subband speech SNR control combined with subband ANC produced greater improvement in word scores than subband ANC alone, and improved the consistency of word scores across subjects. The simulation employed a subject-specific linear model, and predicted that word scores are maintained in excess of 90% for sound levels outside the HPD of up to ∼115 dBA.

  4. Children with speech sound disorder: Comparing a non-linguistic auditory approach with a phonological intervention approach to improve phonological skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina eMurphy

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to compare the effects of a non-linguistic auditory intervention approach with a phonological intervention approach on the phonological skills of children with speech sound disorder. A total of 17 children, aged 7-12 years, with speech sound disorder were randomly allocated to either the non-linguistic auditory temporal intervention group (n = 10, average age 7.7 ± 1.2 or phonological intervention group (n = 7, average age 8.6 ± 1.2. The intervention outcomes included auditory-sensory measures (auditory temporal processing skills and cognitive measures (attention, short-term memory, speech production and phonological awareness skills. The auditory approach focused on non-linguistic auditory training (eg. backward masking and frequency discrimination, whereas the phonological approach focused on speech sound training (eg. phonological organisation and awareness. Both interventions consisted of twelve 45-minute sessions delivered twice per week, for a total of nine hours. Intra-group analysis demonstrated that the auditory intervention group showed significant gains in both auditory and cognitive measures, whereas no significant gain was observed in the phonological intervention group. No significant improvement on phonological skills was observed in any of the groups. Inter-group analysis demonstrated significant differences between the improvement following training for both groups, with a more pronounced gain for the non-linguistic auditory temporal intervention in one of the visual attention measures and both auditory measures. Therefore, both analyses suggest that although the non-linguistic auditory intervention approach appeared to be the most effective intervention approach, it was not sufficient to promote the enhancement of phonological skills.

  5. Neurophysiological Evidence That Musical Training Influences the Recruitment of Right Hemispheric Homologues for Speech Perception

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    McNeel Gordon Jantzen

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Musicians have a more accurate temporal and tonal representation of auditory stimuli than their non-musician counterparts (Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010; Parbery-Clark, Skoe, & Kraus, 2009; Zendel & Alain, 2008; Musacchia, Sams, Skoe, & Kraus, 2007. Musicians who are adept at the production and perception of music are also more sensitive to key acoustic features of speech such as voice onset timing and pitch. Together, these data suggest that musical training may enhance the processing of acoustic information for speech sounds. In the current study, we sought to provide neural evidence that musicians process speech and music in a similar way. We hypothesized that for musicians, right hemisphere areas traditionally associated with music are also engaged for the processing of speech sounds. In contrast we predicted that in non-musicians processing of speech sounds would be localized to traditional left hemisphere language areas. Speech stimuli differing in voice onset time was presented using a dichotic listening paradigm. Subjects either indicated aural location for a specified speech sound or identified a specific speech sound from a directed aural location. Musical training effects and organization of acoustic features were reflected by activity in source generators of the P50. This included greater activation of right middle temporal gyrus (MTG and superior temporal gyrus (STG in musicians. The findings demonstrate recruitment of right hemisphere in musicians for discriminating speech sounds and a putative broadening of their language network. Musicians appear to have an increased sensitivity to acoustic features and enhanced selective attention to temporal features of speech that is facilitated by musical training and supported, in part, by right hemisphere homologues of established speech processing regions of the brain.

  6. Auditory, Visual and Audiovisual Speech Processing Streams in Superior Temporal Sulcus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Venezia, Jonathan H; Vaden, Kenneth I; Rong, Feng; Maddox, Dale; Saberi, Kourosh; Hickok, Gregory

    2017-01-01

    The human superior temporal sulcus (STS) is responsive to visual and auditory information, including sounds and facial cues during speech recognition. We investigated the functional organization of STS with respect to modality-specific and multimodal speech representations. Twenty younger adult participants were instructed to perform an oddball detection task and were presented with auditory, visual, and audiovisual speech stimuli, as well as auditory and visual nonspeech control stimuli in a block fMRI design. Consistent with a hypothesized anterior-posterior processing gradient in STS, auditory, visual and audiovisual stimuli produced the largest BOLD effects in anterior, posterior and middle STS (mSTS), respectively, based on whole-brain, linear mixed effects and principal component analyses. Notably, the mSTS exhibited preferential responses to multisensory stimulation, as well as speech compared to nonspeech. Within the mid-posterior and mSTS regions, response preferences changed gradually from visual, to multisensory, to auditory moving posterior to anterior. Post hoc analysis of visual regions in the posterior STS revealed that a single subregion bordering the mSTS was insensitive to differences in low-level motion kinematics yet distinguished between visual speech and nonspeech based on multi-voxel activation patterns. These results suggest that auditory and visual speech representations are elaborated gradually within anterior and posterior processing streams, respectively, and may be integrated within the mSTS, which is sensitive to more abstract speech information within and across presentation modalities. The spatial organization of STS is consistent with processing streams that are hypothesized to synthesize perceptual speech representations from sensory signals that provide convergent information from visual and auditory modalities.

  7. Sensitivity of cortical auditory evoked potential detection for hearing-impaired infants in response to short speech sounds

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    Bram Van Dun

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available

    Background: Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs are an emerging tool for hearing aid fitting evaluation in young children who cannot provide reliable behavioral feedback. It is therefore useful to determine the relationship between the sensation level of speech sounds and the detection sensitivity of CAEPs.

    Design and methods: Twenty-five sensorineurally hearing impaired infants with an age range of 8 to 30 months were tested once, 18 aided and 7 unaided. First, behavioral thresholds of speech stimuli /m/, /g/, and /t/ were determined using visual reinforcement orientation audiometry (VROA. Afterwards, the same speech stimuli were presented at 55, 65, and 75 dB SPL, and CAEP recordings were made. An automatic statistical detection paradigm was used for CAEP detection.

    Results: For sensation levels above 0, 10, and 20 dB respectively, detection sensitivities were equal to 72 ± 10, 75 ± 10, and 78 ± 12%. In 79% of the cases, automatic detection p-values became smaller when the sensation level was increased by 10 dB.

    Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the presence or absence of CAEPs can provide some indication of the audibility of a speech sound for infants with sensorineural hearing loss. The detection of a CAEP provides confidence, to a degree commensurate with the detection probability, that the infant is detecting that sound at the level presented. When testing infants where the audibility of speech sounds has not been established behaviorally, the lack of a cortical response indicates the possibility, but by no means a certainty, that the sensation level is 10 dB or less.

  8. Oral and Hand Movement Speeds Are Associated with Expressive Language Ability in Children with Speech Sound Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peter, Beate

    2012-01-01

    This study tested the hypothesis that children with speech sound disorder have generalized slowed motor speeds. It evaluated associations among oral and hand motor speeds and measures of speech (articulation and phonology) and language (receptive vocabulary, sentence comprehension, sentence imitation), in 11 children with moderate to severe SSD…

  9. The Comorbidity between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD in Children and Arabic Speech Sound Disorder

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    Ruaa Osama Hariri

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Children with Attention-Deficiency/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD often have co-existing learning disabilities and developmental weaknesses or delays in some areas including speech (Rief, 2005. Seeing that phonological disorders include articulation errors and other forms of speech disorders, studies pertaining to children with ADHD symptoms who demonstrate signs of phonological disorders in their native Arabic language are lacking. The purpose of this study is to provide a description of Arabic language deficits and to present a theoretical model of potential associations between phonological language deficits and ADHD. Dodd and McCormack’s (1995 four subgroups classification of speech disorder and the phonological disorders pertaining to the Arabic language provided by a Saudi Institute for Speech and Hearing are examined within the theoretical framework. Since intervention may improve articulation and focuses a child’s attention on the sound structure of words, findings in this study are based on the assumption that children with ADHD may acquire phonology for their Arabic language in the same way, and following the same developmental stages as intelligible children. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses have proven that the ADHD group analyzed in this study had indeed failed to acquire most of their Arabic consonants as they should have. Keywords: speech sound disorder, attention-deficiency/hyperactive, developmental disorder, phonological disorder, language disorder/delay, language impairment

  10. Children with Speech Sound Disorders at School: Challenges for Children, Parents and Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniel, Graham R.; McLeod, Sharynne

    2017-01-01

    Teachers play a major role in supporting children's educational, social, and emotional development although may be unprepared for supporting children with speech sound disorders. Interviews with 34 participants including six focus children, their parents, siblings, friends, teachers and other significant adults in their lives highlighted…

  11. Sleep Disrupts High-Level Speech Parsing Despite Significant Basic Auditory Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makov, Shiri; Sharon, Omer; Ding, Nai; Ben-Shachar, Michal; Nir, Yuval; Zion Golumbic, Elana

    2017-08-09

    parsing are also preserved. We used a novel approach for studying the depth of speech processing across wakefulness and sleep while tracking neuronal activity with EEG. We found that responses to the auditory sound stream remained intact; however, the sleeping brain did not show signs of hierarchical parsing of the continuous stream of syllables into words, phrases, and sentences. The results suggest that sleep imposes a functional barrier between basic sensory processing and high-level cognitive processing. This paradigm also holds promise for studying residual cognitive abilities in a wide array of unresponsive states. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/377772-10$15.00/0.

  12. Near-infrared-spectroscopic study on processing of sounds in the brain; a comparison between native and non-native speakers of Japanese.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsunoda, Koichi; Sekimoto, Sotaro; Itoh, Kenji

    2016-06-01

    Conclusions The result suggested that mother tongue Japanese and non- mother tongue Japanese differ in their pattern of brain dominance when listening to sounds from the natural world-in particular, insect sounds. These results reveal significant support for previous findings from Tsunoda (in 1970). Objectives This study concentrates on listeners who show clear evidence of a 'speech' brain vs a 'music' brain and determines which side is most active in the processing of insect sounds, using with near-infrared spectroscopy. Methods The present study uses 2-channel Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to provide a more direct measure of left- and right-brain activity while participants listen to each of three types of sounds: Japanese speech, Western violin music, or insect sounds. Data were obtained from 33 participants who showed laterality on opposite sides for Japanese speech and Western music. Results Results showed that a majority (80%) of the MJ participants exhibited dominance for insect sounds on the side that was dominant for language, while a majority (62%) of the non-MJ participants exhibited dominance for insect sounds on the side that was dominant for music.

  13. Inferior Frontal Sensitivity to Common Speech Sounds Is Amplified by Increasing Word Intelligibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaden, Kenneth I., Jr.; Kuchinsky, Stefanie E.; Keren, Noam I.; Harris, Kelly C.; Ahlstrom, Jayne B.; Dubno, Judy R.; Eckert, Mark A.

    2011-01-01

    The left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) exhibits increased responsiveness when people listen to words composed of speech sounds that frequently co-occur in the English language (Vaden, Piquado, & Hickok, 2011), termed high phonotactic frequency (Vitevitch & Luce, 1998). The current experiment aimed to further characterize the relation of…

  14. Early Intervening for Students with Speech Sound Disorders: Lessons from a School District

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mire, Stephen P.; Montgomery, Judy K.

    2009-01-01

    The concept of early intervening services was introduced into public school systems with the implementation of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004. This article describes a program developed for students with speech sound disorders that incorporated concepts of early intervening services, response to…

  15. Predicting speech intelligibility in conditions with nonlinearly processed noisy speech

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Søren; Dau, Torsten

    2013-01-01

    The speech-based envelope power spectrum model (sEPSM; [1]) was proposed in order to overcome the limitations of the classical speech transmission index (STI) and speech intelligibility index (SII). The sEPSM applies the signal-tonoise ratio in the envelope domain (SNRenv), which was demonstrated...... to successfully predict speech intelligibility in conditions with nonlinearly processed noisy speech, such as processing with spectral subtraction. Moreover, a multiresolution version (mr-sEPSM) was demonstrated to account for speech intelligibility in various conditions with stationary and fluctuating...

  16. Musical intervention enhances infants' neural processing of temporal structure in music and speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, T Christina; Kuhl, Patricia K

    2016-05-10

    Individuals with music training in early childhood show enhanced processing of musical sounds, an effect that generalizes to speech processing. However, the conclusions drawn from previous studies are limited due to the possible confounds of predisposition and other factors affecting musicians and nonmusicians. We used a randomized design to test the effects of a laboratory-controlled music intervention on young infants' neural processing of music and speech. Nine-month-old infants were randomly assigned to music (intervention) or play (control) activities for 12 sessions. The intervention targeted temporal structure learning using triple meter in music (e.g., waltz), which is difficult for infants, and it incorporated key characteristics of typical infant music classes to maximize learning (e.g., multimodal, social, and repetitive experiences). Controls had similar multimodal, social, repetitive play, but without music. Upon completion, infants' neural processing of temporal structure was tested in both music (tones in triple meter) and speech (foreign syllable structure). Infants' neural processing was quantified by the mismatch response (MMR) measured with a traditional oddball paradigm using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The intervention group exhibited significantly larger MMRs in response to music temporal structure violations in both auditory and prefrontal cortical regions. Identical results were obtained for temporal structure changes in speech. The intervention thus enhanced temporal structure processing not only in music, but also in speech, at 9 mo of age. We argue that the intervention enhanced infants' ability to extract temporal structure information and to predict future events in time, a skill affecting both music and speech processing.

  17. Tutorial and Guidelines on Measurement of Sound Pressure Level in Voice and Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Švec, Jan G.; Granqvist, Svante

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: Sound pressure level (SPL) measurement of voice and speech is often considered a trivial matter, but the measured levels are often reported incorrectly or incompletely, making them difficult to compare among various studies. This article aims at explaining the fundamental principles behind these measurements and providing guidelines to…

  18. Nonspeech Oral Motor Treatment Issues Related to Children with Developmental Speech Sound Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruscello, Dennis M.

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: This article examines nonspeech oral motor treatments (NSOMTs) in the population of clients with developmental speech sound disorders. NSOMTs are a collection of nonspeech methods and procedures that claim to influence tongue, lip, and jaw resting postures; increase strength; improve muscle tone; facilitate range of motion; and develop…

  19. Relationships between early literacy and nonlinguistic rhythmic processes in kindergarteners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozernov-Palchik, Ola; Wolf, Maryanne; Patel, Aniruddh D

    2018-03-01

    A growing number of studies report links between nonlinguistic rhythmic abilities and certain linguistic abilities, particularly phonological skills. The current study investigated the relationship between nonlinguistic rhythmic processing, phonological abilities, and early literacy abilities in kindergarteners. A distinctive aspect of the current work was the exploration of whether processing of different types of rhythmic patterns is differentially related to kindergarteners' phonological and reading-related abilities. Specifically, we examined the processing of metrical versus nonmetrical rhythmic patterns, that is, patterns capable of being subdivided into equal temporal intervals or not (Povel & Essens, 1985). This is an important comparison because most music involves metrical sequences, in which rhythm often has an underlying temporal grid of isochronous units. In contrast, nonmetrical sequences are arguably more typical to speech rhythm, which is temporally structured but does not involve an underlying grid of equal temporal units. A rhythm discrimination app with metrical and nonmetrical patterns was administered to 74 kindergarteners in conjunction with cognitive and preliteracy measures. Findings support a relationship among rhythm perception, phonological awareness, and letter-sound knowledge (an essential precursor of reading). A mediation analysis revealed that the association between rhythm perception and letter-sound knowledge is mediated through phonological awareness. Furthermore, metrical perception accounted for unique variance in letter-sound knowledge above all other language and cognitive measures. These results point to a unique role for temporal regularity processing in the association between musical rhythm and literacy in young children. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. [Non-speech oral motor treatment efficacy for children with developmental speech sound disorders].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ygual-Fernandez, A; Cervera-Merida, J F

    2016-01-01

    In the treatment of speech disorders by means of speech therapy two antagonistic methodological approaches are applied: non-verbal ones, based on oral motor exercises (OME), and verbal ones, which are based on speech processing tasks with syllables, phonemes and words. In Spain, OME programmes are called 'programas de praxias', and are widely used and valued by speech therapists. To review the studies conducted on the effectiveness of OME-based treatments applied to children with speech disorders and the theoretical arguments that could justify, or not, their usefulness. Over the last few decades evidence has been gathered about the lack of efficacy of this approach to treat developmental speech disorders and pronunciation problems in populations without any neurological alteration of motor functioning. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has advised against its use taking into account the principles of evidence-based practice. The knowledge gathered to date on motor control shows that the pattern of mobility and its corresponding organisation in the brain are different in speech and other non-verbal functions linked to nutrition and breathing. Neither the studies on their effectiveness nor the arguments based on motor control studies recommend the use of OME-based programmes for the treatment of pronunciation problems in children with developmental language disorders.

  1. Through the magnifying glass: Underlying literacy deficits and remediation potential in childhood apraxia of speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaretsky, Elena; Velleman, Shelley L; Curro, Kristina

    2010-02-01

    Interactions among psycholinguistic deficits and literacy difficulties in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) have been inadequately studied. Comparisons with other disorders (Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and phonological dyslexia) and the possibility of reading remediation in CAS warrant further research. This case study describes the speech, language, cognitive, and literacy deficits and therapy gains in a girl aged 11;6 with severe CAS and borderline IQ. A comprehensive assessment of literacy-related cognitive skills, including phonological memory and working memory capacity, language, speech production and reading skills, was administered. Treatment from 6;0 to 11;6 targeted speech sounds, oral sequencing, phonological awareness (PA), speech-print connections, syllabic structure, and real and non-word decoding. Phonological memory was similar to that of children with SLI, but working memory was significantly worse. Unlike children with phonological dyslexia, our participant demonstrated relative strength in letter-sound correspondence rules. Despite deficits, she made progress in literacy with intensive long-term intervention. Results suggest that the underlying cognitive-linguistic profile of children with CAS may differ from those of children with SLI or dyslexia. Our results also show that long-term intensive intervention promotes acquisition of adequate literacy skills even in a child with a severe motor speech disorder and borderline IQ.

  2. Temporal Context in Speech Processing and Attentional Stream Selection: A Behavioral and Neural perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zion Golumbic, Elana M.; Poeppel, David; Schroeder, Charles E.

    2012-01-01

    The human capacity for processing speech is remarkable, especially given that information in speech unfolds over multiple time scales concurrently. Similarly notable is our ability to filter out of extraneous sounds and focus our attention on one conversation, epitomized by the ‘Cocktail Party’ effect. Yet, the neural mechanisms underlying on-line speech decoding and attentional stream selection are not well understood. We review findings from behavioral and neurophysiological investigations that underscore the importance of the temporal structure of speech for achieving these perceptual feats. We discuss the hypothesis that entrainment of ambient neuronal oscillations to speech’s temporal structure, across multiple time-scales, serves to facilitate its decoding and underlies the selection of an attended speech stream over other competing input. In this regard, speech decoding and attentional stream selection are examples of ‘active sensing’, emphasizing an interaction between proactive and predictive top-down modulation of neuronal dynamics and bottom-up sensory input. PMID:22285024

  3. Persistent Thalamic Sound Processing Despite Profound Cochlear Denervation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna R. Chambers

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Neurons at higher stages of sensory processing can partially compensate for a sudden drop in input from the periphery through a homeostatic plasticity process that increases the gain on weak afferent inputs. Even after a profound unilateral auditory neuropathy where > 95% of synapses between auditory nerve fibers and inner hair cells have been eliminated with ouabain, central gain can restore the cortical processing and perceptual detection of basic sounds delivered to the denervated ear. In this model of profound auditory neuropathy, cortical processing and perception recover despite the absence of an auditory brainstem response (ABR or brainstem acoustic reflexes, and only a partial recovery of sound processing at the level of the inferior colliculus (IC, an auditory midbrain nucleus. In this study, we induced a profound cochlear neuropathy with ouabain and asked whether central gain enabled a compensatory plasticity in the auditory thalamus comparable to the full recovery of function previously observed in the auditory cortex (ACtx, the partial recovery observed in the IC, or something different entirely. Unilateral ouabain treatment in adult mice effectively eliminated the ABR, yet robust sound-evoked activity persisted in a minority of units recorded from the contralateral medial geniculate body (MGB of awake mice. Sound-driven MGB units could decode moderate and high-intensity sounds with accuracies comparable to sham-treated control mice, but low-intensity classification was near chance. Pure tone receptive fields and synchronization to broadband pulse trains also persisted, albeit with significantly reduced quality and precision, respectively. MGB decoding of temporally modulated pulse trains and speech tokens were both greatly impaired in ouabain-treated mice. Taken together, the absence of an ABR belied a persistent auditory processing at the level of the MGB that was likely enabled through increased central gain. Compensatory

  4. Deficits in Sequential Processing Manifest in Motor and Linguistic Tasks in a Multigenerational Family with Childhood Apraxia of Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peter, Beate; Button, Le; Stoel-Gammon, Carol; Chapman, Kathy; Raskind, Wendy H.

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate a global deficit in sequential processing as candidate endophenotypein a family with familial childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Of 10 adults and 13 children in a three-generational family with speech sound disorder (SSD) consistent with CAS, 3 adults and 6 children had past or present SSD diagnoses. Two…

  5. Effects of irrelevant speech and traffic noise on speech perception and cognitive performance in elementary school children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klatte, Maria; Meis, Markus; Sukowski, Helga; Schick, August

    2007-01-01

    The effects of background noise of moderate intensity on short-term storage and processing of verbal information were analyzed in 6 to 8 year old children. In line with adult studies on "irrelevant sound effect" (ISE), serial recall of visually presented digits was severely disrupted by background speech that the children did not understand. Train noises of equal Intensity however, had no effect. Similar results were demonstrated with tasks requiring storage and processing of heard information. Memory for nonwords, execution of oral instructions and categorizing speech sounds were significantly disrupted by irrelevant speech. The affected functions play a fundamental role in the acquisition of spoken and written language. Implications concerning current models of the ISE and the acoustic conditions in schools and kindergardens are discussed.

  6. Normal Aspects of Speech, Hearing, and Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minifie, Fred. D., Ed.; And Others

    This book is written as a guide to the understanding of the processes involved in human speech communication. Ten authorities contributed material to provide an introduction to the physiological aspects of speech production and reception, the acoustical aspects of speech production and transmission, the psychophysics of sound reception, the nature…

  7. How Should Children with Speech Sound Disorders be Classified? A Review and Critical Evaluation of Current Classification Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waring, R.; Knight, R.

    2013-01-01

    Background: Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) form a heterogeneous group who differ in terms of the severity of their condition, underlying cause, speech errors, involvement of other aspects of the linguistic system and treatment response. To date there is no universal and agreed-upon classification system. Instead, a number of…

  8. Sounds Exaggerate Visual Shape

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sweeny, Timothy D.; Guzman-Martinez, Emmanuel; Ortega, Laura; Grabowecky, Marcia; Suzuki, Satoru

    2012-01-01

    While perceiving speech, people see mouth shapes that are systematically associated with sounds. In particular, a vertically stretched mouth produces a /woo/ sound, whereas a horizontally stretched mouth produces a /wee/ sound. We demonstrate that hearing these speech sounds alters how we see aspect ratio, a basic visual feature that contributes…

  9. Hemispheric asymmetries in speech perception: sense, nonsense and modulations.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stuart Rosen

    Full Text Available The well-established left hemisphere specialisation for language processing has long been claimed to be based on a low-level auditory specialization for specific acoustic features in speech, particularly regarding 'rapid temporal processing'.A novel analysis/synthesis technique was used to construct a variety of sounds based on simple sentences which could be manipulated in spectro-temporal complexity, and whether they were intelligible or not. All sounds consisted of two noise-excited spectral prominences (based on the lower two formants in the original speech which could be static or varying in frequency and/or amplitude independently. Dynamically varying both acoustic features based on the same sentence led to intelligible speech but when either or both acoustic features were static, the stimuli were not intelligible. Using the frequency dynamics from one sentence with the amplitude dynamics of another led to unintelligible sounds of comparable spectro-temporal complexity to the intelligible ones. Positron emission tomography (PET was used to compare which brain regions were active when participants listened to the different sounds.Neural activity to spectral and amplitude modulations sufficient to support speech intelligibility (without actually being intelligible was seen bilaterally, with a right temporal lobe dominance. A left dominant response was seen only to intelligible sounds. It thus appears that the left hemisphere specialisation for speech is based on the linguistic properties of utterances, not on particular acoustic features.

  10. A general auditory bias for handling speaker variability in speech? Evidence in humans and songbirds

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kriengwatana, B.; Escudero, P.; Kerkhoven, A.H.; ten Cate, C.

    2015-01-01

    Different speakers produce the same speech sound differently, yet listeners are still able to reliably identify the speech sound. How listeners can adjust their perception to compensate for speaker differences in speech, and whether these compensatory processes are unique only to humans, is still

  11. Reading Skills of Students with Speech Sound Disorders at Three Stages of Literacy Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skebo, Crysten M.; Lewis, Barbara A.; Freebairn, Lisa A.; Tag, Jessica; Ciesla, Allison Avrich; Stein, Catherine M.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: The relationship between phonological awareness, overall language, vocabulary, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills to decoding and reading comprehension was examined for students at 3 stages of literacy development (i.e., early elementary school, middle school, and high school). Students with histories of speech sound disorders (SSD) with…

  12. Acoustic analysis of trill sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhananjaya, N; Yegnanarayana, B; Bhaskararao, Peri

    2012-04-01

    In this paper, the acoustic-phonetic characteristics of steady apical trills--trill sounds produced by the periodic vibration of the apex of the tongue--are studied. Signal processing methods, namely, zero-frequency filtering and zero-time liftering of speech signals, are used to analyze the excitation source and the resonance characteristics of the vocal tract system, respectively. Although it is natural to expect the effect of trilling on the resonances of the vocal tract system, it is interesting to note that trilling influences the glottal source of excitation as well. The excitation characteristics derived using zero-frequency filtering of speech signals are glottal epochs, strength of impulses at the glottal epochs, and instantaneous fundamental frequency of the glottal vibration. Analysis based on zero-time liftering of speech signals is used to study the dynamic resonance characteristics of vocal tract system during the production of trill sounds. Qualitative analysis of trill sounds in different vowel contexts, and the acoustic cues that may help spotting trills in continuous speech are discussed.

  13. The influence of masker type on early reflection processing and speech intelligibility (L)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arweiler, Iris; Buchholz, Jörg M.; Dau, Torsten

    2013-01-01

    Arweiler and Buchholz [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 130, 996-1005 (2011)] showed that, while the energy of early reflections (ERs) in a room improves speech intelligibility, the benefit is smaller than that provided by the energy of the direct sound (DS). In terms of integration of ERs and DS, binaural...... listening did not provide a benefit from ERs apart from a binaural energy summation, such that monaural auditory processing could account for the data. However, a diffuse speech shaped noise (SSN) was used in the speech intelligibility experiments, which does not provide distinct binaural cues...... to the auditory system. In the present study, the monaural and binaural benefit from ERs for speech intelligibility was investigated using three directional maskers presented from 90° azimuth: a SSN, a multi-talker babble, and a reversed two-talker masker. For normal-hearing as well as hearing-impaired listeners...

  14. Effect of orthographic processes on letter-identity and letter-position encoding in dyslexic children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Caroline eReilhac

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available The ability to identify letters and encode their position is a crucial step of the word recognition process. However and despite their word identification problem, the ability of dyslexic children to encode letter-identity and letter-position within strings was not systematically investigated. This study aimed at filling this gap and further explored how letter identity and letter position encoding is modulated by letter context in developmental dyslexia. For this purpose, a letter-string comparison task was administered to French dyslexic children and two chronological-age (CA and reading-age (RA-matched control groups. Children had to judge whether two successively and briefly presented 4-letter-strings were identical or different. Letter-position and letter-identity were manipulated through the transposition (e.g., RTGM vs. RMGT or substitution of two letters (e.g., TSHF vs. TGHD. Non-words, pseudo-words and words were used as stimuli to investigate sub-lexical and lexical effects on letter encoding. Dyslexic children showed both substitution and transposition detection problems relative to CA controls. A substitution advantage over transpositions was only found for words in dyslexic children whereas it extended to pseudo-words in RA controls and to all type of items in CA controls. Letters were better identified in the dyslexic group when belonging to orthographically familiar strings. Letter position encoding was very impaired in dyslexic children who did not show any word context effect in contrast to CA controls. Overall, the current findings point to a strong letter identity and letter position encoding disorder in developmental dyslexia.

  15. Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Background Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. Methods We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Results Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. Conclusions These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to regularities in auditory input

  16. Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strait, Dana L; Hornickel, Jane; Kraus, Nina

    2011-10-17

    Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to regularities in auditory input. Definition of common biological underpinnings

  17. Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Strait Dana L

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. Methods We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Results Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. Conclusions These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to

  18. Intervention for bilingual speech sound disorders: A case study of an isiXhosa-English-speaking child.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossouw, Kate; Pascoe, Michelle

    2018-03-19

     Bilingualism is common in South Africa, with many children acquiring isiXhosa as a home language and learning English from a young age in nursery or crèche. IsiXhosa is a local language, part of the Bantu language family, widely spoken in the country. Aims: To describe changes in a bilingual child's speech following intervention based on a theoretically motivated and tailored intervention plan. Methods and procedures: This study describes a female isiXhosa-English bilingual child, named Gcobisa (pseudonym) (chronological age 4 years and 2 months) with a speech sound disorder. Gcobisa's speech was assessed and her difficulties categorised according to Dodd's (2005) diagnostic framework. From this, intervention was planned and the language of intervention was selected. Following intervention, Gcobisa's speech was reassessed. Outcomes and results: Gcobisa's speech was categorised as a consistent phonological delay as she presented with gliding of/l/in both English and isiXhosa, cluster reduction in English and several other age appropriate phonological processes. She was provided with 16 sessions of intervention using a minimal pairs approach, targeting the phonological process of gliding of/l/, which was not considered age appropriate for Gcobisa in isiXhosa when compared to the small set of normative data regarding monolingual isiXhosa development. As a result, the targets and stimuli were in isiXhosa while the main language of instruction was English. This reflects the language mismatch often faced by speech language therapists in South Africa. Gcobisa showed evidence of generalising the target phoneme to English words. Conclusions and implications: The data have theoretical implications regarding bilingual development of isiXhosa-English, as it highlights the ways bilingual development may differ from the monolingual development of this language pair. It adds to the small set of intervention studies investigating the changes in the speech of bilingual

  19. Intervention for bilingual speech sound disorders: A case study of an isiXhosa–English-speaking child

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kate Rossouw

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: Bilingualism is common in South Africa, with many children acquiring isiXhosa as a home language and learning English from a young age in nursery or crèche. IsiXhosa is a local language, part of the Bantu language family, widely spoken in the country.   Aims: To describe changes in a bilingual child’s speech following intervention based on a theoretically motivated and tailored intervention plan.   Methods and procedures: This study describes a female isiXhosa–English bilingual child, named Gcobisa (pseudonym (chronological age 4 years and 2 months with a speech sound disorder. Gcobisa’s speech was assessed and her difficulties categorised according to Dodd’s (2005 diagnostic framework. From this, intervention was planned and the language of intervention was selected. Following intervention, Gcobisa’s speech was reassessed.   Outcomes and results: Gcobisa’s speech was categorised as a consistent phonological delay as she presented with gliding of/l/in both English and isiXhosa, cluster reduction in English and several other age appropriate phonological processes. She was provided with 16 sessions of intervention using a minimal pairs approach, targeting the phonological process of gliding of/l/, which was not considered age appropriate for Gcobisa in isiXhosa when compared to the small set of normative data regarding monolingual isiXhosa development. As a result, the targets and stimuli were in isiXhosa while the main language of instruction was English. This reflects the language mismatch often faced by speech language therapists in South Africa. Gcobisa showed evidence of generalising the target phoneme to English words.   Conclusions and implications: The data have theoretical implications regarding bilingual development of isiXhosa–English, as it highlights the ways bilingual development may differ from the monolingual development of this language pair. It adds to the small set of intervention studies

  20. Estimation of sound pressure levels of voiced speech from skin vibration of the neck

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Svec, JG; Titze, IR; Popolo, PS

    How accurately can sound pressure levels (SPLs) of speech be estimated from skin vibration of the neck? Measurements using a small accelerometer were carried out in 27 subjects (10 males and 17 females) who read Rainbow and Marvin Williams passages in soft, comfortable, and loud voice, while skin

  1. Automatic analysis of slips of the tongue: Insights into the cognitive architecture of speech production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldrick, Matthew; Keshet, Joseph; Gustafson, Erin; Heller, Jordana; Needle, Jeremy

    2016-04-01

    Traces of the cognitive mechanisms underlying speaking can be found within subtle variations in how we pronounce sounds. While speech errors have traditionally been seen as categorical substitutions of one sound for another, acoustic/articulatory analyses show they partially reflect the intended sound. When "pig" is mispronounced as "big," the resulting /b/ sound differs from correct productions of "big," moving towards intended "pig"-revealing the role of graded sound representations in speech production. Investigating the origins of such phenomena requires detailed estimation of speech sound distributions; this has been hampered by reliance on subjective, labor-intensive manual annotation. Computational methods can address these issues by providing for objective, automatic measurements. We develop a novel high-precision computational approach, based on a set of machine learning algorithms, for measurement of elicited speech. The algorithms are trained on existing manually labeled data to detect and locate linguistically relevant acoustic properties with high accuracy. Our approach is robust, is designed to handle mis-productions, and overall matches the performance of expert coders. It allows us to analyze a very large dataset of speech errors (containing far more errors than the total in the existing literature), illuminating properties of speech sound distributions previously impossible to reliably observe. We argue that this provides novel evidence that two sources both contribute to deviations in speech errors: planning processes specifying the targets of articulation and articulatory processes specifying the motor movements that execute this plan. These findings illustrate how a much richer picture of speech provides an opportunity to gain novel insights into language processing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. The sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis for language acquisition and language evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Imai, Mutsumi; Kita, Sotaro

    2014-09-19

    Sound symbolism is a non-arbitrary relationship between speech sounds and meaning. We review evidence that, contrary to the traditional view in linguistics, sound symbolism is an important design feature of language, which affects online processing of language, and most importantly, language acquisition. We propose the sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis, claiming that (i) pre-verbal infants are sensitive to sound symbolism, due to a biologically endowed ability to map and integrate multi-modal input, (ii) sound symbolism helps infants gain referential insight for speech sounds, (iii) sound symbolism helps infants and toddlers associate speech sounds with their referents to establish a lexical representation and (iv) sound symbolism helps toddlers learn words by allowing them to focus on referents embedded in a complex scene, alleviating Quine's problem. We further explore the possibility that sound symbolism is deeply related to language evolution, drawing the parallel between historical development of language across generations and ontogenetic development within individuals. Finally, we suggest that sound symbolism bootstrapping is a part of a more general phenomenon of bootstrapping by means of iconic representations, drawing on similarities and close behavioural links between sound symbolism and speech-accompanying iconic gesture. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  3. Influences on infant speech processing: toward a new synthesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Werker, J F; Tees, R C

    1999-01-01

    To comprehend and produce language, we must be able to recognize the sound patterns of our language and the rules for how these sounds "map on" to meaning. Human infants are born with a remarkable array of perceptual sensitivities that allow them to detect the basic properties that are common to the world's languages. During the first year of life, these sensitivities undergo modification reflecting an exquisite tuning to just that phonological information that is needed to map sound to meaning in the native language. We review this transition from language-general to language-specific perceptual sensitivity that occurs during the first year of life and consider whether the changes propel the child into word learning. To account for the broad-based initial sensitivities and subsequent reorganizations, we offer an integrated transactional framework based on the notion of a specialized perceptual-motor system that has evolved to serve human speech, but which functions in concert with other developing abilities. In so doing, we highlight the links between infant speech perception, babbling, and word learning.

  4. Application of wavelets in speech processing

    CERN Document Server

    Farouk, Mohamed Hesham

    2014-01-01

    This book provides a survey on wide-spread of employing wavelets analysis  in different applications of speech processing. The author examines development and research in different application of speech processing. The book also summarizes the state of the art research on wavelet in speech processing.

  5. Statistical Learning, Syllable Processing, and Speech Production in Healthy Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Preschool Children: A Mismatch Negativity Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Studer-Eichenberger, Esther; Studer-Eichenberger, Felix; Koenig, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    The objectives of the present study were to investigate temporal/spectral sound-feature processing in preschool children (4 to 7 years old) with peripheral hearing loss compared with age-matched controls. The results verified the presence of statistical learning, which was diminished in children with hearing impairments (HIs), and elucidated possible perceptual mediators of speech production. Perception and production of the syllables /ba/, /da/, /ta/, and /na/ were recorded in 13 children with normal hearing and 13 children with HI. Perception was assessed physiologically through event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded by EEG in a multifeature mismatch negativity paradigm and behaviorally through a discrimination task. Temporal and spectral features of the ERPs during speech perception were analyzed, and speech production was quantitatively evaluated using speech motor maximum performance tasks. Proximal to stimulus onset, children with HI displayed a difference in map topography, indicating diminished statistical learning. In later ERP components, children with HI exhibited reduced amplitudes in the N2 and early parts of the late disciminative negativity components specifically, which are associated with temporal and spectral control mechanisms. Abnormalities of speech perception were only subtly reflected in speech production, as the lone difference found in speech production studies was a mild delay in regulating speech intensity. In addition to previously reported deficits of sound-feature discriminations, the present study results reflect diminished statistical learning in children with HI, which plays an early and important, but so far neglected, role in phonological processing. Furthermore, the lack of corresponding behavioral abnormalities in speech production implies that impaired perceptual capacities do not necessarily translate into productive deficits.

  6. An exploratory study of the influence of load and practice on segmental and articulatory variability in children with speech sound disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vuolo, Janet; Goffman, Lisa

    2017-01-01

    This exploratory treatment study used phonetic transcription and speech kinematics to examine changes in segmental and articulatory variability. Nine children, ages 4 to 8 years old, served as participants, including two with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), five with speech sound disorder (SSD) and two who were typically developing. Children practised producing agent + action phrases in an imitation task (low linguistic load) and a retrieval task (high linguistic load) over five sessions. In the imitation task in session one, both participants with CAS showed high degrees of segmental and articulatory variability. After five sessions, imitation practice resulted in increased articulatory variability for five participants. Retrieval practice resulted in decreased articulatory variability in three participants with SSD. These results suggest that short-term speech production practice in rote imitation disrupts articulatory control in children with and without CAS. In contrast, tasks that require linguistic processing may scaffold learning for children with SSD but not CAS.

  7. Hemispheric processing of vocal emblem sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neumann-Werth, Yael; Levy, Erika S; Obler, Loraine K

    2013-01-01

    Vocal emblems, such as shh and brr, are speech sounds that have linguistic and nonlinguistic features; thus, it is unclear how they are processed in the brain. Five adult dextral individuals with left-brain damage and moderate-severe Wernicke's aphasia, five adult dextral individuals with right-brain damage, and five Controls participated in two tasks: (1) matching vocal emblems to photographs ('picture task') and (2) matching vocal emblems to verbal translations ('phrase task'). Cross-group statistical analyses on items on which the Controls performed at ceiling revealed lower accuracy by the group with left-brain damage (than by Controls) on both tasks, and lower accuracy by the group with right-brain damage (than by Controls) on the picture task. Additionally, the group with left-brain damage performed significantly less accurately than the group with right-brain damage on the phrase task only. Findings suggest that comprehension of vocal emblems recruits more left- than right-hemisphere processing.

  8. The selective role of premotor cortex in speech perception: a contribution to phoneme judgements but not speech comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krieger-Redwood, Katya; Gaskell, M Gareth; Lindsay, Shane; Jefferies, Elizabeth

    2013-12-01

    Several accounts of speech perception propose that the areas involved in producing language are also involved in perceiving it. In line with this view, neuroimaging studies show activation of premotor cortex (PMC) during phoneme judgment tasks; however, there is debate about whether speech perception necessarily involves motor processes, across all task contexts, or whether the contribution of PMC is restricted to tasks requiring explicit phoneme awareness. Some aspects of speech processing, such as mapping sounds onto meaning, may proceed without the involvement of motor speech areas if PMC specifically contributes to the manipulation and categorical perception of phonemes. We applied TMS to three sites-PMC, posterior superior temporal gyrus, and occipital pole-and for the first time within the TMS literature, directly contrasted two speech perception tasks that required explicit phoneme decisions and mapping of speech sounds onto semantic categories, respectively. TMS to PMC disrupted explicit phonological judgments but not access to meaning for the same speech stimuli. TMS to two further sites confirmed that this pattern was site specific and did not reflect a generic difference in the susceptibility of our experimental tasks to TMS: stimulation of pSTG, a site involved in auditory processing, disrupted performance in both language tasks, whereas stimulation of occipital pole had no effect on performance in either task. These findings demonstrate that, although PMC is important for explicit phonological judgments, crucially, PMC is not necessary for mapping speech onto meanings.

  9. Neural Tuning to Low-Level Features of Speech throughout the Perisylvian Cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berezutskaya, Julia; Freudenburg, Zachary V; Güçlü, Umut; van Gerven, Marcel A J; Ramsey, Nick F

    2017-08-16

    Despite a large body of research, we continue to lack a detailed account of how auditory processing of continuous speech unfolds in the human brain. Previous research showed the propagation of low-level acoustic features of speech from posterior superior temporal gyrus toward anterior superior temporal gyrus in the human brain (Hullett et al., 2016). In this study, we investigate what happens to these neural representations past the superior temporal gyrus and how they engage higher-level language processing areas such as inferior frontal gyrus. We used low-level sound features to model neural responses to speech outside of the primary auditory cortex. Two complementary imaging techniques were used with human participants (both males and females): electrocorticography (ECoG) and fMRI. Both imaging techniques showed tuning of the perisylvian cortex to low-level speech features. With ECoG, we found evidence of propagation of the temporal features of speech sounds along the ventral pathway of language processing in the brain toward inferior frontal gyrus. Increasingly coarse temporal features of speech spreading from posterior superior temporal cortex toward inferior frontal gyrus were associated with linguistic features such as voice onset time, duration of the formant transitions, and phoneme, syllable, and word boundaries. The present findings provide the groundwork for a comprehensive bottom-up account of speech comprehension in the human brain. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We know that, during natural speech comprehension, a broad network of perisylvian cortical regions is involved in sound and language processing. Here, we investigated the tuning to low-level sound features within these regions using neural responses to a short feature film. We also looked at whether the tuning organization along these brain regions showed any parallel to the hierarchy of language structures in continuous speech. Our results show that low-level speech features propagate throughout the

  10. The Beginnings of Danish Speech Perception

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Østerbye, Torkil

    , in the light of the rich and complex Danish sound system. The first two studies report on native adults’ perception of Danish speech sounds in quiet and noise. The third study examined the development of language-specific perception in native Danish infants at 6, 9 and 12 months of age. The book points......Little is known about the perception of speech sounds by native Danish listeners. However, the Danish sound system differs in several interesting ways from the sound systems of other languages. For instance, Danish is characterized, among other features, by a rich vowel inventory and by different...... reductions of speech sounds evident in the pronunciation of the language. This book (originally a PhD thesis) consists of three studies based on the results of two experiments. The experiments were designed to provide knowledge of the perception of Danish speech sounds by Danish adults and infants...

  11. Effects of musical expertise on oscillatory brain activity in response to emotional sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nolden, Sophie; Rigoulot, Simon; Jolicoeur, Pierre; Armony, Jorge L

    2017-08-01

    Emotions can be conveyed through a variety of channels in the auditory domain, be it via music, non-linguistic vocalizations, or speech prosody. Moreover, recent studies suggest that expertise in one sound category can impact the processing of emotional sounds in other sound categories as they found that musicians process more efficiently emotional musical and vocal sounds than non-musicians. However, the neural correlates of these modulations, especially their time course, are not very well understood. Consequently, we focused here on how the neural processing of emotional information varies as a function of sound category and expertise of participants. Electroencephalogram (EEG) of 20 non-musicians and 17 musicians was recorded while they listened to vocal (speech and vocalizations) and musical sounds. The amplitude of EEG-oscillatory activity in the theta, alpha, beta, and gamma band was quantified and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) was used to identify underlying components of brain activity in each band. Category differences were found in theta and alpha bands, due to larger responses to music and speech than to vocalizations, and in posterior beta, mainly due to differential processing of speech. In addition, we observed greater activation in frontal theta and alpha for musicians than for non-musicians, as well as an interaction between expertise and emotional content of sounds in frontal alpha. The results reflect musicians' expertise in recognition of emotion-conveying music, which seems to also generalize to emotional expressions conveyed by the human voice, in line with previous accounts of effects of expertise on musical and vocal sounds processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Neural initialization of audiovisual integration in prereaders at varying risk for developmental dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    I Karipidis, Iliana; Pleisch, Georgette; Röthlisberger, Martina; Hofstetter, Christoph; Dornbierer, Dario; Stämpfli, Philipp; Brem, Silvia

    2017-02-01

    Learning letter-speech sound correspondences is a major step in reading acquisition and is severely impaired in children with dyslexia. Up to now, it remains largely unknown how quickly neural networks adopt specific functions during audiovisual integration of linguistic information when prereading children learn letter-speech sound correspondences. Here, we simulated the process of learning letter-speech sound correspondences in 20 prereading children (6.13-7.17 years) at varying risk for dyslexia by training artificial letter-speech sound correspondences within a single experimental session. Subsequently, we acquired simultaneously event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans during implicit audiovisual presentation of trained and untrained pairs. Audiovisual integration of trained pairs correlated with individual learning rates in right superior temporal, left inferior temporal, and bilateral parietal areas and with phonological awareness in left temporal areas. In correspondence, a differential left-lateralized parietooccipitotemporal ERP at 400 ms for trained pairs correlated with learning achievement and familial risk. Finally, a late (650 ms) posterior negativity indicating audiovisual congruency of trained pairs was associated with increased fMRI activation in the left occipital cortex. Taken together, a short (audiovisual integration in neural systems that are responsible for processing linguistic information in proficient readers. To conclude, the ability to learn grapheme-phoneme correspondences, the familial history of reading disability, and phonological awareness of prereading children account for the degree of audiovisual integration in a distributed brain network. Such findings on emerging linguistic audiovisual integration could allow for distinguishing between children with typical and atypical reading development. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1038-1055, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals

  13. Long-term exposure to noise impairs cortical sound processing and attention control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kujala, Teija; Shtyrov, Yury; Winkler, Istvan; Saher, Marieke; Tervaniemi, Mari; Sallinen, Mikael; Teder-Sälejärvi, Wolfgang; Alho, Kimmo; Reinikainen, Kalevi; Näätänen, Risto

    2004-11-01

    Long-term exposure to noise impairs human health, causing pathological changes in the inner ear as well as other anatomical and physiological deficits. Numerous individuals are daily exposed to excessive noise. However, there is a lack of systematic research on the effects of noise on cortical function. Here we report data showing that long-term exposure to noise has a persistent effect on central auditory processing and leads to concurrent behavioral deficits. We found that speech-sound discrimination was impaired in noise-exposed individuals, as indicated by behavioral responses and the mismatch negativity brain response. Furthermore, irrelevant sounds increased the distractibility of the noise-exposed subjects, which was shown by increased interference in task performance and aberrant brain responses. These results demonstrate that long-term exposure to noise has long-lasting detrimental effects on central auditory processing and attention control.

  14. Corollary discharge provides the sensory content of inner speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, Mark

    2013-09-01

    Inner speech is one of the most common, but least investigated, mental activities humans perform. It is an internal copy of one's external voice and so is similar to a well-established component of motor control: corollary discharge. Corollary discharge is a prediction of the sound of one's voice generated by the motor system. This prediction is normally used to filter self-caused sounds from perception, which segregates them from externally caused sounds and prevents the sensory confusion that would otherwise result. The similarity between inner speech and corollary discharge motivates the theory, tested here, that corollary discharge provides the sensory content of inner speech. The results reported here show that inner speech attenuates the impact of external sounds. This attenuation was measured using a context effect (an influence of contextual speech sounds on the perception of subsequent speech sounds), which weakens in the presence of speech imagery that matches the context sound. Results from a control experiment demonstrated this weakening in external speech as well. Such sensory attenuation is a hallmark of corollary discharge.

  15. Acoustic processing of temporally modulated sounds in infants: evidence from a combined near-infrared spectroscopy and EEG study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silke eTelkemeyer

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Speech perception requires rapid extraction of the linguistic content from the acoustic signal. The ability to efficiently process rapid changes in auditory information is important for decoding speech and thereby crucial during language acquisition. Investigating functional networks of speech perception in infancy might elucidate neuronal ensembles supporting perceptual abilities that gate language acquisition. Interhemispheric specializations for language have been demonstrated in infants. How these asymmetries are shaped by basic temporal acoustic properties is under debate. We recently provided evidence that newborns process non-linguistic sounds sharing temporal features with language in a differential and lateralized fashion. The present study used the same material while measuring brain responses of 6 and 3 month old infants using simultaneous recordings of electroencephalography (EEG and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS. NIRS reveals that the lateralization observed in newborns remains constant over the first months of life. While fast acoustic modulations elicit bilateral neuronal activations, slow modulations lead to right-lateralized responses. Additionally, auditory evoked potentials and oscillatory EEG responses show differential responses for fast and slow modulations indicating a sensitivity for temporal acoustic variations. Oscillatory responses reveal an effect of development, that is, 6 but not 3 month old infants show stronger theta-band desynchronization for slowly modulated sounds. Whether this developmental effect is due to increasing fine-grained perception for spectrotemporal sounds in general remains speculative. Our findings support the notion that a more general specialization for acoustic properties can be considered the basis for lateralization of speech perception. The results show that concurrent assessment of vascular based imaging and electrophysiological responses have great potential in the research on language

  16. Cortical processes of speech illusions in the general population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schepers, E; Bodar, L; van Os, J; Lousberg, R

    2016-10-18

    There is evidence that experimentally elicited auditory illusions in the general population index risk for psychotic symptoms. As little is known about underlying cortical mechanisms of auditory illusions, an experiment was conducted to analyze processing of auditory illusions in a general population sample. In a follow-up design with two measurement moments (baseline and 6 months), participants (n = 83) underwent the White Noise task under simultaneous recording with a 14-lead EEG. An auditory illusion was defined as hearing any speech in a sound fragment containing white noise. A total number of 256 speech illusions (SI) were observed over the two measurements, with a high degree of stability of SI over time. There were 7 main effects of speech illusion on the EEG alpha band-the most significant indicating a decrease in activity at T3 (t = -4.05). Other EEG frequency bands (slow beta, fast beta, gamma, delta, theta) showed no significant associations with SI. SIs are characterized by reduced alpha activity in non-clinical populations. Given the association of SIs with psychosis, follow-up research is required to examine the possibility of reduced alpha activity mediating SIs in high risk and symptomatic populations.

  17. Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of Computer-Assisted Intervention Delivered by Educators for Children with Speech Sound Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Sharynne; Baker, Elise; McCormack, Jane; Wren, Yvonne; Roulstone, Sue; Crowe, Kathryn; Masso, Sarah; White, Paul; Howland, Charlotte

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of computer-assisted input-based intervention for children with speech sound disorders (SSD). Method: The Sound Start Study was a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Seventy-nine early childhood centers were invited to participate, 45 were recruited, and 1,205 parents and educators of 4- and…

  18. Time course of the influence of musical expertise on the processing of vocal and musical sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rigoulot, S; Pell, M D; Armony, J L

    2015-04-02

    Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have suggested that different cerebral regions preferentially process human voice and music. Yet, little is known on the temporal course of the brain processes that decode the category of sounds and how the expertise in one sound category can impact these processes. To address this question, we recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG) of 15 musicians and 18 non-musicians while they were listening to short musical excerpts (piano and violin) and vocal stimuli (speech and non-linguistic vocalizations). The task of the participants was to detect noise targets embedded within the stream of sounds. Event-related potentials revealed an early differentiation of sound category, within the first 100 ms after the onset of the sound, with mostly increased responses to musical sounds. Importantly, this effect was modulated by the musical background of participants, as musicians were more responsive to music sounds than non-musicians, consistent with the notion that musical training increases sensitivity to music. In late temporal windows, brain responses were enhanced in response to vocal stimuli, but musicians were still more responsive to music. These results shed new light on the temporal course of neural dynamics of auditory processing and reveal how it is impacted by the stimulus category and the expertise of participants. Copyright © 2015 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Cortical activity patterns predict robust speech discrimination ability in noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shetake, Jai A.; Wolf, Jordan T.; Cheung, Ryan J.; Engineer, Crystal T.; Ram, Satyananda K.; Kilgard, Michael P.

    2012-01-01

    The neural mechanisms that support speech discrimination in noisy conditions are poorly understood. In quiet conditions, spike timing information appears to be used in the discrimination of speech sounds. In this study, we evaluated the hypothesis that spike timing is also used to distinguish between speech sounds in noisy conditions that significantly degrade neural responses to speech sounds. We tested speech sound discrimination in rats and recorded primary auditory cortex (A1) responses to speech sounds in background noise of different intensities and spectral compositions. Our behavioral results indicate that rats, like humans, are able to accurately discriminate consonant sounds even in the presence of background noise that is as loud as the speech signal. Our neural recordings confirm that speech sounds evoke degraded but detectable responses in noise. Finally, we developed a novel neural classifier that mimics behavioral discrimination. The classifier discriminates between speech sounds by comparing the A1 spatiotemporal activity patterns evoked on single trials with the average spatiotemporal patterns evoked by known sounds. Unlike classifiers in most previous studies, this classifier is not provided with the stimulus onset time. Neural activity analyzed with the use of relative spike timing was well correlated with behavioral speech discrimination in quiet and in noise. Spike timing information integrated over longer intervals was required to accurately predict rat behavioral speech discrimination in noisy conditions. The similarity of neural and behavioral discrimination of speech in noise suggests that humans and rats may employ similar brain mechanisms to solve this problem. PMID:22098331

  20. Speech perception as an active cognitive process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shannon eHeald

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available One view of speech perception is that acoustic signals are transformed into representations for pattern matching to determine linguistic structure. This process can be taken as a statistical pattern-matching problem, assuming realtively stable linguistic categories are characterized by neural representations related to auditory properties of speech that can be compared to speech input. This kind of pattern matching can be termed a passive process which implies rigidity of processingd with few demands on cognitive processing. An alternative view is that speech recognition, even in early stages, is an active process in which speech analysis is attentionally guided. Note that this does not mean consciously guided but that information-contingent changes in early auditory encoding can occur as a function of context and experience. Active processing assumes that attention, plasticity, and listening goals are important in considering how listeners cope with adverse circumstances that impair hearing by masking noise in the environment or hearing loss. Although theories of speech perception have begun to incorporate some active processing, they seldom treat early speech encoding as plastic and attentionally guided. Recent research has suggested that speech perception is the product of both feedforward and feedback interactions between a number of brain regions that include descending projections perhaps as far downstream as the cochlea. It is important to understand how the ambiguity of the speech signal and constraints of context dynamically determine cognitive resources recruited during perception including focused attention, learning, and working memory. Theories of speech perception need to go beyond the current corticocentric approach in order to account for the intrinsic dynamics of the auditory encoding of speech. In doing so, this may provide new insights into ways in which hearing disorders and loss may be treated either through augementation or

  1. The distributed neural system for top-down letter processing: an fMRI study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jiangang; Feng, Lu; Li, Ling; Tian, Jie

    2011-03-01

    This fMRI study used Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) to investigate top-down letter processing with an illusory letter detection task. After an initial training that became increasingly difficult, participant was instructed to detect a letter from pure noise images where there was actually no letter. Such experimental paradigm allowed for isolating top-down components of letter processing and minimizing the influence of bottom-up perceptual input. A distributed cortical network of top-down letter processing was identified by analyzing the functional connectivity patterns of letter-preferential area (LA) within the left fusiform gyrus. Such network extends from the visual cortex to high level cognitive cortexes, including the left middle frontal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus, left superior parietal gyrus, bilateral precuneus, and left inferior occipital gyrus. These findings suggest that top-down letter processing contains not only regions for processing of letter phonology and appearance, but also those involved in internal information generation and maintenance, and attention and memory processing.

  2. Introduction. The perception of speech: from sound to meaning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Brian C J; Tyler, Lorraine K; Marslen-Wilson, William

    2008-03-12

    Spoken language communication is arguably the most important activity that distinguishes humans from non-human species. This paper provides an overview of the review papers that make up this theme issue on the processes underlying speech communication. The volume includes contributions from researchers who specialize in a wide range of topics within the general area of speech perception and language processing. It also includes contributions from key researchers in neuroanatomy and functional neuro-imaging, in an effort to cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries and foster cross-disciplinary interactions in this important and rapidly developing area of the biological and cognitive sciences.

  3. A Survey of University Professors Teaching Speech Sound Disorders: Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercises and Other Topics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Maggie M.; Lof, Gregory L.

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this article was to obtain and organize information from instructors who teach course work on the subject of children's speech sound disorders (SSD) regarding their use of teaching resources, involvement in students' clinical practica, and intervention approaches presented to students. Instructors also reported if they…

  4. Language related differences of the sustained response evoked by natural speech sounds.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christina Siu-Dschu Fan

    Full Text Available In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, the pitch contour of vowels discriminates lexical meaning, which is not the case in non-tonal languages such as German. Recent data provide evidence that pitch processing is influenced by language experience. However, there are still many open questions concerning the representation of such phonological and language-related differences at the level of the auditory cortex (AC. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG, we recorded transient and sustained auditory evoked fields (AEF in native Chinese and German speakers to investigate language related phonological and semantic aspects in the processing of acoustic stimuli. AEF were elicited by spoken meaningful and meaningless syllables, by vowels, and by a French horn tone. Speech sounds were recorded from a native speaker and showed frequency-modulations according to the pitch-contours of Mandarin. The sustained field (SF evoked by natural speech signals was significantly larger for Chinese than for German listeners. In contrast, the SF elicited by a horn tone was not significantly different between groups. Furthermore, the SF of Chinese subjects was larger when evoked by meaningful syllables compared to meaningless ones, but there was no significant difference regarding whether vowels were part of the Chinese phonological system or not. Moreover, the N100m gave subtle but clear evidence that for Chinese listeners other factors than purely physical properties play a role in processing meaningful signals. These findings show that the N100 and the SF generated in Heschl's gyrus are influenced by language experience, which suggests that AC activity related to specific pitch contours of vowels is influenced in a top-down fashion by higher, language related areas. Such interactions are in line with anatomical findings and neuroimaging data, as well as with the dual-stream model of language of Hickok and Poeppel that highlights the close and reciprocal interaction

  5. Language related differences of the sustained response evoked by natural speech sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Christina Siu-Dschu; Zhu, Xingyu; Dosch, Hans Günter; von Stutterheim, Christiane; Rupp, André

    2017-01-01

    In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, the pitch contour of vowels discriminates lexical meaning, which is not the case in non-tonal languages such as German. Recent data provide evidence that pitch processing is influenced by language experience. However, there are still many open questions concerning the representation of such phonological and language-related differences at the level of the auditory cortex (AC). Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we recorded transient and sustained auditory evoked fields (AEF) in native Chinese and German speakers to investigate language related phonological and semantic aspects in the processing of acoustic stimuli. AEF were elicited by spoken meaningful and meaningless syllables, by vowels, and by a French horn tone. Speech sounds were recorded from a native speaker and showed frequency-modulations according to the pitch-contours of Mandarin. The sustained field (SF) evoked by natural speech signals was significantly larger for Chinese than for German listeners. In contrast, the SF elicited by a horn tone was not significantly different between groups. Furthermore, the SF of Chinese subjects was larger when evoked by meaningful syllables compared to meaningless ones, but there was no significant difference regarding whether vowels were part of the Chinese phonological system or not. Moreover, the N100m gave subtle but clear evidence that for Chinese listeners other factors than purely physical properties play a role in processing meaningful signals. These findings show that the N100 and the SF generated in Heschl's gyrus are influenced by language experience, which suggests that AC activity related to specific pitch contours of vowels is influenced in a top-down fashion by higher, language related areas. Such interactions are in line with anatomical findings and neuroimaging data, as well as with the dual-stream model of language of Hickok and Poeppel that highlights the close and reciprocal interaction between

  6. Cascading activation from lexical processing to letter-level processing in written word production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchwald, Adam; Falconer, Carolyn

    2014-01-01

    Descriptions of language production have identified processes involved in producing language and the presence and type of interaction among those processes. In the case of spoken language production, consensus has emerged that there is interaction among lexical selection processes and phoneme-level processing. This issue has received less attention in written language production. In this paper, we present a novel analysis of the writing-to-dictation performance of an individual with acquired dysgraphia revealing cascading activation from lexical processing to letter-level processing. The individual produced frequent lexical-semantic errors (e.g., chipmunk → SQUIRREL) as well as letter errors (e.g., inhibit → INBHITI) and had a profile consistent with impairment affecting both lexical processing and letter-level processing. The presence of cascading activation is suggested by lower letter accuracy on words that are more weakly activated during lexical selection than on those that are more strongly activated. We operationalize weakly activated lexemes as those lexemes that are produced as lexical-semantic errors (e.g., lethal in deadly → LETAHL) compared to strongly activated lexemes where the intended target word (e.g., lethal) is the lexeme selected for production.

  7. Effects of Active and Passive Hearing Protection Devices on Sound Source Localization, Speech Recognition, and Tone Detection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew D Brown

    Full Text Available Hearing protection devices (HPDs such as earplugs offer to mitigate noise exposure and reduce the incidence of hearing loss among persons frequently exposed to intense sound. However, distortions of spatial acoustic information and reduced audibility of low-intensity sounds caused by many existing HPDs can make their use untenable in high-risk (e.g., military or law enforcement environments where auditory situational awareness is imperative. Here we assessed (1 sound source localization accuracy using a head-turning paradigm, (2 speech-in-noise recognition using a modified version of the QuickSIN test, and (3 tone detection thresholds using a two-alternative forced-choice task. Subjects were 10 young normal-hearing males. Four different HPDs were tested (two active, two passive, including two new and previously untested devices. Relative to unoccluded (control performance, all tested HPDs significantly degraded performance across tasks, although one active HPD slightly improved high-frequency tone detection thresholds and did not degrade speech recognition. Behavioral data were examined with respect to head-related transfer functions measured using a binaural manikin with and without tested HPDs in place. Data reinforce previous reports that HPDs significantly compromise a variety of auditory perceptual facilities, particularly sound localization due to distortions of high-frequency spectral cues that are important for the avoidance of front-back confusions.

  8. 47 CFR 2.202 - Bandwidths.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... three numerals and one letter. The letter occupies the position of the decimal point and represents the... quality desired Speech and music, M=4000, Bandwidth: 8000 Hz= 8 kHz 8K00A3E Sound broadcasting, single... desired Speech and music, M=4000, Bandwidth: 4000 Hz= 4 kHz 4K00R3E Sound broadcasting, single-sideband...

  9. Sounds in context

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Weed, Ethan

    A sound is never just a sound. It is becoming increasingly clear that auditory processing is best thought of not as a one-way afferent stream, but rather as an ongoing interaction between interior processes and the environment. Even the earliest stages of auditory processing in the nervous system...... time-course of contextual influence on auditory processing in three different paradigms: a simple mismatch negativity paradigm with tones of differing pitch, a multi-feature mismatch negativity paradigm in which tones were embedded in a complex musical context, and a cross-modal paradigm, in which...... auditory processing of emotional speech was modulated by an accompanying visual context. I then discuss these results in terms of their implication for how we conceive of the auditory processing stream....

  10. Visual speech information: a help or hindrance in perceptual processing of dysarthric speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borrie, Stephanie A

    2015-03-01

    This study investigated the influence of visual speech information on perceptual processing of neurologically degraded speech. Fifty listeners identified spastic dysarthric speech under both audio (A) and audiovisual (AV) conditions. Condition comparisons revealed that the addition of visual speech information enhanced processing of the neurologically degraded input in terms of (a) acuity (percent phonemes correct) of vowels and consonants and (b) recognition (percent words correct) of predictive and nonpredictive phrases. Listeners exploited stress-based segmentation strategies more readily in AV conditions, suggesting that the perceptual benefit associated with adding visual speech information to the auditory signal-the AV advantage-has both segmental and suprasegmental origins. Results also revealed that the magnitude of the AV advantage can be predicted, to some degree, by the extent to which an individual utilizes syllabic stress cues to inform word recognition in AV conditions. Findings inform the development of a listener-specific model of speech perception that applies to processing of dysarthric speech in everyday communication contexts.

  11. Can you hear me yet? An intracranial investigation of speech and non-speech audiovisual interactions in human cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhone, Ariane E; Nourski, Kirill V; Oya, Hiroyuki; Kawasaki, Hiroto; Howard, Matthew A; McMurray, Bob

    In everyday conversation, viewing a talker's face can provide information about the timing and content of an upcoming speech signal, resulting in improved intelligibility. Using electrocorticography, we tested whether human auditory cortex in Heschl's gyrus (HG) and on superior temporal gyrus (STG) and motor cortex on precentral gyrus (PreC) were responsive to visual/gestural information prior to the onset of sound and whether early stages of auditory processing were sensitive to the visual content (speech syllable versus non-speech motion). Event-related band power (ERBP) in the high gamma band was content-specific prior to acoustic onset on STG and PreC, and ERBP in the beta band differed in all three areas. Following sound onset, we found with no evidence for content-specificity in HG, evidence for visual specificity in PreC, and specificity for both modalities in STG. These results support models of audio-visual processing in which sensory information is integrated in non-primary cortical areas.

  12. Emotional prosody of task-irrelevant speech interferes with the retention of serial order.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kattner, Florian; Ellermeier, Wolfgang

    2018-04-09

    Task-irrelevant speech and other temporally changing sounds are known to interfere with the short-term memorization of ordered verbal materials, as compared to silence or stationary sounds. It has been argued that this disruption of short-term memory (STM) may be due to (a) interference of automatically encoded acoustical fluctuations with the process of serial rehearsal or (b) attentional capture by salient task-irrelevant information. To disentangle the contributions of these 2 processes, the authors investigated whether the disruption of serial recall is due to the semantic or acoustical properties of task-irrelevant speech (Experiment 1). They found that performance was affected by the prosody (emotional intonation), but not by the semantics (word meaning), of irrelevant speech, suggesting that the disruption of serial recall is due to interference of precategorically encoded changing-state sound (with higher fluctuation strength of emotionally intonated speech). The authors further demonstrated a functional distinction between this form of distraction and attentional capture by contrasting the effect of (a) speech prosody and (b) sudden prosody deviations on both serial and nonserial STM tasks (Experiment 2). Although serial recall was again sensitive to the emotional prosody of irrelevant speech, performance on a nonserial missing-item task was unaffected by the presence of neutral or emotionally intonated speech sounds. In contrast, sudden prosody changes tended to impair performance on both tasks, suggesting an independent effect of attentional capture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Processing of Phonological Variation in Children with Hearing Loss: Compensation for English Place Assimilation in Connected Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skoruppa, Katrin; Rosen, Stuart

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: In this study, the authors explored phonological processing in connected speech in children with hearing loss. Specifically, the authors investigated these children's sensitivity to English place assimilation, by which alveolar consonants like t and n can adapt to following sounds (e.g., the word ten can be realized as tem in the…

  14. The sound manifesto

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Donnell, Michael J.; Bisnovatyi, Ilia

    2000-11-01

    Computing practice today depends on visual output to drive almost all user interaction. Other senses, such as audition, may be totally neglected, or used tangentially, or used in highly restricted specialized ways. We have excellent audio rendering through D-A conversion, but we lack rich general facilities for modeling and manipulating sound comparable in quality and flexibility to graphics. We need coordinated research in several disciplines to improve the use of sound as an interactive information channel. Incremental and separate improvements in synthesis, analysis, speech processing, audiology, acoustics, music, etc. will not alone produce the radical progress that we seek in sonic practice. We also need to create a new central topic of study in digital audio research. The new topic will assimilate the contributions of different disciplines on a common foundation. The key central concept that we lack is sound as a general-purpose information channel. We must investigate the structure of this information channel, which is driven by the cooperative development of auditory perception and physical sound production. Particular audible encodings, such as speech and music, illuminate sonic information by example, but they are no more sufficient for a characterization than typography is sufficient for characterization of visual information. To develop this new conceptual topic of sonic information structure, we need to integrate insights from a number of different disciplines that deal with sound. In particular, we need to coordinate central and foundational studies of the representational models of sound with specific applications that illuminate the good and bad qualities of these models. Each natural or artificial process that generates informative sound, and each perceptual mechanism that derives information from sound, will teach us something about the right structure to attribute to the sound itself. The new Sound topic will combine the work of computer

  15. Professional Citation Practices in Child Maltreatment Forensic Letters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schryer, Catherine F.; Bell, Stephanie; Mian, Marcellina; Spafford, Marlee M.; Lingard, Lorelei

    2011-01-01

    Using rhetorical genre theory and research on reported speech, this study investigates the citation practices in 81 forensic letters written by paediatricians and nurse practitioners that provide their opinion for the courts as to whether a child has experienced maltreatment. These letters exist in a complex social situation where a lack of…

  16. [Improving speech comprehension using a new cochlear implant speech processor].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Müller-Deile, J; Kortmann, T; Hoppe, U; Hessel, H; Morsnowski, A

    2009-06-01

    The aim of this multicenter clinical field study was to assess the benefits of the new Freedom 24 sound processor for cochlear implant (CI) users implanted with the Nucleus 24 cochlear implant system. The study included 48 postlingually profoundly deaf experienced CI users who demonstrated speech comprehension performance with their current speech processor on the Oldenburg sentence test (OLSA) in quiet conditions of at least 80% correct scores and who were able to perform adaptive speech threshold testing using the OLSA in noisy conditions. Following baseline measures of speech comprehension performance with their current speech processor, subjects were upgraded to the Freedom 24 speech processor. After a take-home trial period of at least 2 weeks, subject performance was evaluated by measuring the speech reception threshold with the Freiburg multisyllabic word test and speech intelligibility with the Freiburg monosyllabic word test at 50 dB and 70 dB in the sound field. The results demonstrated highly significant benefits for speech comprehension with the new speech processor. Significant benefits for speech comprehension were also demonstrated with the new speech processor when tested in competing background noise.In contrast, use of the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) did not prove to be a suitably sensitive assessment tool for comparative subjective self-assessment of hearing benefits with each processor. Use of the preprocessing algorithm known as adaptive dynamic range optimization (ADRO) in the Freedom 24 led to additional improvements over the standard upgrade map for speech comprehension in quiet and showed equivalent performance in noise. Through use of the preprocessing beam-forming algorithm BEAM, subjects demonstrated a highly significant improved signal-to-noise ratio for speech comprehension thresholds (i.e., signal-to-noise ratio for 50% speech comprehension scores) when tested with an adaptive procedure using the Oldenburg

  17. Letter processing and font information during reading: beyond distinctiveness, where vision meets design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanocki, Thomas; Dyson, Mary C

    2012-01-01

    Letter identification is a critical front end of the reading process. In general, conceptualizations of the identification process have emphasized arbitrary sets of distinctive features. However, a richer view of letter processing incorporates principles from the field of type design, including an emphasis on uniformities across letters within a font. The importance of uniformities is supported by a small body of research indicating that consistency of font increases letter identification efficiency. We review design concepts and the relevant literature, with the goal of stimulating further thinking about letter processing during reading.

  18. The level of audiovisual print-speech integration deficits in dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kronschnabel, Jens; Brem, Silvia; Maurer, Urs; Brandeis, Daniel

    2014-09-01

    The classical phonological deficit account of dyslexia is increasingly linked to impairments in grapho-phonological conversion, and to dysfunctions in superior temporal regions associated with audiovisual integration. The present study investigates mechanisms of audiovisual integration in typical and impaired readers at the critical developmental stage of adolescence. Congruent and incongruent audiovisual as well as unimodal (visual only and auditory only) material was presented. Audiovisual presentations were single letters and three-letter (consonant-vowel-consonant) stimuli accompanied by matching or mismatching speech sounds. Three-letter stimuli exhibited fast phonetic transitions as in real-life language processing and reading. Congruency effects, i.e. different brain responses to congruent and incongruent stimuli were taken as an indicator of audiovisual integration at a phonetic level (grapho-phonological conversion). Comparisons of unimodal and audiovisual stimuli revealed basic, more sensory aspects of audiovisual integration. By means of these two criteria of audiovisual integration, the generalizability of audiovisual deficits in dyslexia was tested. Moreover, it was expected that the more naturalistic three-letter stimuli are superior to single letters in revealing group differences. Electrophysiological and hemodynamic (EEG and fMRI) data were acquired simultaneously in a simple target detection task. Applying the same statistical models to event-related EEG potentials and fMRI responses allowed comparing the effects detected by the two techniques at a descriptive level. Group differences in congruency effects (congruent against incongruent) were observed in regions involved in grapho-phonological processing, including the left inferior frontal and angular gyri and the inferotemporal cortex. Importantly, such differences also emerged in superior temporal key regions. Three-letter stimuli revealed stronger group differences than single letters. No

  19. Working memory in school-age children with and without a persistent speech sound disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farquharson, Kelly; Hogan, Tiffany P; Bernthal, John E

    2017-03-17

    The aim of this study was to explore the role of working memory processes as a possible cognitive underpinning of persistent speech sound disorders (SSD). Forty school-aged children were enrolled; 20 children with persistent SSD (P-SSD) and 20 typically developing children. Children participated in three working memory tasks - one to target each of the components in Baddeley's working memory model: phonological loop, visual spatial sketchpad and central executive. Children with P-SSD performed poorly only on the phonological loop tasks compared to their typically developing age-matched peers. However, mediation analyses revealed that the relation between working memory and a P-SSD was reliant upon nonverbal intelligence. These results suggest that co-morbid low-average nonverbal intelligence are linked to poor working memory in children with P-SSD. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

  20. Associations among Measures of Sequential Processing in Motor and Linguistics Tasks in Adults with and without a Family History of Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A Replication Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Button, Le; Peter, Beate; Stoel-Gammon, Carol; Raskind, Wendy H.

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to address the hypothesis that childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is influenced by an underlying deficit in sequential processing that is also expressed in other modalities. In a sample of 21 adults from five multigenerational families, 11 with histories of various familial speech sound disorders, 3 biologically…

  1. Neural Correlates of Early Sound Encoding and their Relationship to Speech-in-Noise Perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily B. J. Coffey

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Speech-in-noise (SIN perception is a complex cognitive skill that affects social, vocational, and educational activities. Poor SIN ability particularly affects young and elderly populations, yet varies considerably even among healthy young adults with normal hearing. Although SIN skills are known to be influenced by top-down processes that can selectively enhance lower-level sound representations, the complementary role of feed-forward mechanisms and their relationship to musical training is poorly understood. Using a paradigm that minimizes the main top-down factors that have been implicated in SIN performance such as working memory, we aimed to better understand how robust encoding of periodicity in the auditory system (as measured by the frequency-following response contributes to SIN perception. Using magnetoencephalograpy, we found that the strength of encoding at the fundamental frequency in the brainstem, thalamus, and cortex is correlated with SIN accuracy. The amplitude of the slower cortical P2 wave was previously also shown to be related to SIN accuracy and FFR strength; we use MEG source localization to show that the P2 wave originates in a temporal region anterior to that of the cortical FFR. We also confirm that the observed enhancements were related to the extent and timing of musicianship. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that basic feed-forward sound encoding affects SIN perception by providing better information to later processing stages, and that modifying this process may be one mechanism through which musical training might enhance the auditory networks that subserve both musical and language functions.

  2. The Effectiveness of a Multi Sensory Approach in Improving Letter-Sound Correspondence among Mild Intellectual Disabled Students in State of Kuwait

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moustafa, Amr; Ghani, Mohd Zuri

    2016-01-01

    This research examines the effectiveness of multi sensory approach for the purpose of improving the knowledge on English Letter sound correspondence among mild disabled students in the state of Kuwait. The discussion in this study is based on the multisensory approach that could be applied in the teaching of reading skills as well as phonemic…

  3. Integrating speech in time depends on temporal expectancies and attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scharinger, Mathias; Steinberg, Johanna; Tavano, Alessandro

    2017-08-01

    Sensory information that unfolds in time, such as in speech perception, relies on efficient chunking mechanisms in order to yield optimally-sized units for further processing. Whether or not two successive acoustic events receive a one-unit or a two-unit interpretation seems to depend on the fit between their temporal extent and a stipulated temporal window of integration. However, there is ongoing debate on how flexible this temporal window of integration should be, especially for the processing of speech sounds. Furthermore, there is no direct evidence of whether attention may modulate the temporal constraints on the integration window. For this reason, we here examine how different word durations, which lead to different temporal separations of sound onsets, interact with attention. In an Electroencephalography (EEG) study, participants actively and passively listened to words where word-final consonants were occasionally omitted. Words had either a natural duration or were artificially prolonged in order to increase the separation of speech sound onsets. Omission responses to incomplete speech input, originating in left temporal cortex, decreased when the critical speech sound was separated from previous sounds by more than 250 msec, i.e., when the separation was larger than the stipulated temporal window of integration (125-150 msec). Attention, on the other hand, only increased omission responses for stimuli with natural durations. We complemented the event-related potential (ERP) analyses by a frequency-domain analysis on the stimulus presentation rate. Notably, the power of stimulation frequency showed the same duration and attention effects than the omission responses. We interpret these findings on the background of existing research on temporal integration windows and further suggest that our findings may be accounted for within the framework of predictive coding. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. [Representation of letter position in visual word recognition process].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makioka, S

    1994-08-01

    Two experiments investigated the representation of letter position in visual word recognition process. In Experiment 1, subjects (12 undergraduates and graduates) were asked to detect a target word in a briefly-presented probe. Probes consisted of two kanji words. The latters which formed targets (critical letters) were always contained in probes. (e.g. target: [symbol: see text] probe: [symbol: see text]) High false alarm rate was observed when critical letters occupied the same within-word relative position (left or right within the word) in the probe words as in the target word. In Experiment 2 (subject were ten undergraduates and graduates), spaces adjacent to probe words were replaced by randomly chosen hiragana letters (e.g. [symbol: see text]), because spaces are not used to separate words in regular Japanese sentences. In addition to the effect of within-word relative position as in Experiment 1, the effect of between-word relative position (left or right across the probe words) was observed. These results suggest that information about within-word relative position of a letter is used in word recognition process. The effect of within-word relative position was explained by a connectionist model of word recognition.

  5. How to write effective business letters: scribing information for pharmacists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamilton, C W

    1993-11-01

    Pharmacists frequently write letters but lack specific training on how to do it well. This review summarizes strategies for improving business correspondence, emphasizes basic writing guidelines, and offers practical advice for pharmacists. The first steps for effective communication are careful planning and identifying the main message to be conveyed. The purpose for writing should be stated in the opening paragraph of the letter. To ensure a successful outcome, actions needed should be clearly summarized and visually highlighted. The tone of the letter should reflect a reasonable speech pattern, not the cryptic writing found in many scientific papers. The layout of the letter should be inviting, which is readily achievable through judicious use of word processing. Many delivery options are available, such as traditional postal services, express mail, and facsimile transmission. Readers are encouraged to test these basic writing principles and decide for themselves whether these recommendations affect the success of business correspondence.

  6. What and Where in auditory sensory processing: A high-density electrical mapping study of distinct neural processes underlying sound object recognition and sound localization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victoria M Leavitt

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Functionally distinct dorsal and ventral auditory pathways for sound localization (where and sound object recognition (what have been described in non-human primates. A handful of studies have explored differential processing within these streams in humans, with highly inconsistent findings. Stimuli employed have included simple tones, noise bursts and speech sounds, with simulated left-right spatial manipulations, and in some cases participants were not required to actively discriminate the stimuli. Our contention is that these paradigms were not well suited to dissociating processing within the two streams. Our aim here was to determine how early in processing we could find evidence for dissociable pathways using better titrated what and where task conditions. The use of more compelling tasks should allow us to amplify differential processing within the dorsal and ventral pathways. We employed high-density electrical mapping using a relatively large and environmentally realistic stimulus set (seven animal calls delivered from seven free-field spatial locations; with stimulus configuration identical across the where and what tasks. Topographic analysis revealed distinct dorsal and ventral auditory processing networks during the where and what tasks with the earliest point of divergence seen during the N1 component of the auditory evoked response, beginning at approximately 100 ms. While this difference occurred during the N1 timeframe, it was not a simple modulation of N1 amplitude as it displayed a wholly different topographic distribution to that of the N1. Global dissimilarity measures using topographic modulation analysis confirmed that this difference between tasks was driven by a shift in the underlying generator configuration. Minimum norm source reconstruction revealed distinct activations that corresponded well with activity within putative dorsal and ventral auditory structures.

  7. A speech processing study using an acoustic model of a multiple-channel cochlear implant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Ying

    1998-10-01

    A cochlear implant is an electronic device designed to provide sound information for adults and children who have bilateral profound hearing loss. The task of representing speech signals as electrical stimuli is central to the design and performance of cochlear implants. Studies have shown that the current speech- processing strategies provide significant benefits to cochlear implant users. However, the evaluation and development of speech-processing strategies have been complicated by hardware limitations and large variability in user performance. To alleviate these problems, an acoustic model of a cochlear implant with the SPEAK strategy is implemented in this study, in which a set of acoustic stimuli whose psychophysical characteristics are as close as possible to those produced by a cochlear implant are presented on normal-hearing subjects. To test the effectiveness and feasibility of this acoustic model, a psychophysical experiment was conducted to match the performance of a normal-hearing listener using model- processed signals to that of a cochlear implant user. Good agreement was found between an implanted patient and an age-matched normal-hearing subject in a dynamic signal discrimination experiment, indicating that this acoustic model is a reasonably good approximation of a cochlear implant with the SPEAK strategy. The acoustic model was then used to examine the potential of the SPEAK strategy in terms of its temporal and frequency encoding of speech. It was hypothesized that better temporal and frequency encoding of speech can be accomplished by higher stimulation rates and a larger number of activated channels. Vowel and consonant recognition tests were conducted on normal-hearing subjects using speech tokens processed by the acoustic model, with different combinations of stimulation rate and number of activated channels. The results showed that vowel recognition was best at 600 pps and 8 activated channels, but further increases in stimulation rate and

  8. Human Superior Temporal Gyrus Organization of Spectrotemporal Modulation Tuning Derived from Speech Stimuli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hullett, Patrick W; Hamilton, Liberty S; Mesgarani, Nima; Schreiner, Christoph E; Chang, Edward F

    2016-02-10

    The human superior temporal gyrus (STG) is critical for speech perception, yet the organization of spectrotemporal processing of speech within the STG is not well understood. Here, to characterize the spatial organization of spectrotemporal processing of speech across human STG, we use high-density cortical surface field potential recordings while participants listened to natural continuous speech. While synthetic broad-band stimuli did not yield sustained activation of the STG, spectrotemporal receptive fields could be reconstructed from vigorous responses to speech stimuli. We find that the human STG displays a robust anterior-posterior spatial distribution of spectrotemporal tuning in which the posterior STG is tuned for temporally fast varying speech sounds that have relatively constant energy across the frequency axis (low spectral modulation) while the anterior STG is tuned for temporally slow varying speech sounds that have a high degree of spectral variation across the frequency axis (high spectral modulation). This work illustrates organization of spectrotemporal processing in the human STG, and illuminates processing of ethologically relevant speech signals in a region of the brain specialized for speech perception. Considerable evidence has implicated the human superior temporal gyrus (STG) in speech processing. However, the gross organization of spectrotemporal processing of speech within the STG is not well characterized. Here we use natural speech stimuli and advanced receptive field characterization methods to show that spectrotemporal features within speech are well organized along the posterior-to-anterior axis of the human STG. These findings demonstrate robust functional organization based on spectrotemporal modulation content, and illustrate that much of the encoded information in the STG represents the physical acoustic properties of speech stimuli. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/362014-13$15.00/0.

  9. Social eye gaze modulates processing of speech and co-speech gesture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holler, Judith; Schubotz, Louise; Kelly, Spencer; Hagoort, Peter; Schuetze, Manuela; Özyürek, Aslı

    2014-12-01

    In human face-to-face communication, language comprehension is a multi-modal, situated activity. However, little is known about how we combine information from different modalities during comprehension, and how perceived communicative intentions, often signaled through visual signals, influence this process. We explored this question by simulating a multi-party communication context in which a speaker alternated her gaze between two recipients. Participants viewed speech-only or speech+gesture object-related messages when being addressed (direct gaze) or unaddressed (gaze averted to other participant). They were then asked to choose which of two object images matched the speaker's preceding message. Unaddressed recipients responded significantly more slowly than addressees for speech-only utterances. However, perceiving the same speech accompanied by gestures sped unaddressed recipients up to a level identical to that of addressees. That is, when unaddressed recipients' speech processing suffers, gestures can enhance the comprehension of a speaker's message. We discuss our findings with respect to two hypotheses attempting to account for how social eye gaze may modulate multi-modal language comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Sensorimotor influences on speech perception in infancy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruderer, Alison G; Danielson, D Kyle; Kandhadai, Padmapriya; Werker, Janet F

    2015-11-03

    The influence of speech production on speech perception is well established in adults. However, because adults have a long history of both perceiving and producing speech, the extent to which the perception-production linkage is due to experience is unknown. We addressed this issue by asking whether articulatory configurations can influence infants' speech perception performance. To eliminate influences from specific linguistic experience, we studied preverbal, 6-mo-old infants and tested the discrimination of a nonnative, and hence never-before-experienced, speech sound distinction. In three experimental studies, we used teething toys to control the position and movement of the tongue tip while the infants listened to the speech sounds. Using ultrasound imaging technology, we verified that the teething toys consistently and effectively constrained the movement and positioning of infants' tongues. With a looking-time procedure, we found that temporarily restraining infants' articulators impeded their discrimination of a nonnative consonant contrast but only when the relevant articulator was selectively restrained to prevent the movements associated with producing those sounds. Our results provide striking evidence that even before infants speak their first words and without specific listening experience, sensorimotor information from the articulators influences speech perception. These results transform theories of speech perception by suggesting that even at the initial stages of development, oral-motor movements influence speech sound discrimination. Moreover, an experimentally induced "impairment" in articulator movement can compromise speech perception performance, raising the question of whether long-term oral-motor impairments may impact perceptual development.

  11. Auditory and visual sustained attention in children with speech sound disorder.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina F B Murphy

    Full Text Available Although research has demonstrated that children with specific language impairment (SLI and reading disorder (RD exhibit sustained attention deficits, no study has investigated sustained attention in children with speech sound disorder (SSD. Given the overlap of symptoms, such as phonological memory deficits, between these different language disorders (i.e., SLI, SSD and RD and the relationships between working memory, attention and language processing, it is worthwhile to investigate whether deficits in sustained attention also occur in children with SSD. A total of 55 children (18 diagnosed with SSD (8.11 ± 1.231 and 37 typically developing children (8.76 ± 1.461 were invited to participate in this study. Auditory and visual sustained-attention tasks were applied. Children with SSD performed worse on these tasks; they committed a greater number of auditory false alarms and exhibited a significant decline in performance over the course of the auditory detection task. The extent to which performance is related to auditory perceptual difficulties and probable working memory deficits is discussed. Further studies are needed to better understand the specific nature of these deficits and their clinical implications.

  12. Predicting the perceived sound quality of frequency-compressed speech.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rainer Huber

    Full Text Available The performance of objective speech and audio quality measures for the prediction of the perceived quality of frequency-compressed speech in hearing aids is investigated in this paper. A number of existing quality measures have been applied to speech signals processed by a hearing aid, which compresses speech spectra along frequency in order to make information contained in higher frequencies audible for listeners with severe high-frequency hearing loss. Quality measures were compared with subjective ratings obtained from normal hearing and hearing impaired children and adults in an earlier study. High correlations were achieved with quality measures computed by quality models that are based on the auditory model of Dau et al., namely, the measure PSM, computed by the quality model PEMO-Q; the measure qc, computed by the quality model proposed by Hansen and Kollmeier; and the linear subcomponent of the HASQI. For the prediction of quality ratings by hearing impaired listeners, extensions of some models incorporating hearing loss were implemented and shown to achieve improved prediction accuracy. Results indicate that these objective quality measures can potentially serve as tools for assisting in initial setting of frequency compression parameters.

  13. Comparison between bilateral cochlear implants and Neurelec Digisonic(®) SP Binaural cochlear implant: speech perception, sound localization and patient self-assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonnard, Damien; Lautissier, Sylvie; Bosset-Audoit, Amélie; Coriat, Géraldine; Beraha, Max; Maunoury, Antoine; Martel, Jacques; Darrouzet, Vincent; Bébéar, Jean-Pierre; Dauman, René

    2013-01-01

    An alternative to bilateral cochlear implantation is offered by the Neurelec Digisonic(®) SP Binaural cochlear implant, which allows stimulation of both cochleae within a single device. The purpose of this prospective study was to compare a group of Neurelec Digisonic(®) SP Binaural implant users (denoted BINAURAL group, n = 7) with a group of bilateral adult cochlear implant users (denoted BILATERAL group, n = 6) in terms of speech perception, sound localization, and self-assessment of health status and hearing disability. Speech perception was assessed using word recognition at 60 dB SPL in quiet and in a 'cocktail party' noise delivered through five loudspeakers in the hemi-sound field facing the patient (signal-to-noise ratio = +10 dB). The sound localization task was to determine the source of a sound stimulus among five speakers positioned between -90° and +90° from midline. Change in health status was assessed using the Glasgow Benefit Inventory and hearing disability was evaluated with the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit. Speech perception was not statistically different between the two groups, even though there was a trend in favor of the BINAURAL group (mean percent word recognition in the BINAURAL and BILATERAL groups: 70 vs. 56.7% in quiet, 55.7 vs. 43.3% in noise). There was also no significant difference with regard to performance in sound localization and self-assessment of health status and hearing disability. On the basis of the BINAURAL group's performance in hearing tasks involving the detection of interaural differences, implantation with the Neurelec Digisonic(®) SP Binaural implant may be considered to restore effective binaural hearing. Based on these first comparative results, this device seems to provide benefits similar to those of traditional bilateral cochlear implantation, with a new approach to stimulate both auditory nerves. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  14. Acoustic analyses of speech sounds and rhythms in Japanese- and English-learning infants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuko eYamashita

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to explore developmental changes, in terms of spectral fluctuations and temporal periodicity with Japanese- and English-learning infants. Three age groups (15, 20, and 24 months were selected, because infants diversify phonetic inventories with age. Natural speech of the infants was recorded. We utilized a critical-band-filter bank, which simulated the frequency resolution in adults’ auditory periphery. First, the correlations between the critical-band outputs represented by factor analysis were observed in order to see how the critical bands should be connected to each other, if a listener is to differentiate sounds in infants’ speech. In the following analysis, we analyzed the temporal fluctuations of factor scores by calculating autocorrelations. The present analysis identified three factors observed in adult speech at 24 months of age in both linguistic environments. These three factors were shifted to a higher frequency range corresponding to the smaller vocal tract size of the infants. The results suggest that the vocal tract structures of the infants had developed to become adult-like configuration by 24 months of age in both language environments. The amount of utterances with periodic nature of shorter time increased with age in both environments. This trend was clearer in the Japanese environment.

  15. The sound of feelings: electrophysiological responses to emotional speech in alexithymia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katharina Sophia Goerlich

    Full Text Available Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties in the cognitive processing of emotions (cognitive dimension and in the experience of emotions (affective dimension. Previous research focused mainly on visual emotional processing in the cognitive alexithymia dimension. We investigated the impact of both alexithymia dimensions on electrophysiological responses to emotional speech in 60 female subjects.During unattended processing, subjects watched a movie while an emotional prosody oddball paradigm was presented in the background. During attended processing, subjects detected deviants in emotional prosody. The cognitive alexithymia dimension was associated with a left-hemisphere bias during early stages of unattended emotional speech processing, and with generally reduced amplitudes of the late P3 component during attended processing. In contrast, the affective dimension did not modulate unattended emotional prosody perception, but was associated with reduced P3 amplitudes during attended processing particularly to emotional prosody spoken in high intensity.Our results provide evidence for a dissociable impact of the two alexithymia dimensions on electrophysiological responses during the attended and unattended processing of emotional prosody. The observed electrophysiological modulations are indicative of a reduced sensitivity to the emotional qualities of speech, which may be a contributing factor to problems in interpersonal communication associated with alexithymia.

  16. Processing of prosodic changes in natural speech stimuli in school-age children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindström, R; Lepistö, T; Makkonen, T; Kujala, T

    2012-12-01

    Speech prosody conveys information about important aspects of communication: the meaning of the sentence and the emotional state or intention of the speaker. The present study addressed processing of emotional prosodic changes in natural speech stimuli in school-age children (mean age 10 years) by recording the electroencephalogram, facial electromyography, and behavioral responses. The stimulus was a semantically neutral Finnish word uttered with four different emotional connotations: neutral, commanding, sad, and scornful. In the behavioral sound-discrimination task the reaction times were fastest for the commanding stimulus and longest for the scornful stimulus, and faster for the neutral than for the sad stimulus. EEG and EMG responses were measured during non-attentive oddball paradigm. Prosodic changes elicited a negative-going, fronto-centrally distributed neural response peaking at about 500 ms from the onset of the stimulus, followed by a fronto-central positive deflection, peaking at about 740 ms. For the commanding stimulus also a rapid negative deflection peaking at about 290 ms from stimulus onset was elicited. No reliable stimulus type specific rapid facial reactions were found. The results show that prosodic changes in natural speech stimuli activate pre-attentive neural change-detection mechanisms in school-age children. However, the results do not support the suggestion of automaticity of emotion specific facial muscle responses to non-attended emotional speech stimuli in children. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Audiovisual speech perception development at varying levels of perceptual processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lalonde, Kaylah; Holt, Rachael Frush

    2016-04-01

    This study used the auditory evaluation framework [Erber (1982). Auditory Training (Alexander Graham Bell Association, Washington, DC)] to characterize the influence of visual speech on audiovisual (AV) speech perception in adults and children at multiple levels of perceptual processing. Six- to eight-year-old children and adults completed auditory and AV speech perception tasks at three levels of perceptual processing (detection, discrimination, and recognition). The tasks differed in the level of perceptual processing required to complete them. Adults and children demonstrated visual speech influence at all levels of perceptual processing. Whereas children demonstrated the same visual speech influence at each level of perceptual processing, adults demonstrated greater visual speech influence on tasks requiring higher levels of perceptual processing. These results support previous research demonstrating multiple mechanisms of AV speech processing (general perceptual and speech-specific mechanisms) with independent maturational time courses. The results suggest that adults rely on both general perceptual mechanisms that apply to all levels of perceptual processing and speech-specific mechanisms that apply when making phonetic decisions and/or accessing the lexicon. Six- to eight-year-old children seem to rely only on general perceptual mechanisms across levels. As expected, developmental differences in AV benefit on this and other recognition tasks likely reflect immature speech-specific mechanisms and phonetic processing in children.

  18. Auditory-neurophysiological responses to speech during early childhood: Effects of background noise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White-Schwoch, Travis; Davies, Evan C; Thompson, Elaine C; Woodruff Carr, Kali; Nicol, Trent; Bradlow, Ann R; Kraus, Nina

    2015-10-01

    Early childhood is a critical period of auditory learning, during which children are constantly mapping sounds to meaning. But this auditory learning rarely occurs in ideal listening conditions-children are forced to listen against a relentless din. This background noise degrades the neural coding of these critical sounds, in turn interfering with auditory learning. Despite the importance of robust and reliable auditory processing during early childhood, little is known about the neurophysiology underlying speech processing in children so young. To better understand the physiological constraints these adverse listening scenarios impose on speech sound coding during early childhood, auditory-neurophysiological responses were elicited to a consonant-vowel syllable in quiet and background noise in a cohort of typically-developing preschoolers (ages 3-5 yr). Overall, responses were degraded in noise: they were smaller, less stable across trials, slower, and there was poorer coding of spectral content and the temporal envelope. These effects were exacerbated in response to the consonant transition relative to the vowel, suggesting that the neural coding of spectrotemporally-dynamic speech features is more tenuous in noise than the coding of static features-even in children this young. Neural coding of speech temporal fine structure, however, was more resilient to the addition of background noise than coding of temporal envelope information. Taken together, these results demonstrate that noise places a neurophysiological constraint on speech processing during early childhood by causing a breakdown in neural processing of speech acoustics. These results may explain why some listeners have inordinate difficulties understanding speech in noise. Speech-elicited auditory-neurophysiological responses offer objective insight into listening skills during early childhood by reflecting the integrity of neural coding in quiet and noise; this paper documents typical response

  19. Effects of Familiarity and Feeding on Newborn Speech-Voice Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valiante, A. Grace; Barr, Ronald G.; Zelazo, Philip R.; Brant, Rollin; Young, Simon N.

    2013-01-01

    Newborn infants preferentially orient to familiar over unfamiliar speech sounds. They are also better at remembering unfamiliar speech sounds for short periods of time if learning and retention occur after a feed than before. It is unknown whether short-term memory for speech is enhanced when the sound is familiar (versus unfamiliar) and, if so,…

  20. Processing changes when listening to foreign-accented speech

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos eRomero-Rivas

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the mechanisms responsible for fast changes in processing foreign-accented speech. Event Related brain Potentials (ERPs were obtained while native speakers of Spanish listened to native and foreign-accented speakers of Spanish. We observed a less positive P200 component for foreign-accented speech relative to native speech comprehension. This suggests that the extraction of spectral information and other important acoustic features was hampered during foreign-accented speech comprehension. However, the amplitude of the N400 component for foreign-accented speech comprehension decreased across the experiment, suggesting the use of a higher level, lexical mechanism. Furthermore, during native speech comprehension, semantic violations in the critical words elicited an N400 effect followed by a late positivity. During foreign-accented speech comprehension, semantic violations only elicited an N400 effect. Overall, our results suggest that, despite a lack of improvement in phonetic discrimination, native listeners experience changes at lexical-semantic levels of processing after brief exposure to foreign-accented speech. Moreover, these results suggest that lexical access, semantic integration and linguistic re-analysis processes are permeable to external factors, such as the accent of the speaker.

  1. Relationships between music training, speech processing, and word learning: a network perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elmer, Stefan; Jäncke, Lutz

    2018-03-15

    Numerous studies have documented the behavioral advantages conferred on professional musicians and children undergoing music training in processing speech sounds varying in the spectral and temporal dimensions. These beneficial effects have previously often been associated with local functional and structural changes in the auditory cortex (AC). However, this perspective is oversimplified, in that it does not take into account the intrinsic organization of the human brain, namely, neural networks and oscillatory dynamics. Therefore, we propose a new framework for extending these previous findings to a network perspective by integrating multimodal imaging, electrophysiology, and neural oscillations. In particular, we provide concrete examples of how functional and structural connectivity can be used to model simple neural circuits exerting a modulatory influence on AC activity. In addition, we describe how such a network approach can be used for better comprehending the beneficial effects of music training on more complex speech functions, such as word learning. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

  2. Acquired Apraxia of Speech: The Effects of Repeated Practice and Rate/Rhythm Control Treatments on Sound Production Accuracy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wambaugh, Julie L.; Nessler, Christina; Cameron, Rosalea; Mauszycki, Shannon C.

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: This investigation was designed to elucidate the effects of repeated practice treatment on sound production accuracy in individuals with apraxia of speech (AOS) and aphasia. A secondary purpose was to determine if the addition of rate/rhythm control to treatment provided further benefits beyond those achieved with repeated practice.…

  3. Language Experience Affects Grouping of Musical Instrument Sounds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhatara, Anjali; Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie; Agus, Trevor; Höhle, Barbara; Nazzi, Thierry

    2016-01-01

    Language experience clearly affects the perception of speech, but little is known about whether these differences in perception extend to non-speech sounds. In this study, we investigated rhythmic perception of non-linguistic sounds in speakers of French and German using a grouping task, in which complexity (variability in sounds, presence of…

  4. Learning to Produce Syllabic Speech Sounds via Reward-Modulated Neural Plasticity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warlaumont, Anne S.; Finnegan, Megan K.

    2016-01-01

    At around 7 months of age, human infants begin to reliably produce well-formed syllables containing both consonants and vowels, a behavior called canonical babbling. Over subsequent months, the frequency of canonical babbling continues to increase. How the infant’s nervous system supports the acquisition of this ability is unknown. Here we present a computational model that combines a spiking neural network, reinforcement-modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity, and a human-like vocal tract to simulate the acquisition of canonical babbling. Like human infants, the model’s frequency of canonical babbling gradually increases. The model is rewarded when it produces a sound that is more auditorily salient than sounds it has previously produced. This is consistent with data from human infants indicating that contingent adult responses shape infant behavior and with data from deaf and tracheostomized infants indicating that hearing, including hearing one’s own vocalizations, is critical for canonical babbling development. Reward receipt increases the level of dopamine in the neural network. The neural network contains a reservoir with recurrent connections and two motor neuron groups, one agonist and one antagonist, which control the masseter and orbicularis oris muscles, promoting or inhibiting mouth closure. The model learns to increase the number of salient, syllabic sounds it produces by adjusting the base level of muscle activation and increasing their range of activity. Our results support the possibility that through dopamine-modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity, the motor cortex learns to harness its natural oscillations in activity in order to produce syllabic sounds. It thus suggests that learning to produce rhythmic mouth movements for speech production may be supported by general cortical learning mechanisms. The model makes several testable predictions and has implications for our understanding not only of how syllabic vocalizations develop

  5. Adult-like processing of time-compressed speech by newborns: A NIRS study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Issard, Cécile; Gervain, Judit

    2017-06-01

    Humans can adapt to a wide range of variations in the speech signal, maintaining an invariant representation of the linguistic information it contains. Among them, adaptation to rapid or time-compressed speech has been well studied in adults, but the developmental origin of this capacity remains unknown. Does this ability depend on experience with speech (if yes, as heard in utero or as heard postnatally), with sounds in general or is it experience-independent? Using near-infrared spectroscopy, we show that the newborn brain can discriminate between three different compression rates: normal, i.e. 100% of the original duration, moderately compressed, i.e. 60% of original duration and highly compressed, i.e. 30% of original duration. Even more interestingly, responses to normal and moderately compressed speech are similar, showing a canonical hemodynamic response in the left temporoparietal, right frontal and right temporal cortex, while responses to highly compressed speech are inverted, showing a decrease in oxyhemoglobin concentration. These results mirror those found in adults, who readily adapt to moderately compressed, but not to highly compressed speech, showing that adaptation to time-compressed speech requires little or no experience with speech, and happens at an auditory, and not at a more abstract linguistic level. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  6. Pirates at Parties: Letter Position Processing in Developing Readers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohnen, Saskia; Castles, Anne

    2013-01-01

    There has been much recent interest in letter position coding in adults, but little is known about the development of this process in children learning to read. Here, the letter position coding abilities of 127 children in Grades 2, 3, and 4 (aged 7-10 years) were examined by comparing their performance in reading aloud "migratable" words (e.g.,…

  7. Overt use of a tactile-kinesthetic strategy shifts to covert processing in rehabilitation of letter-by-letter reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lott, Susan Nitzberg; Carney, Aimee Syms; Glezer, Laurie S; Friedman, Rhonda B

    2010-11-01

    BACKGROUND: Letter-by-letter readers identify each letter of the word they are reading serially in left to right order before recognizing the word. When their letter naming is also impaired, letter-by-letter reading is inaccurate and can render even single word reading very poor. Tactile and/or kinesthetic strategies have been reported to improve reading in these patients, but only under certain conditions or for a limited set of stimuli. AIMS: The primary aim of the current study was to determine whether a tactile/kinesthetic treatment could significantly improve reading specifically under normal reading conditions, i.e. reading untrained words presented in free vision and read without overt use of the strategy. METHODS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; PROCEDURES: Three chronic letter-by-letter readers participated in a tactile/kinesthetic treatment aimed at first improving letter naming accuracy (phase 1) and then letter-by-letter reading speed (phase 2). In a multiple case series design, accuracy and speed of reading untrained words without overt use of the trained tactile/kinesthetic strategy was assessed before phase 1, after phase 1 and again after phase 2. OUTCOMES #ENTITYSTARTX00026; RESULTS: All three patients significantly improved both their speed and accuracy reading untrained words without overt use of the trained tactile/kinesthetic strategy. All three patients required the additional practice in phase 2 to achieve significant improvement. Treatment did not target sentence level reading, yet two of the three patients became so adept that they could read entire sentences. CONCLUSIONS: This study replicates previous findings on the efficacy of tactile/kinesthetic treatment for letter-by-letter readers with poor letter naming. It further demonstrates that this treatment can alter cognitive processing such that words never specifically trained can be read in free vision without overtly using the trained strategy. The data suggest that an important element in achieving

  8. Prevalence and Predictors of Persistent Speech Sound Disorder at Eight Years Old: Findings from a Population Cohort Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wren, Yvonne; Miller, Laura L.; Peters, Tim J.; Emond, Alan; Roulstone, Sue

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine prevalence and predictors of persistent speech sound disorder (SSD) in children aged 8 years after disregarding children presenting solely with common clinical distortions (i.e., residual errors). Method: Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (Boyd et al., 2012) were used.…

  9. Facial Speech Gestures: The Relation between Visual Speech Processing, Phonological Awareness, and Developmental Dyslexia in 10-Year-Olds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaadt, Gesa; Männel, Claudia; van der Meer, Elke; Pannekamp, Ann; Friederici, Angela D.

    2016-01-01

    Successful communication in everyday life crucially involves the processing of auditory and visual components of speech. Viewing our interlocutor and processing visual components of speech facilitates speech processing by triggering auditory processing. Auditory phoneme processing, analyzed by event-related brain potentials (ERP), has been shown…

  10. Different letter-processing strategies in diagnostic subgroups of developmental dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lachmann, Thomas; van Leeuwen, Cees

    2008-07-01

    Normally reading adults (N = 15) and primary school children (N = 24) and two diagnostic subgroups of children with developmental dyslexia (N = 21)-all native German speakers-performed a successive same-different task with pairs of letters and nonletters (pseudoletters or geometrical shapes). The first item of a pair was always presented on its own, and the second either on its own or surrounded by a congruent or incongruent nontarget shape. Adults showed congruence effects with nonletters but not with letters, and children with both types of stimuli. Frequent-word reading-impaired dyslexics (N = 11) in addition showed dramatically slower overall reaction times. Nonword reading-impaired dyslexics (N = 10) showed congruence effects with nonletters but negative congruence effects with letters. The results support the notion that normal readers have established a special visual processing strategy for letters. Processing speed rather than reading expertise seems crucial for this strategy to emerge. The contrasting effects between subgroups of dyslexics reveal specific underlying deficits.

  11. CASRA+: A Colloquial Arabic Speech Recognition Application

    OpenAIRE

    Ramzi A. Haraty; Omar El Ariss

    2007-01-01

    The research proposed here was for an Arabic speech recognition application, concentrating on the Lebanese dialect. The system starts by sampling the speech, which was the process of transforming the sound from analog to digital and then extracts the features by using the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC). The extracted features are then compared with the system's stored model; in this case the stored model chosen was a phoneme-based model. This reference model differs from the direc...

  12. Interdependent processing and encoding of speech and concurrent background noise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooper, Angela; Brouwer, Susanne; Bradlow, Ann R

    2015-05-01

    Speech processing can often take place in adverse listening conditions that involve the mixing of speech and background noise. In this study, we investigated processing dependencies between background noise and indexical speech features, using a speeded classification paradigm (Garner, 1974; Exp. 1), and whether background noise is encoded and represented in memory for spoken words in a continuous recognition memory paradigm (Exp. 2). Whether or not the noise spectrally overlapped with the speech signal was also manipulated. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that background noise and indexical features of speech (gender, talker identity) cannot be completely segregated during processing, even when the two auditory streams are spectrally nonoverlapping. Perceptual interference was asymmetric, whereby irrelevant indexical feature variation in the speech signal slowed noise classification to a greater extent than irrelevant noise variation slowed speech classification. This asymmetry may stem from the fact that speech features have greater functional relevance to listeners, and are thus more difficult to selectively ignore than background noise. Experiment 2 revealed that a recognition cost for words embedded in different types of background noise on the first and second occurrences only emerged when the noise and the speech signal were spectrally overlapping. Together, these data suggest integral processing of speech and background noise, modulated by the level of processing and the spectral separation of the speech and noise.

  13. Musical expertise and foreign speech perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martínez-Montes, Eduardo; Hernández-Pérez, Heivet; Chobert, Julie; Morgado-Rodríguez, Lisbet; Suárez-Murias, Carlos; Valdés-Sosa, Pedro A; Besson, Mireille

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this experiment was to investigate the influence of musical expertise on the automatic perception of foreign syllables and harmonic sounds. Participants were Cuban students with high level of expertise in music or in visual arts and with the same level of general education and socio-economic background. We used a multi-feature Mismatch Negativity (MMN) design with sequences of either syllables in Mandarin Chinese or harmonic sounds, both comprising deviants in pitch contour, duration and Voice Onset Time (VOT) or equivalent that were either far from (Large deviants) or close to (Small deviants) the standard. For both Mandarin syllables and harmonic sounds, results were clear-cut in showing larger MMNs to pitch contour deviants in musicians than in visual artists. Results were less clear for duration and VOT deviants, possibly because of the specific characteristics of the stimuli. Results are interpreted as reflecting similar processing of pitch contour in speech and non-speech sounds. The implications of these results for understanding the influence of intense musical training from childhood to adulthood and of genetic predispositions for music on foreign language perception are discussed.

  14. Musical expertise and foreign speech perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo eMartínez-Montes

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this experiment was to investigate the influence of musical expertise on the automatic perception of foreign syllables and harmonic sounds. Participants were Cuban students with high level of expertise in music or in visual arts and with the same level of general education and socio-economic background. We used a multi-feature Mismatch Negativity (MMN design with sequences of either syllables in Mandarin Chinese or harmonic sounds, both comprising deviants in pitch contour, duration and Voice Onset Time (VOT or equivalent that were either far from (Large deviants or close to (Small deviants the standard. For both Mandarin syllables and harmonic sounds, results were clear-cut in showing larger MMNs to pitch contour deviants in musicians than in visual artists. Results were less clear for duration and VOT deviants, possibly because of the specific characteristics of the stimuli. Results are interpreted as reflecting similar processing of pitch contour in speech and non-speech sounds. The implications of these results for understanding the influence of intense musical training from childhood to adulthood and of genetic predispositions for music on foreign language perception is discussed.

  15. Perception of acoustic scale and size in musical instrument sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Dinther, Ralph; Patterson, Roy D

    2006-10-01

    There is size information in natural sounds. For example, as humans grow in height, their vocal tracts increase in length, producing a predictable decrease in the formant frequencies of speech sounds. Recent studies have shown that listeners can make fine discriminations about which of two speakers has the longer vocal tract, supporting the view that the auditory system discriminates changes on the acoustic-scale dimension. Listeners can also recognize vowels scaled well beyond the range of vocal tracts normally experienced, indicating that perception is robust to changes in acoustic scale. This paper reports two perceptual experiments designed to extend research on acoustic scale and size perception to the domain of musical sounds: The first study shows that listeners can discriminate the scale of musical instrument sounds reliably, although not quite as well as for voices. The second experiment shows that listeners can recognize the family of an instrument sound which has been modified in pitch and scale beyond the range of normal experience. We conclude that processing of acoustic scale in music perception is very similar to processing of acoustic scale in speech perception.

  16. Reverberation impairs brainstem temporal representations of voiced vowel sounds: challenging periodicity-tagged segregation of competing speech in rooms

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    Mark eSayles

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The auditory system typically processes information from concurrently active sound sources (e.g., two voices speaking at once, in the presence of multiple delayed, attenuated and distorted sound-wave reflections (reverberation. Brainstem circuits help segregate these complex acoustic mixtures into auditory objects. Psychophysical studies demonstrate a strong interaction between reverberation and fundamental-frequency (F0 modulation, leading to impaired segregation of competing vowels when segregation is on the basis of F0 differences. Neurophysiological studies of complex-sound segregation have concentrated on sounds with steady F0s, in anechoic environments. However, F0 modulation and reverberation are quasi-ubiquitous.We examine the ability of 129 single units in the ventral cochlear nucleus of the anesthetized guinea pig to segregate the concurrent synthetic vowel sounds /a/ and /i/, based on temporal discharge patterns under closed-field conditions. We address the effects of added real-room reverberation, F0 modulation, and the interaction of these two factors, on brainstem neural segregation of voiced speech sounds. A firing-rate representation of single-vowels’ spectral envelopes is robust to the combination of F0 modulation and reverberation: local firing-rate maxima and minima across the tonotopic array code vowel-formant structure. However, single-vowel F0-related periodicity information in shuffled inter-spike interval distributions is significantly degraded in the combined presence of reverberation and F0 modulation. Hence, segregation of double-vowels’ spectral energy into two streams (corresponding to the two vowels, on the basis of temporal discharge patterns, is impaired by reverberation; specifically when F0 is modulated. All unit types (primary-like, chopper, onset are similarly affected. These results offer neurophysiological insights to perceptual organization of complex acoustic scenes under realistically challenging

  17. The role of speech therapy in the therapy of children with central hearing disorders

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    Agnieszka Kasperczuk-Bajda

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Central disorders of hearing processing are one of the main causes of school difficulties among children. CAPD is described as incapability of using auditory acoustic sounds with its correct perception within ambit structures. The disorder is often accompanied by such difficulties as dyslexia, specific learning problems or subnormal speech development. Early diagnose of the  disorder and commencing a therapy allows a child a better adjustment to expectations which he or she is exposed to by its environment. The aim of this work is indicating the role and abilities of a speech therapist while treating CAPD children. Aural training is adequate for children with central auditory disorders and in order to be effective it should be long lasting, intensive and adjusted to a child’s individual abilities. Therapy should include both passive listening of sounds and exercises in which the child can actively participate. The aim of speech therapy is to develop auditory skills, speaking, communication and stimulating cognitive potential of a child. Among the auditory exercises conducted by the speech therapist are understanding distorted speech exercises, understanding distorted speech in the presence of a jamming signal, separation and integration of information exercises. localization and lateralization exercises, recognizing sound patterns exercises, recognizing sound sequences exercises, differentiating nonverbal stimuli and phonemes exercises and prosodic training. Therapeutic auditory training that is carried out systematically develops aural and linguistic competences.

  18. The effects of noise exposure and musical training on suprathreshold auditory processing and speech perception in noise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeend, Ingrid; Beach, Elizabeth Francis; Sharma, Mridula; Dillon, Harvey

    2017-09-01

    Recent animal research has shown that exposure to single episodes of intense noise causes cochlear synaptopathy without affecting hearing thresholds. It has been suggested that the same may occur in humans. If so, it is hypothesized that this would result in impaired encoding of sound and lead to difficulties hearing at suprathreshold levels, particularly in challenging listening environments. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effect of noise exposure on auditory processing, including the perception of speech in noise, in adult humans. A secondary aim was to explore whether musical training might improve some aspects of auditory processing and thus counteract or ameliorate any negative impacts of noise exposure. In a sample of 122 participants (63 female) aged 30-57 years with normal or near-normal hearing thresholds, we conducted audiometric tests, including tympanometry, audiometry, acoustic reflexes, otoacoustic emissions and medial olivocochlear responses. We also assessed temporal and spectral processing, by determining thresholds for detection of amplitude modulation and temporal fine structure. We assessed speech-in-noise perception, and conducted tests of attention, memory and sentence closure. We also calculated participants' accumulated lifetime noise exposure and administered questionnaires to assess self-reported listening difficulty and musical training. The results showed no clear link between participants' lifetime noise exposure and performance on any of the auditory processing or speech-in-noise tasks. Musical training was associated with better performance on the auditory processing tasks, but not the on the speech-in-noise perception tasks. The results indicate that sentence closure skills, working memory, attention, extended high frequency hearing thresholds and medial olivocochlear suppression strength are important factors that are related to the ability to process speech in noise. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by

  19. Letters in the Forest: Global precedence effect disappears for letters but not for non-letters under reading-like conditions

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    Thomas eLachmann

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Normally-skilled reading involves special processing strategies for letters, which are habitually funneled into an abstract letter code. On the basis of previous studies we argue that this habit leads to the preferred usage of an analytic strategy for the processing of letters, while non-letters are preferably processed via a holistic strategy. The well-known Global Precedence Effect (GPE seems to contradict to this assumption, since, with compound, hierarchical figures, including letter items, faster responses are observed to the global than to the local level of the figure, as well as an asymmetric interference effect from global to local level. We argue that with letters these effects depend on presentation conditions; only when they elicit the processing strategies automatized for reading, an analytic strategy for letters in contrast to non-letters is to be expected. We compared the GPE for letters and non-letters in central viewing, with the global stimulus size close to the functional visual field in whole word reading (6.5o of visual angle and local stimuli close to the critical size for fluent reading of individual letters (.5o of visual angle. Under these conditions, the GPE remained robust for non-letters. For letters, however, it disappeared: letters showed no overall response time advantage for the global level and symmetric congruence effects (local-to-global as well as global-to local interference. We interpret these results as according to the view that reading is based on resident analytic visual processing strategies for letters.

  20. Restoring speech perception with cochlear implants by spanning defective electrode contacts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frijns, Johan H M; Snel-Bongers, Jorien; Vellinga, Dirk; Schrage, Erik; Vanpoucke, Filiep J; Briaire, Jeroen J

    2013-04-01

    Even with six defective contacts, spanning can largely restore speech perception with the HiRes 120 speech processing strategy to the level supported by an intact electrode array. Moreover, the sound quality is not degraded. Previous studies have demonstrated reduced speech perception scores (SPS) with defective contacts in HiRes 120. This study investigated whether replacing defective contacts by spanning, i.e. current steering on non-adjacent contacts, is able to restore speech recognition to the level supported by an intact electrode array. Ten adult cochlear implant recipients (HiRes90K, HiFocus1J) with experience with HiRes 120 participated in this study. Three different defective electrode arrays were simulated (six separate defective contacts, three pairs or two triplets). The participants received three take-home strategies and were asked to evaluate the sound quality in five predefined listening conditions. After 3 weeks, SPS were evaluated with monosyllabic words in quiet and in speech-shaped background noise. The participants rated the sound quality equal for all take-home strategies. SPS with background noise were equal for all conditions tested. However, SPS in quiet (85% phonemes correct on average with the full array) decreased significantly with increasing spanning distance, with a 3% decrease for each spanned contact.

  1. Age-related differences in the automatic processing of single letters: implications for selective attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daffner, Kirk R; Alperin, Brittany R; Mott, Katherine K; Holcomb, Phillip J

    2014-01-22

    Older adults exhibit diminished ability to inhibit the processing of visual stimuli that are supposed to be ignored. The extent to which age-related changes in early visual processing contribute to impairments in selective attention remains to be determined. Here, 103 adults, 18-85 years of age, completed a color selective attention task in which they were asked to attend to a specified color and respond to designated target letters. An optimal approach would be to initially filter according to color and then process letter forms in the attend color to identify targets. An asymmetric N170 ERP component (larger amplitude over left posterior hemisphere sites) was used as a marker of the early automatic processing of letter forms. Young and middle-aged adults did not generate an asymmetric N170 component. In contrast, young-old and old-old adults produced a larger N170 over the left hemisphere. Furthermore, older adults generated a larger N170 to letter than nonletter stimuli over the left, but not right hemisphere. More asymmetric N170 responses predicted greater allocation of late selection resources to target letters in the ignore color, as indexed by P3b amplitude. These results suggest that unlike their younger counterparts, older adults automatically process stimuli as letters early in the selection process, when it would be more efficient to attend to color only. The inability to ignore letters early in the processing stream helps explain the age-related increase in subsequent processing of target letter forms presented in the ignore color.

  2. A systematic review and classification of interventions for speech-sound disorder in preschool children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wren, Yvonne; Harding, Sam; Goldbart, Juliet; Roulstone, Sue

    2018-05-01

    Multiple interventions have been developed to address speech sound disorder (SSD) in children. Many of these have been evaluated but the evidence for these has not been considered within a model which categorizes types of intervention. The opportunity to carry out a systematic review of interventions for SSD arose as part of a larger scale study of interventions for primary speech and language impairment in preschool children. To review systematically the evidence for interventions for SSD in preschool children and to categorize them within a classification of interventions for SSD. Relevant search terms were used to identify intervention studies published up to 2012, with the following inclusion criteria: participants were aged between 2 years and 5 years, 11 months; they exhibited speech, language and communication needs; and a primary outcome measure of speech was used. Studies that met inclusion criteria were quality appraised using the single case experimental design (SCED) or PEDro-P, depending on their methodology. Those judged to be high quality were classified according to the primary focus of intervention. The final review included 26 studies. Case series was the most common research design. Categorization to the classification system for interventions showed that cognitive-linguistic and production approaches to intervention were the most frequently reported. The highest graded evidence was for three studies within the auditory-perceptual and integrated categories. The evidence for intervention for preschool children with SSD is focused on seven out of 11 subcategories of interventions. Although all the studies included in the review were good quality as defined by quality appraisal checklists, they mostly represented lower-graded evidence. Higher-graded studies are needed to understand clearly the strength of evidence for different interventions. © 2018 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

  3. Amusia Results in Abnormal Brain Activity following Inappropriate Intonation during Speech Comprehension

    OpenAIRE

    Jiang, Cunmei; Hamm, Jeff P.; Lim, Vanessa K.; Kirk, Ian J.; Chen, Xuhai; Yang, Yufang

    2012-01-01

    Pitch processing is a critical ability on which humans' tonal musical experience depends, and which is also of paramount importance for decoding prosody in speech. Congenital amusia refers to deficits in the ability to properly process musical pitch, and recent evidence has suggested that this musical pitch disorder may impact upon the processing of speech sounds. Here we present the first electrophysiological evidence demonstrating that individuals with amusia who speak Mandarin Chinese are ...

  4. Dynamic encoding of speech sequence probability in human temporal cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonard, Matthew K; Bouchard, Kristofer E; Tang, Claire; Chang, Edward F

    2015-05-06

    Sensory processing involves identification of stimulus features, but also integration with the surrounding sensory and cognitive context. Previous work in animals and humans has shown fine-scale sensitivity to context in the form of learned knowledge about the statistics of the sensory environment, including relative probabilities of discrete units in a stream of sequential auditory input. These statistics are a defining characteristic of one of the most important sequential signals humans encounter: speech. For speech, extensive exposure to a language tunes listeners to the statistics of sound sequences. To address how speech sequence statistics are neurally encoded, we used high-resolution direct cortical recordings from human lateral superior temporal cortex as subjects listened to words and nonwords with varying transition probabilities between sound segments. In addition to their sensitivity to acoustic features (including contextual features, such as coarticulation), we found that neural responses dynamically encoded the language-level probability of both preceding and upcoming speech sounds. Transition probability first negatively modulated neural responses, followed by positive modulation of neural responses, consistent with coordinated predictive and retrospective recognition processes, respectively. Furthermore, transition probability encoding was different for real English words compared with nonwords, providing evidence for online interactions with high-order linguistic knowledge. These results demonstrate that sensory processing of deeply learned stimuli involves integrating physical stimulus features with their contextual sequential structure. Despite not being consciously aware of phoneme sequence statistics, listeners use this information to process spoken input and to link low-level acoustic representations with linguistic information about word identity and meaning. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/357203-12$15.00/0.

  5. Visual and Artistic Functions of Letters in Khaghani’s Poetry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohsen Zolfaghari

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The intensity of emotion and fluctuation of meaning in the poet's mind causes him to go beyond the ordinary language and convey intellectual and emotional meanings through metaphors, similes and linguistic preparations. He has sharp eyes and a sensitive spirit and creative temperament and attempts strengthening his own literary language and creating personal style by inventing novel images, showing the creativity and imagination and entering in various arenas of imagination. This point more than anything else could be done by presenting images and new figures. Perhaps in the sixth century, and especially in Azerbaijani school, more than other periods, poets have been looking for creating innovative style in eloquence. Their major attempts were mainly in imaging, a wide field that they have competed. It is obvious that in this illustration the alphabet letters would be very helpful. Khaghani's Divan of poetry, as one of the greatest poets of this school, is the perfect poetical book of paintings in which meaning has been hidden under a delicate pattern and new different scientific, cultural and religious images. Letters are a broad range of elements that put a new field in front of the poet and he is aware of the potential features of the letters, new images, and artistic creativity techniques as well. This paper shows descriptive - analytical study of various aspects of Khaghani’s poetry and frequency of letters in the alphabet letters, alphabetic-based authenticity of images, different similarity reasons, semantic and literal multi-relevance of letters in the context of poetry, producing figures of speech based on letters, sensational relationship exists between images and letters which have been shown in his poetry. Letter have a double and even multiple application in Khaghani's poetic works (divan and moreover the construction of words and conveying meaning which is the real and common usage, they were used as artistic instruments

  6. Swahili speech development: preliminary normative data from typically developing pre-school children in Tanzania.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gangji, Nazneen; Pascoe, Michelle; Smouse, Mantoa

    2015-01-01

    Swahili is widely spoken in East Africa, but to date there are no culturally and linguistically appropriate materials available for speech-language therapists working in the region. The challenges are further exacerbated by the limited research available on the typical acquisition of Swahili phonology. To describe the speech development of 24 typically developing first language Swahili-speaking children between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 years in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A cross-sectional design was used with six groups of four children in 6-month age bands. Single-word speech samples were obtained from each child using a set of culturally appropriate pictures designed to elicit all consonants and vowels of Swahili. Each child's speech was audio-recorded and phonetically transcribed using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) conventions. Children's speech development is described in terms of (1) phonetic inventory, (2) syllable structure inventory, (3) phonological processes and (4) percentage consonants correct (PCC) and percentage vowels correct (PVC). Results suggest a gradual progression in the acquisition of speech sounds and syllables between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 years. Vowel acquisition was completed and most of the consonants acquired by age 3;0. Fricatives/z, s, h/ were later acquired at 4 years and /θ/and /r/ were the last acquired consonants at age 5;11. Older children were able to produce speech sounds more accurately and had fewer phonological processes in their speech than younger children. Common phonological processes included lateralization and sound preference substitutions. The study contributes a preliminary set of normative data on speech development of Swahili-speaking children. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of phonological development, and may be used as a basis for further normative studies with larger numbers of children and ultimately the development of a contextually relevant assessment of the phonology of Swahili

  7. Speech Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1983-05-01

    The VDE system developed had the capability of recognizing up to 248 separate words in syntactic structures. 4 The two systems described are isolated...AND SPEAKER RECOGNITION by M.J.Hunt 5 ASSESSMENT OF SPEECH SYSTEMS ’ ..- * . by R.K.Moore 6 A SURVEY OF CURRENT EQUIPMENT AND RESEARCH’ by J.S.Bridle...TECHNOLOGY IN NAVY TRAINING SYSTEMS by R.Breaux, M.Blind and R.Lynchard 10 9 I-I GENERAL REVIEW OF MILITARY APPLICATIONS OF VOICE PROCESSING DR. BRUNO

  8. The effect of F0 contour on the intelligibility of speech in the presence of interfering sounds for Mandarin Chinese.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jing; Yang, Hongying; Wu, Xihong; Moore, Brian C J

    2018-02-01

    In Mandarin Chinese, the fundamental frequency (F0) contour defines lexical "Tones" that differ in meaning despite being phonetically identical. Flattening the F0 contour impairs the intelligibility of Mandarin Chinese in background sounds. This might occur because the flattening introduces misleading lexical information. To avoid this effect, two types of speech were used: single-Tone speech contained Tones 1 and 0 only, which have a flat F0 contour; multi-Tone speech contained all Tones and had a varying F0 contour. The intelligibility of speech in steady noise was slightly better for single-Tone speech than for multi-Tone speech. The intelligibility of speech in a two-talker masker, with the difference in mean F0 between the target and masker matched across conditions, was worse for the multi-Tone target in the multi-Tone masker than for any other combination of target and masker, probably because informational masking was maximal for this combination. The introduction of a perceived spatial separation between the target and masker, via the precedence effect, led to better performance for all target-masker combinations, especially the multi-Tone target in the multi-Tone masker. In summary, a flat F0 contour does not reduce the intelligibility of Mandarin Chinese when the introduction of misleading lexical cues is avoided.

  9. The influence of spectral characteristics of early reflections on speech intelligibility

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arweiler, Iris; Buchholz, Jörg

    2011-01-01

    The auditory system takes advantage of early reflections (ERs) in a room by integrating them with the direct sound (DS) and thereby increasing the effective speech level. In the present paper the benefit from realistic ERs on speech intelligibility in diffuse speech-shaped noise was investigated...... ascribed to their altered spectrum compared to the DS and to the filtering by the torso, head, and pinna. No binaural processing other than a binaural summation effect could be observed....

  10. Speech Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Several articles addressing topics in speech research are presented. The topics include: exploring the functional significance of physiological tremor: A biospectroscopic approach; differences between experienced and inexperienced listeners to deaf speech; a language-oriented view of reading and its disabilities; Phonetic factors in letter detection; categorical perception; Short-term recall by deaf signers of American sign language; a common basis for auditory sensory storage in perception and immediate memory; phonological awareness and verbal short-term memory; initiation versus execution time during manual and oral counting by stutterers; trading relations in the perception of speech by five-year-old children; the role of the strap muscles in pitch lowering; phonetic validation of distinctive features; consonants and syllable boundaires; and vowel information in postvocalic frictions.

  11. Predicting Prosody from Text for Text-to-Speech Synthesis

    CERN Document Server

    Rao, K Sreenivasa

    2012-01-01

    Predicting Prosody from Text for Text-to-Speech Synthesis covers the specific aspects of prosody, mainly focusing on how to predict the prosodic information from linguistic text, and then how to exploit the predicted prosodic knowledge for various speech applications. Author K. Sreenivasa Rao discusses proposed methods along with state-of-the-art techniques for the acquisition and incorporation of prosodic knowledge for developing speech systems. Positional, contextual and phonological features are proposed for representing the linguistic and production constraints of the sound units present in the text. This book is intended for graduate students and researchers working in the area of speech processing.

  12. Temporal modulations in speech and music.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Nai; Patel, Aniruddh D; Chen, Lin; Butler, Henry; Luo, Cheng; Poeppel, David

    2017-10-01

    Speech and music have structured rhythms. Here we discuss a major acoustic correlate of spoken and musical rhythms, the slow (0.25-32Hz) temporal modulations in sound intensity and compare the modulation properties of speech and music. We analyze these modulations using over 25h of speech and over 39h of recordings of Western music. We show that the speech modulation spectrum is highly consistent across 9 languages (including languages with typologically different rhythmic characteristics). A different, but similarly consistent modulation spectrum is observed for music, including classical music played by single instruments of different types, symphonic, jazz, and rock. The temporal modulations of speech and music show broad but well-separated peaks around 5 and 2Hz, respectively. These acoustically dominant time scales may be intrinsic features of speech and music, a possibility which should be investigated using more culturally diverse samples in each domain. Distinct modulation timescales for speech and music could facilitate their perceptual analysis and its neural processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Sound stream segregation: a neuromorphic approach to solve the "cocktail party problem" in real-time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thakur, Chetan Singh; Wang, Runchun M; Afshar, Saeed; Hamilton, Tara J; Tapson, Jonathan C; Shamma, Shihab A; van Schaik, André

    2015-01-01

    The human auditory system has the ability to segregate complex auditory scenes into a foreground component and a background, allowing us to listen to specific speech sounds from a mixture of sounds. Selective attention plays a crucial role in this process, colloquially known as the "cocktail party effect." It has not been possible to build a machine that can emulate this human ability in real-time. Here, we have developed a framework for the implementation of a neuromorphic sound segregation algorithm in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This algorithm is based on the principles of temporal coherence and uses an attention signal to separate a target sound stream from background noise. Temporal coherence implies that auditory features belonging to the same sound source are coherently modulated and evoke highly correlated neural response patterns. The basis for this form of sound segregation is that responses from pairs of channels that are strongly positively correlated belong to the same stream, while channels that are uncorrelated or anti-correlated belong to different streams. In our framework, we have used a neuromorphic cochlea as a frontend sound analyser to extract spatial information of the sound input, which then passes through band pass filters that extract the sound envelope at various modulation rates. Further stages include feature extraction and mask generation, which is finally used to reconstruct the targeted sound. Using sample tonal and speech mixtures, we show that our FPGA architecture is able to segregate sound sources in real-time. The accuracy of segregation is indicated by the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the segregated stream (90, 77, and 55 dB for simple tone, complex tone, and speech, respectively) as compared to the SNR of the mixture waveform (0 dB). This system may be easily extended for the segregation of complex speech signals, and may thus find various applications in electronic devices such as for sound segregation and

  14. Kinematic Analysis of Speech Sound Sequencing Errors Induced by Delayed Auditory Feedback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cler, Gabriel J; Lee, Jackson C; Mittelman, Talia; Stepp, Cara E; Bohland, Jason W

    2017-06-22

    Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) causes speakers to become disfluent and make phonological errors. Methods for assessing the kinematics of speech errors are lacking, with most DAF studies relying on auditory perceptual analyses, which may be problematic, as errors judged to be categorical may actually represent blends of sounds or articulatory errors. Eight typical speakers produced nonsense syllable sequences under normal and DAF (200 ms). Lip and tongue kinematics were captured with electromagnetic articulography. Time-locked acoustic recordings were transcribed, and the kinematics of utterances with and without perceived errors were analyzed with existing and novel quantitative methods. New multivariate measures showed that for 5 participants, kinematic variability for productions perceived to be error free was significantly increased under delay; these results were validated by using the spatiotemporal index measure. Analysis of error trials revealed both typical productions of a nontarget syllable and productions with articulatory kinematics that incorporated aspects of both the target and the perceived utterance. This study is among the first to characterize articulatory changes under DAF and provides evidence for different classes of speech errors, which may not be perceptually salient. New methods were developed that may aid visualization and analysis of large kinematic data sets. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5103067.

  15. Hidden Markov models in automatic speech recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wrzoskowicz, Adam

    1993-11-01

    This article describes a method for constructing an automatic speech recognition system based on hidden Markov models (HMMs). The author discusses the basic concepts of HMM theory and the application of these models to the analysis and recognition of speech signals. The author provides algorithms which make it possible to train the ASR system and recognize signals on the basis of distinct stochastic models of selected speech sound classes. The author describes the specific components of the system and the procedures used to model and recognize speech. The author discusses problems associated with the choice of optimal signal detection and parameterization characteristics and their effect on the performance of the system. The author presents different options for the choice of speech signal segments and their consequences for the ASR process. The author gives special attention to the use of lexical, syntactic, and semantic information for the purpose of improving the quality and efficiency of the system. The author also describes an ASR system developed by the Speech Acoustics Laboratory of the IBPT PAS. The author discusses the results of experiments on the effect of noise on the performance of the ASR system and describes methods of constructing HMM's designed to operate in a noisy environment. The author also describes a language for human-robot communications which was defined as a complex multilevel network from an HMM model of speech sounds geared towards Polish inflections. The author also added mandatory lexical and syntactic rules to the system for its communications vocabulary.

  16. Visual and Auditory Input in Second-Language Speech Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hardison, Debra M.

    2010-01-01

    The majority of studies in second-language (L2) speech processing have involved unimodal (i.e., auditory) input; however, in many instances, speech communication involves both visual and auditory sources of information. Some researchers have argued that multimodal speech is the primary mode of speech perception (e.g., Rosenblum 2005). Research on…

  17. Evaluating signal-to-noise ratios, loudness, and related measures as indicators of airborne sound insulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, H K; Bradley, J S

    2009-09-01

    Subjective ratings of the audibility, annoyance, and loudness of music and speech sounds transmitted through 20 different simulated walls were used to identify better single number ratings of airborne sound insulation. The first part of this research considered standard measures such as the sound transmission class the weighted sound reduction index (R(w)) and variations of these measures [H. K. Park and J. S. Bradley, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 126, 208-219 (2009)]. This paper considers a number of other measures including signal-to-noise ratios related to the intelligibility of speech and measures related to the loudness of sounds. An exploration of the importance of the included frequencies showed that the optimum ranges of included frequencies were different for speech and music sounds. Measures related to speech intelligibility were useful indicators of responses to speech sounds but were not as successful for music sounds. A-weighted level differences, signal-to-noise ratios and an A-weighted sound transmission loss measure were good predictors of responses when the included frequencies were optimized for each type of sound. The addition of new spectrum adaptation terms to R(w) values were found to be the most practical approach for achieving more accurate predictions of subjective ratings of transmitted speech and music sounds.

  18. Multiengine Speech Processing Using SNR Estimator in Variable Noisy Environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad R. Abu-El-Quran

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available We introduce a multiengine speech processing system that can detect the location and the type of audio signal in variable noisy environments. This system detects the location of the audio source using a microphone array; the system examines the audio first, determines if it is speech/nonspeech, then estimates the value of the signal to noise (SNR using a Discrete-Valued SNR Estimator. Using this SNR value, instead of trying to adapt the speech signal to the speech processing system, we adapt the speech processing system to the surrounding environment of the captured speech signal. In this paper, we introduced the Discrete-Valued SNR Estimator and a multiengine classifier, using Multiengine Selection or Multiengine Weighted Fusion. Also we use the SI as example of the speech processing. The Discrete-Valued SNR Estimator achieves an accuracy of 98.4% in characterizing the environment's SNR. Compared to a conventional single engine SI system, the improvement in accuracy was as high as 9.0% and 10.0% for the Multiengine Selection and Multiengine Weighted Fusion, respectively.

  19. Quality of Mobile Phone and Tablet Mobile Apps for Speech Sound Disorders: Protocol for an Evidence-Based Appraisal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furlong, Lisa M; Morris, Meg E; Erickson, Shane; Serry, Tanya A

    2016-11-29

    Although mobile apps are readily available for speech sound disorders (SSD), their validity has not been systematically evaluated. This evidence-based appraisal will critically review and synthesize current evidence on available therapy apps for use by children with SSD. The main aims are to (1) identify the types of apps currently available for Android and iOS mobile phones and tablets, and (2) to critique their design features and content using a structured quality appraisal tool. This protocol paper presents and justifies the methods used for a systematic review of mobile apps that provide intervention for use by children with SSD. The primary outcomes of interest are (1) engagement, (2) functionality, (3) aesthetics, (4) information quality, (5) subjective quality, and (6) perceived impact. Quality will be assessed by 2 certified practicing speech-language pathologists using a structured quality appraisal tool. Two app stores will be searched from the 2 largest operating platforms, Android and iOS. Systematic methods of knowledge synthesis shall include searching the app stores using a defined procedure, data extraction, and quality analysis. This search strategy shall enable us to determine how many SSD apps are available for Android and for iOS compatible mobile phones and tablets. It shall also identify the regions of the world responsible for the apps' development, the content and the quality of offerings. Recommendations will be made for speech-language pathologists seeking to use mobile apps in their clinical practice. This protocol provides a structured process for locating apps and appraising the quality, as the basis for evaluating their use in speech pathology for children in English-speaking nations. ©Lisa M Furlong, Meg E Morris, Shane Erickson, Tanya A Serry. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 29.11.2016.

  20. Neural Correlates of Indicators of Sound Change in Cantonese: Evidence from Cortical and Subcortical Processes

    OpenAIRE

    Maggu, Akshay R.; Liu, Fang; Antoniou, Mark; Wong, Patrick C. M.

    2016-01-01

    Across time, languages undergo changes in phonetic, syntactic, and semantic dimensions. Social, cognitive, and cultural factors contribute to sound change, a phenomenon in which the phonetics of a language undergo changes over time. Individuals who misperceive and produce speech in a slightly divergent manner (called innovators) contribute to variability in the society, eventually leading to sound change. However, the cause of variability in these individuals is still unknown. In this study, ...

  1. Piano training enhances the neural processing of pitch and improves speech perception in Mandarin-speaking children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nan, Yun; Liu, Li; Geiser, Eveline; Shu, Hua; Gong, Chen Chen; Dong, Qi; Gabrieli, John D E; Desimone, Robert

    2018-06-25

    Musical training confers advantages in speech-sound processing, which could play an important role in early childhood education. To understand the mechanisms of this effect, we used event-related potential and behavioral measures in a longitudinal design. Seventy-four Mandarin-speaking children aged 4-5 y old were pseudorandomly assigned to piano training, reading training, or a no-contact control group. Six months of piano training improved behavioral auditory word discrimination in general as well as word discrimination based on vowels compared with the controls. The reading group yielded similar trends. However, the piano group demonstrated unique advantages over the reading and control groups in consonant-based word discrimination and in enhanced positive mismatch responses (pMMRs) to lexical tone and musical pitch changes. The improved word discrimination based on consonants correlated with the enhancements in musical pitch pMMRs among the children in the piano group. In contrast, all three groups improved equally on general cognitive measures, including tests of IQ, working memory, and attention. The results suggest strengthened common sound processing across domains as an important mechanism underlying the benefits of musical training on language processing. In addition, although we failed to find far-transfer effects of musical training to general cognition, the near-transfer effects to speech perception establish the potential for musical training to help children improve their language skills. Piano training was not inferior to reading training on direct tests of language function, and it even seemed superior to reading training in enhancing consonant discrimination.

  2. Sound stream segregation: a neuromorphic approach to solve the “cocktail party problem” in real-time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thakur, Chetan Singh; Wang, Runchun M.; Afshar, Saeed; Hamilton, Tara J.; Tapson, Jonathan C.; Shamma, Shihab A.; van Schaik, André

    2015-01-01

    The human auditory system has the ability to segregate complex auditory scenes into a foreground component and a background, allowing us to listen to specific speech sounds from a mixture of sounds. Selective attention plays a crucial role in this process, colloquially known as the “cocktail party effect.” It has not been possible to build a machine that can emulate this human ability in real-time. Here, we have developed a framework for the implementation of a neuromorphic sound segregation algorithm in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This algorithm is based on the principles of temporal coherence and uses an attention signal to separate a target sound stream from background noise. Temporal coherence implies that auditory features belonging to the same sound source are coherently modulated and evoke highly correlated neural response patterns. The basis for this form of sound segregation is that responses from pairs of channels that are strongly positively correlated belong to the same stream, while channels that are uncorrelated or anti-correlated belong to different streams. In our framework, we have used a neuromorphic cochlea as a frontend sound analyser to extract spatial information of the sound input, which then passes through band pass filters that extract the sound envelope at various modulation rates. Further stages include feature extraction and mask generation, which is finally used to reconstruct the targeted sound. Using sample tonal and speech mixtures, we show that our FPGA architecture is able to segregate sound sources in real-time. The accuracy of segregation is indicated by the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the segregated stream (90, 77, and 55 dB for simple tone, complex tone, and speech, respectively) as compared to the SNR of the mixture waveform (0 dB). This system may be easily extended for the segregation of complex speech signals, and may thus find various applications in electronic devices such as for sound segregation

  3. Sound stream segregation: a neuromorphic approach to solve the ‘cocktail party problem’ in real-time

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chetan Singh Thakur

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The human auditory system has the ability to segregate complex auditory scenes into a foreground component and a background, allowing us to listen to specific speech sounds from a mixture of sounds. Selective attention plays a crucial role in this process, colloquially known as the ‘cocktail party effect’. It has not been possible to build a machine that can emulate this human ability in real-time. Here, we have developed a framework for the implementation of a neuromorphic sound segregation algorithm in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA. This algorithm is based on the principles of temporal coherence and uses an attention signal to separate a target sound stream from background noise. Temporal coherence implies that auditory features belonging to the same sound source are coherently modulated and evoke highly correlated neural response patterns. The basis for this form of sound segregation is that responses from pairs of channels that are strongly positively correlated belong to the same stream, while channels that are uncorrelated or anti-correlated belong to different streams. In our framework, we have used a neuromorphic cochlea as a frontend sound analyser to extract spatial information of the sound input, which then passes through band pass filters that extract the sound envelope at various modulation rates. Further stages include feature extraction and mask generation, which is finally used to reconstruct the targeted sound. Using sample tonal and speech mixtures, we show that our FPGA architecture is able to segregate sound sources in real-time. The accuracy of segregation is indicated by the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR of the segregated stream (90, 77 and 55 dB for simple tone, complex tone and speech, respectively as compared to the SNR of the mixture waveform (0 dB. This system may be easily extended for the segregation of complex speech signals, and may thus find various applications in electronic devices such as for

  4. Extensions to the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shriberg, Lawrence D.; Fourakis, Marios; Hall, Sheryl D.; Karlsson, Heather B.; Lohmeier, Heather L.; McSweeny, Jane L.; Potter, Nancy L.; Scheer-Cohen, Alison R.; Strand, Edythe A.; Tilkens, Christie M.; Wilson, David L.

    2010-01-01

    This report describes three extensions to a classification system for paediatric speech sound disorders termed the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). Part I describes a classification extension to the SDCS to differentiate motor speech disorders from speech delay and to differentiate among three sub-types of motor speech disorders.…

  5. Language Arts/Arts: Adopt-a-Letter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soloway, Rhoda K.

    1978-01-01

    Describes a five-week project in which elementary students chose a favorite letter as the main character of a 25- to 30-page book for practice in language skills. The book each child made was composed of more than 20 learning activities that stimulated students to review and practice skills, parts of speech, synonyms, antonyms and alliteration as…

  6. Memory performance on the Auditory Inference Span Test is independent of background noise type for young adults with normal hearing at high speech intelligibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rönnberg, Niklas; Rudner, Mary; Lunner, Thomas; Stenfelt, Stefan

    2014-01-01

    Listening in noise is often perceived to be effortful. This is partly because cognitive resources are engaged in separating the target signal from background noise, leaving fewer resources for storage and processing of the content of the message in working memory. The Auditory Inference Span Test (AIST) is designed to assess listening effort by measuring the ability to maintain and process heard information. The aim of this study was to use AIST to investigate the effect of background noise types and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on listening effort, as a function of working memory capacity (WMC) and updating ability (UA). The AIST was administered in three types of background noise: steady-state speech-shaped noise, amplitude modulated speech-shaped noise, and unintelligible speech. Three SNRs targeting 90% speech intelligibility or better were used in each of the three noise types, giving nine different conditions. The reading span test assessed WMC, while UA was assessed with the letter memory test. Twenty young adults with normal hearing participated in the study. Results showed that AIST performance was not influenced by noise type at the same intelligibility level, but became worse with worse SNR when background noise was speech-like. Performance on AIST also decreased with increasing memory load level. Correlations between AIST performance and the cognitive measurements suggested that WMC is of more importance for listening when SNRs are worse, while UA is of more importance for listening in easier SNRs. The results indicated that in young adults with normal hearing, the effort involved in listening in noise at high intelligibility levels is independent of the noise type. However, when noise is speech-like and intelligibility decreases, listening effort increases, probably due to extra demands on cognitive resources added by the informational masking created by the speech fragments and vocal sounds in the background noise.

  7. Memory performance on the Auditory Inference Span Test is independent of background noise type for young adults with normal hearing at high speech intelligibility

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Niklas eRönnberg

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Listening in noise is often perceived to be effortful. This is partly because cognitive resources are engaged in separating the target signal from background noise, leaving fewer resources for storage and processing of the content of the message in working memory. The Auditory Inference Span Test (AIST is designed to assess listening effort by measuring the ability to maintain and process heard information. The aim of this study was to use AIST to investigate the effect of background noise types and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR on listening effort, as a function of working memory capacity (WMC and updating ability (UA. The AIST was administered in three types of background noise: steady-state speech-shaped noise, amplitude modulated speech-shaped noise, and unintelligible speech. Three SNRs targeting 90% speech intelligibility or better were used in each of the three noise types, giving nine different conditions. The reading span test assessed WMC, while UA was assessed with the letter memory test. Twenty young adults with normal hearing participated in the study. Results showed that AIST performance was not influenced by noise type at the same intelligibility level, but became worse with worse SNR when background noise was speech-like. Performance on AIST also decreased with increasing MLL. Correlations between AIST performance and the cognitive measurements suggested that WMC is of more importance for listening when SNRs are worse, while UA is of more importance for listening in easier SNRs. The results indicated that in young adults with normal hearing, the effort involved in listening in noise at high intelligibility levels is independent of the noise type. However, when noise is speech-like and intelligibility decreases, listening effort increases, probably due to extra demands on cognitive resources added by the informational masking created by the speech-fragments and vocal sounds in the background noise.

  8. Validating a perceptual distraction model using a personal two-zone sound system

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rämö, Jussi; Christensen, Lasse; Bech, Søren

    2017-01-01

    This paper focuses on validating a perceptual distraction model, which aims to predict user's perceived distraction caused by audio-on-audio interference. Originally, the distraction model was trained with music targets and interferers using a simple loudspeaker setup, consisting of only two...... sound zones within the sound-zone system. Thus, validating the model using a different sound-zone system with both speech-on-music and music-on-speech stimuli sets. The results show that the model performance is equally good in both zones, i.e., with both speech- on-music and music-on-speech stimuli...

  9. Sound Classification in Hearing Aids Inspired by Auditory Scene Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Büchler, Michael; Allegro, Silvia; Launer, Stefan; Dillier, Norbert

    2005-12-01

    A sound classification system for the automatic recognition of the acoustic environment in a hearing aid is discussed. The system distinguishes the four sound classes "clean speech," "speech in noise," "noise," and "music." A number of features that are inspired by auditory scene analysis are extracted from the sound signal. These features describe amplitude modulations, spectral profile, harmonicity, amplitude onsets, and rhythm. They are evaluated together with different pattern classifiers. Simple classifiers, such as rule-based and minimum-distance classifiers, are compared with more complex approaches, such as Bayes classifier, neural network, and hidden Markov model. Sounds from a large database are employed for both training and testing of the system. The achieved recognition rates are very high except for the class "speech in noise." Problems arise in the classification of compressed pop music, strongly reverberated speech, and tonal or fluctuating noises.

  10. Internet Video Telephony Allows Speech Reading by Deaf Individuals and Improves Speech Perception by Cochlear Implant Users

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mantokoudis, Georgios; Dähler, Claudia; Dubach, Patrick; Kompis, Martin; Caversaccio, Marco D.; Senn, Pascal

    2013-01-01

    Objective To analyze speech reading through Internet video calls by profoundly hearing-impaired individuals and cochlear implant (CI) users. Methods Speech reading skills of 14 deaf adults and 21 CI users were assessed using the Hochmair Schulz Moser (HSM) sentence test. We presented video simulations using different video resolutions (1280×720, 640×480, 320×240, 160×120 px), frame rates (30, 20, 10, 7, 5 frames per second (fps)), speech velocities (three different speakers), webcameras (Logitech Pro9000, C600 and C500) and image/sound delays (0–500 ms). All video simulations were presented with and without sound and in two screen sizes. Additionally, scores for live Skype™ video connection and live face-to-face communication were assessed. Results Higher frame rate (>7 fps), higher camera resolution (>640×480 px) and shorter picture/sound delay (<100 ms) were associated with increased speech perception scores. Scores were strongly dependent on the speaker but were not influenced by physical properties of the camera optics or the full screen mode. There is a significant median gain of +8.5%pts (p = 0.009) in speech perception for all 21 CI-users if visual cues are additionally shown. CI users with poor open set speech perception scores (n = 11) showed the greatest benefit under combined audio-visual presentation (median speech perception +11.8%pts, p = 0.032). Conclusion Webcameras have the potential to improve telecommunication of hearing-impaired individuals. PMID:23359119

  11. Internet video telephony allows speech reading by deaf individuals and improves speech perception by cochlear implant users.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Georgios Mantokoudis

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To analyze speech reading through Internet video calls by profoundly hearing-impaired individuals and cochlear implant (CI users. METHODS: Speech reading skills of 14 deaf adults and 21 CI users were assessed using the Hochmair Schulz Moser (HSM sentence test. We presented video simulations using different video resolutions (1280 × 720, 640 × 480, 320 × 240, 160 × 120 px, frame rates (30, 20, 10, 7, 5 frames per second (fps, speech velocities (three different speakers, webcameras (Logitech Pro9000, C600 and C500 and image/sound delays (0-500 ms. All video simulations were presented with and without sound and in two screen sizes. Additionally, scores for live Skype™ video connection and live face-to-face communication were assessed. RESULTS: Higher frame rate (>7 fps, higher camera resolution (>640 × 480 px and shorter picture/sound delay (<100 ms were associated with increased speech perception scores. Scores were strongly dependent on the speaker but were not influenced by physical properties of the camera optics or the full screen mode. There is a significant median gain of +8.5%pts (p = 0.009 in speech perception for all 21 CI-users if visual cues are additionally shown. CI users with poor open set speech perception scores (n = 11 showed the greatest benefit under combined audio-visual presentation (median speech perception +11.8%pts, p = 0.032. CONCLUSION: Webcameras have the potential to improve telecommunication of hearing-impaired individuals.

  12. Speech and audio processing for coding, enhancement and recognition

    CERN Document Server

    Togneri, Roberto; Narasimha, Madihally

    2015-01-01

    This book describes the basic principles underlying the generation, coding, transmission and enhancement of speech and audio signals, including advanced statistical and machine learning techniques for speech and speaker recognition with an overview of the key innovations in these areas. Key research undertaken in speech coding, speech enhancement, speech recognition, emotion recognition and speaker diarization are also presented, along with recent advances and new paradigms in these areas. ·         Offers readers a single-source reference on the significant applications of speech and audio processing to speech coding, speech enhancement and speech/speaker recognition. Enables readers involved in algorithm development and implementation issues for speech coding to understand the historical development and future challenges in speech coding research; ·         Discusses speech coding methods yielding bit-streams that are multi-rate and scalable for Voice-over-IP (VoIP) Networks; ·     �...

  13. The influence of spectral and spatial characteristics of early reflections on speech intelligibility

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arweiler, Iris; Buchholz, Jörg; Dau, Torsten

    The auditory system employs different strategies to facilitate speech intelligibility in complex listening conditions. One of them is the integration of early reflections (ER’s) with the direct sound (DS) to increase the effective speech level. So far the underlying mechanisms of ER processing have...... of listeners that speech intelligibility improved with added ER energy, but less than with added DS energy. An efficiency factor was introduced to quantify this effect. The difference in speech intelligibility could be mainly ascribed to the differences in the spectrum between the speech signals....... binaural). The direction-dependency could be explained by the spectral changes introduced by the pinna, head, and torso. The results will be important with regard to the influence of signal processing strategies in modern hearing aids on speech intelligibility, because they might alter the spectral...

  14. Techniques and applications for binaural sound manipulation in human-machine interfaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Begault, Durand R.; Wenzel, Elizabeth M.

    1992-01-01

    The implementation of binaural sound to speech and auditory sound cues (auditory icons) is addressed from both an applications and technical standpoint. Techniques overviewed include processing by means of filtering with head-related transfer functions. Application to advanced cockpit human interface systems is discussed, although the techniques are extendable to any human-machine interface. Research issues pertaining to three-dimensional sound displays under investigation at the Aerospace Human Factors Division at NASA Ames Research Center are described.

  15. Cross-modal distraction by background speech: what role for meaning?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marsh, John E; Jones, Dylan M

    2010-01-01

    Mental tasks are susceptible to disruption by concurrent to-be-ignored speech. The goal of the present paper is to examine whether a theoretical framework successfully applied to irrelevant speech effects in serial recall-interference by process-can be extended to verbal tasks in which meaning is the basis of retrieval and to which the irrelevant sound is related to different degrees by meaning. That the semantic characteristics of the to-be-ignored sound interact with the predominance of semantic retrieval in the focal task to determine the degree of disruption is demonstrated in three settings: free recall, category-clustering and fluency. Source monitoring-the difficulty in discriminating episodic information on the basis of the sense modality (visual or auditory) in which it was presented-contributes in part to the disruption by speech. The power of alternative accounts-interference-by-content and attentional capture-to predict these outcomes is also discussed.

  16. Speech recognition using articulatory and excitation source features

    CERN Document Server

    Rao, K Sreenivasa

    2017-01-01

    This book discusses the contribution of articulatory and excitation source information in discriminating sound units. The authors focus on excitation source component of speech -- and the dynamics of various articulators during speech production -- for enhancement of speech recognition (SR) performance. Speech recognition is analyzed for read, extempore, and conversation modes of speech. Five groups of articulatory features (AFs) are explored for speech recognition, in addition to conventional spectral features. Each chapter provides the motivation for exploring the specific feature for SR task, discusses the methods to extract those features, and finally suggests appropriate models to capture the sound unit specific knowledge from the proposed features. The authors close by discussing various combinations of spectral, articulatory and source features, and the desired models to enhance the performance of SR systems.

  17. The influence of phonetic dimensions on aphasic speech perception

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Kok, D.A.; Jonkers, R.; Bastiaanse, Y.R.M.

    2010-01-01

    Individuals with aphasia have more problems detecting small differences between speech sounds than larger ones. This paper reports how phonemic processing is impaired and how this is influenced by speechreading. A non-word discrimination task was carried out with 'audiovisual', 'auditory only' and

  18. Engaged listeners: shared neural processing of powerful political speeches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmälzle, Ralf; Häcker, Frank E K; Honey, Christopher J; Hasson, Uri

    2015-08-01

    Powerful speeches can captivate audiences, whereas weaker speeches fail to engage their listeners. What is happening in the brains of a captivated audience? Here, we assess audience-wide functional brain dynamics during listening to speeches of varying rhetorical quality. The speeches were given by German politicians and evaluated as rhetorically powerful or weak. Listening to each of the speeches induced similar neural response time courses, as measured by inter-subject correlation analysis, in widespread brain regions involved in spoken language processing. Crucially, alignment of the time course across listeners was stronger for rhetorically powerful speeches, especially for bilateral regions of the superior temporal gyri and medial prefrontal cortex. Thus, during powerful speeches, listeners as a group are more coupled to each other, suggesting that powerful speeches are more potent in taking control of the listeners' brain responses. Weaker speeches were processed more heterogeneously, although they still prompted substantially correlated responses. These patterns of coupled neural responses bear resemblance to metaphors of resonance, which are often invoked in discussions of speech impact, and contribute to the literature on auditory attention under natural circumstances. Overall, this approach opens up possibilities for research on the neural mechanisms mediating the reception of entertaining or persuasive messages. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  19. Audiovisual integration in speech perception: a multi-stage process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Eskelund, Kasper; Tuomainen, Jyrki; Andersen, Tobias

    2011-01-01

    investigate whether the integration of auditory and visual speech observed in these two audiovisual integration effects are specific traits of speech perception. We further ask whether audiovisual integration is undertaken in a single processing stage or multiple processing stages....

  20. Improving Robustness against Environmental Sounds for Directing Attention of Social Robots

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Nicolai Bæk; Tan, Zheng-Hua; Lindberg, Børge

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a multi-modal system for finding out where to direct the attention of a social robot in a dialog scenario, which is robust against environmental sounds (door slamming, phone ringing etc.) and short speech segments. The method is based on combining voice activity detection (VAD......) and sound source localization (SSL) and furthermore apply post-processing to SSL to filter out short sounds. The system is tested against a baseline system in four different real-world experiments, where different sounds are used as interfering sounds. The results are promising and show a clear improvement....

  1. Alternative Speech Communication System for Persons with Severe Speech Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Selouani, Sid-Ahmed; Sidi Yakoub, Mohammed; O'Shaughnessy, Douglas

    2009-12-01

    Assistive speech-enabled systems are proposed to help both French and English speaking persons with various speech disorders. The proposed assistive systems use automatic speech recognition (ASR) and speech synthesis in order to enhance the quality of communication. These systems aim at improving the intelligibility of pathologic speech making it as natural as possible and close to the original voice of the speaker. The resynthesized utterances use new basic units, a new concatenating algorithm and a grafting technique to correct the poorly pronounced phonemes. The ASR responses are uttered by the new speech synthesis system in order to convey an intelligible message to listeners. Experiments involving four American speakers with severe dysarthria and two Acadian French speakers with sound substitution disorders (SSDs) are carried out to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methods. An improvement of the Perceptual Evaluation of the Speech Quality (PESQ) value of 5% and more than 20% is achieved by the speech synthesis systems that deal with SSD and dysarthria, respectively.

  2. Barista: A Framework for Concurrent Speech Processing by USC-SAIL.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Can, Doğan; Gibson, James; Vaz, Colin; Georgiou, Panayiotis G; Narayanan, Shrikanth S

    2014-05-01

    We present Barista, an open-source framework for concurrent speech processing based on the Kaldi speech recognition toolkit and the libcppa actor library. With Barista, we aim to provide an easy-to-use, extensible framework for constructing highly customizable concurrent (and/or distributed) networks for a variety of speech processing tasks. Each Barista network specifies a flow of data between simple actors, concurrent entities communicating by message passing, modeled after Kaldi tools. Leveraging the fast and reliable concurrency and distribution mechanisms provided by libcppa, Barista lets demanding speech processing tasks, such as real-time speech recognizers and complex training workflows, to be scheduled and executed on parallel (and/or distributed) hardware. Barista is released under the Apache License v2.0.

  3. Educators’ perspectives on facilitating computer-assisted speech intervention in early childhood settings

    OpenAIRE

    Crowe, K.; Cumming, T.; McCormack, J.; McLeod, S.; Baker, E.; Wren, Y.; Roulstone, S.; Masso, S.

    2017-01-01

    Early childhood educators are frequently called on to support preschool-aged children with speech sound disorders and to engage these children in activities that target their speech production. This study explored factors that acted as facilitators and/or barriers to the provision of computer-based support for children with speech sound disorders (SSD) in early childhood centres. Participants were 23 early childhood educators at 13 centres who participated in the Sound Start Study, a randomiz...

  4. The Use of Electropalatography in the Treatment of Acquired Apraxia of Speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mauszycki, Shannon C; Wright, Sandra; Dingus, Nicole; Wambaugh, Julie L

    2016-12-01

    This investigation was designed to examine the effects of an articulatory-kinematic treatment in conjunction with visual biofeedback (VBFB) via electropalatography (EPG) on the accuracy of articulation for acquired apraxia of speech (AOS). A multiple-baseline design across participants and behaviors was used with 4 individuals with chronic AOS and aphasia. Accuracy of target speech sounds in treated and untreated phrases in probe sessions served as the dependent variable. Participants received an articulatory-kinematic treatment in combination with VBFB, which was sequentially applied to 3 stimulus sets composed of 2-word phrases with a target speech sound for each set. Positive changes in articulatory accuracy were observed for participants for the majority of treated speech sounds. Also, there was generalization to untreated phrases for most trained speech sounds. Two participants had better long-term maintenance of treated speech sounds in both trained and untrained stimuli. Findings indicate EPG may be a potential treatment tool for AOS. It appears that individuals with AOS can benefit from VBFB via EPG in improving articulatory accuracy. However, further research is needed to determine if VBFB is more advantageous than behavioral treatments that have been proven effective in improving speech production for speakers with AOS.

  5. Cortical oscillations and entrainment in speech processing during working memory load.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hjortkjaer, Jens; Märcher-Rørsted, Jonatan; Fuglsang, Søren A; Dau, Torsten

    2018-02-02

    Neuronal oscillations are thought to play an important role in working memory (WM) and speech processing. Listening to speech in real-life situations is often cognitively demanding but it is unknown whether WM load influences how auditory cortical activity synchronizes to speech features. Here, we developed an auditory n-back paradigm to investigate cortical entrainment to speech envelope fluctuations under different degrees of WM load. We measured the electroencephalogram, pupil dilations and behavioural performance from 22 subjects listening to continuous speech with an embedded n-back task. The speech stimuli consisted of long spoken number sequences created to match natural speech in terms of sentence intonation, syllabic rate and phonetic content. To burden different WM functions during speech processing, listeners performed an n-back task on the speech sequences in different levels of background noise. Increasing WM load at higher n-back levels was associated with a decrease in posterior alpha power as well as increased pupil dilations. Frontal theta power increased at the start of the trial and increased additionally with higher n-back level. The observed alpha-theta power changes are consistent with visual n-back paradigms suggesting general oscillatory correlates of WM processing load. Speech entrainment was measured as a linear mapping between the envelope of the speech signal and low-frequency cortical activity (level) decreased cortical speech envelope entrainment. Although entrainment persisted under high load, our results suggest a top-down influence of WM processing on cortical speech entrainment. © 2018 The Authors. European Journal of Neuroscience published by Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Visual and Artistic Functions of Letters Khaghani’s Poetry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. M. Zolfaghari

    Full Text Available The intensity of emotion and vibration of meaning in the poet's mind causes him to go beyond the ordinary language and through metaphors, similes and linguistic preparation he conveys intellectual and emotional meanings. He has a sharp eye and a sensitive spirit and creative temprement and by inventing new images shows the creativity and imagination in various arenas and attempts in the way of literary strength and creating personal style and this point more than anything else must be done by presenting images and newness. Perhaps in the sixth century, and especially in Azerbaijani school, more than other periods, poets have been looking for creating innovative style in eloquence. Their major attempts were mainly in imaging, it was a wide field that they have competed and it is natural that in this illustration the alphabet letters would be very helpful. Khaghani poetry as one of the greatest poets of this school has the perfect poetrical book of painting and meaning, and delicated pattern in new and different scientific, cultural and religious paintings and letters are a broad range of elements that put a new field in front of the poet and he is aware of the potential features of the letters and also the new images and the artistic creativity.This paper shows descriptive - analytical study of various aspects of Khaghani’s poetry and frequency of letters in the alphabet, authentic images based on alphabet, taken at different pseudo relevance of poetry in the context of multiple semantic and literal characters, making figures of speech based on literary characters, images and characters and the sense of connection . . . which has been shown in his poetry.Letter has double and even multiple uses in Khaghani poetic works (divan and more than the construction of words which is the real and common sense that is used as an artistic. There is a world in the heart of every letter, word and morpheme lies in the poet's point of view is the last and

  7. Low-Frequency Cortical Entrainment to Speech Reflects Phoneme-Level Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Liberto, Giovanni M; O'Sullivan, James A; Lalor, Edmund C

    2015-10-05

    The human ability to understand speech is underpinned by a hierarchical auditory system whose successive stages process increasingly complex attributes of the acoustic input. It has been suggested that to produce categorical speech perception, this system must elicit consistent neural responses to speech tokens (e.g., phonemes) despite variations in their acoustics. Here, using electroencephalography (EEG), we provide evidence for this categorical phoneme-level speech processing by showing that the relationship between continuous speech and neural activity is best described when that speech is represented using both low-level spectrotemporal information and categorical labeling of phonetic features. Furthermore, the mapping between phonemes and EEG becomes more discriminative for phonetic features at longer latencies, in line with what one might expect from a hierarchical system. Importantly, these effects are not seen for time-reversed speech. These findings may form the basis for future research on natural language processing in specific cohorts of interest and for broader insights into how brains transform acoustic input into meaning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Effects of noise and reverberation on speech perception and listening comprehension of children and adults in a classroom-like setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klatte, Maria; Lachmann, Thomas; Meis, Markus

    2010-01-01

    The effects of classroom noise and background speech on speech perception, measured by word-to-picture matching, and listening comprehension, measured by execution of oral instructions, were assessed in first- and third-grade children and adults in a classroom-like setting. For speech perception, in addition to noise, reverberation time (RT) was varied by conducting the experiment in two virtual classrooms with mean RT = 0.47 versus RT = 1.1 s. Children were more impaired than adults by background sounds in both speech perception and listening comprehension. Classroom noise evoked a reliable disruption in children's speech perception even under conditions of short reverberation. RT had no effect on speech perception in silence, but evoked a severe increase in the impairments due to background sounds in all age groups. For listening comprehension, impairments due to background sounds were found in the children, stronger for first- than for third-graders, whereas adults were unaffected. Compared to classroom noise, background speech had a smaller effect on speech perception, but a stronger effect on listening comprehension, remaining significant when speech perception was controlled. This indicates that background speech affects higher-order cognitive processes involved in children's comprehension. Children's ratings of the sound-induced disturbance were low overall and uncorrelated to the actual disruption, indicating that the children did not consciously realize the detrimental effects. The present results confirm earlier findings on the substantial impact of noise and reverberation on children's speech perception, and extend these to classroom-like environmental settings and listening demands closely resembling those faced by children at school.

  9. Optimizing acoustical conditions for speech intelligibility in classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Wonyoung

    High speech intelligibility is imperative in classrooms where verbal communication is critical. However, the optimal acoustical conditions to achieve a high degree of speech intelligibility have previously been investigated with inconsistent results, and practical room-acoustical solutions to optimize the acoustical conditions for speech intelligibility have not been developed. This experimental study validated auralization for speech-intelligibility testing, investigated the optimal reverberation for speech intelligibility for both normal and hearing-impaired listeners using more realistic room-acoustical models, and proposed an optimal sound-control design for speech intelligibility based on the findings. The auralization technique was used to perform subjective speech-intelligibility tests. The validation study, comparing auralization results with those of real classroom speech-intelligibility tests, found that if the room to be auralized is not very absorptive or noisy, speech-intelligibility tests using auralization are valid. The speech-intelligibility tests were done in two different auralized sound fields---approximately diffuse and non-diffuse---using the Modified Rhyme Test and both normal and hearing-impaired listeners. A hybrid room-acoustical prediction program was used throughout the work, and it and a 1/8 scale-model classroom were used to evaluate the effects of ceiling barriers and reflectors. For both subject groups, in approximately diffuse sound fields, when the speech source was closer to the listener than the noise source, the optimal reverberation time was zero. When the noise source was closer to the listener than the speech source, the optimal reverberation time was 0.4 s (with another peak at 0.0 s) with relative output power levels of the speech and noise sources SNS = 5 dB, and 0.8 s with SNS = 0 dB. In non-diffuse sound fields, when the noise source was between the speaker and the listener, the optimal reverberation time was 0.6 s with

  10. Sound frequency affects speech emotion perception: results from congenital amusia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lolli, Sydney L; Lewenstein, Ari D; Basurto, Julian; Winnik, Sean; Loui, Psyche

    2015-01-01

    Congenital amusics, or "tone-deaf" individuals, show difficulty in perceiving and producing small pitch differences. While amusia has marked effects on music perception, its impact on speech perception is less clear. Here we test the hypothesis that individual differences in pitch perception affect judgment of emotion in speech, by applying low-pass filters to spoken statements of emotional speech. A norming study was first conducted on Mechanical Turk to ensure that the intended emotions from the Macquarie Battery for Evaluation of Prosody were reliably identifiable by US English speakers. The most reliably identified emotional speech samples were used in Experiment 1, in which subjects performed a psychophysical pitch discrimination task, and an emotion identification task under low-pass and unfiltered speech conditions. Results showed a significant correlation between pitch-discrimination threshold and emotion identification accuracy for low-pass filtered speech, with amusics (defined here as those with a pitch discrimination threshold >16 Hz) performing worse than controls. This relationship with pitch discrimination was not seen in unfiltered speech conditions. Given the dissociation between low-pass filtered and unfiltered speech conditions, we inferred that amusics may be compensating for poorer pitch perception by using speech cues that are filtered out in this manipulation. To assess this potential compensation, Experiment 2 was conducted using high-pass filtered speech samples intended to isolate non-pitch cues. No significant correlation was found between pitch discrimination and emotion identification accuracy for high-pass filtered speech. Results from these experiments suggest an influence of low frequency information in identifying emotional content of speech.

  11. The influence of visual and phonological features on the hemispheric processing of hierarchical Navon letters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aiello, Marilena; Merola, Sheila; Lasaponara, Stefano; Pinto, Mario; Tomaiuolo, Francesco; Doricchi, Fabrizio

    2018-01-31

    The possibility of allocating attentional resources to the "global" shape or to the "local" details of pictorial stimuli helps visual processing. Investigations with hierarchical Navon letters, that are large "global" letters made up of small "local" ones, consistently demonstrate a right hemisphere advantage for global processing and a left hemisphere advantage for local processing. Here we investigated how the visual and phonological features of the global and local components of Navon letters influence these hemispheric advantages. In a first study in healthy participants, we contrasted the hemispheric processing of hierarchical letters with global and local items competing for response selection, to the processing of hierarchical letters in which a letter, a false-letter conveying no phonological information or a geometrical shape presented at the unattended level did not compete for response selection. In a second study, we investigated the hemispheric processing of hierarchical stimuli in which global and local letters were both visually and phonologically congruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of smaller uppercase G), visually incongruent and phonologically congruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of small lowercase g) or visually incongruent and phonologically incongruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of small lowercase or uppercase M). In a third study, we administered the same tasks to a right brain damaged patient with a lesion involving pre-striate areas engaged by global processing. The results of the first two experiments showed that the global abilities of the left hemisphere are limited because of its strong susceptibility to interference from local letters even when these are irrelevant to the task. Phonological features played a crucial role in this interference because the interference was entirely maintained also when letters at the global and local level were presented in different uppercase vs. lowercase formats. In contrast, when local features

  12. Cortical oscillations and entrainment in speech processing during working memory load

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjortkjær, Jens; Märcher-Rørsted, Jonatan; Fuglsang, Søren A

    2018-01-01

    Neuronal oscillations are thought to play an important role in working memory (WM) and speech processing. Listening to speech in real-life situations is often cognitively demanding but it is unknown whether WM load influences how auditory cortical activity synchronizes to speech features. Here, we...... developed an auditory n-back paradigm to investigate cortical entrainment to speech envelope fluctuations under different degrees of WM load. We measured the electroencephalogram, pupil dilations and behavioural performance from 22 subjects listening to continuous speech with an embedded n-back task....... The speech stimuli consisted of long spoken number sequences created to match natural speech in terms of sentence intonation, syllabic rate and phonetic content. To burden different WM functions during speech processing, listeners performed an n-back task on the speech sequences in different levels...

  13. Incidental Learning of Sound Categories is Impaired in Developmental Dyslexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabay, Yafit; Holt, Lori L.

    2015-01-01

    Developmental dyslexia is commonly thought to arise from specific phonological impairments. However, recent evidence is consistent with the possibility that phonological impairments arise as symptoms of an underlying dysfunction of procedural learning. The nature of the link between impaired procedural learning and phonological dysfunction is unresolved. Motivated by the observation that speech processing involves the acquisition of procedural category knowledge, the present study investigates the possibility that procedural learning impairment may affect phonological processing by interfering with the typical course of phonetic category learning. The present study tests this hypothesis while controlling for linguistic experience and possible speech-specific deficits by comparing auditory category learning across artificial, nonlinguistic sounds among dyslexic adults and matched controls in a specialized first-person shooter videogame that has been shown to engage procedural learning. Nonspeech auditory category learning was assessed online via within-game measures and also with a post-training task involving overt categorization of familiar and novel sound exemplars. Each measure reveals that dyslexic participants do not acquire procedural category knowledge as effectively as age- and cognitive-ability matched controls. This difference cannot be explained by differences in perceptual acuity for the sounds. Moreover, poor nonspeech category learning is associated with slower phonological processing. Whereas phonological processing impairments have been emphasized as the cause of dyslexia, the current results suggest that impaired auditory category learning, general in nature and not specific to speech signals, could contribute to phonological deficits in dyslexia with subsequent negative effects on language acquisition and reading. Implications for the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of developmental dyslexia are discussed. PMID:26409017

  14. Contributions of Emergent Literacy Skills to Name Writing, Letter Writing, and Spelling in Preschool Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.; Kim, Young-Suk

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine which emergent literacy skills contribute to preschool children’s emergent writing (name-writing, letter-writing, and spelling) skills. Emergent reading and writing tasks were administered to 296 preschool children aged 4–5 years. Print knowledge and letter-writing skills made positive contributions to name writing; whereas alphabet knowledge, print knowledge, and name writing made positive contributions to letter writing. Both name-writing and letter-writing skills made significant contributions to the prediction of spelling after controlling for age, parental education, print knowledge, phonological awareness, and letter-name and letter-sound knowledge; however, only letter-writing abilities made a significant unique contribution to the prediction of spelling when both letter-writing and name-writing skills were considered together. Name writing reflects knowledge of some letters rather than a broader knowledge of letters that may be needed to support early spelling. Children’s letter-writing skills may be a better indicator of children’s emergent literacy and developing spelling skills than are their name-writing skills at the end of the preschool year. Spelling is a developmentally complex skill beginning in preschool and includes letter writing and blending skills, print knowledge, and letter-name and letter-sound knowledge. PMID:21927537

  15. Bridging the Gap Between Speech and Language: Using Multimodal Treatment in a Child With Apraxia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tierney, Cheryl D; Pitterle, Kathleen; Kurtz, Marie; Nakhla, Mark; Todorow, Carlyn

    2016-09-01

    Childhood apraxia of speech is a neurologic speech sound disorder in which children have difficulty constructing words and sounds due to poor motor planning and coordination of the articulators required for speech sound production. We report the case of a 3-year-old boy strongly suspected to have childhood apraxia of speech at 18 months of age who used multimodal communication to facilitate language development throughout his work with a speech language pathologist. In 18 months of an intensive structured program, he exhibited atypical rapid improvement, progressing from having no intelligible speech to achieving age-appropriate articulation. We suspect that early introduction of sign language by family proved to be a highly effective form of language development, that when coupled with intensive oro-motor and speech sound therapy, resulted in rapid resolution of symptoms. Copyright © 2016 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

  16. Background Noise Degrades Central Auditory Processing in Toddlers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niemitalo-Haapola, Elina; Haapala, Sini; Jansson-Verkasalo, Eira; Kujala, Teija

    2015-01-01

    Noise, as an unwanted sound, has become one of modern society's environmental conundrums, and many children are exposed to higher noise levels than previously assumed. However, the effects of background noise on central auditory processing of toddlers, who are still acquiring language skills, have so far not been determined. The authors evaluated the effects of background noise on toddlers' speech-sound processing by recording event-related brain potentials. The hypothesis was that background noise modulates neural speech-sound encoding and degrades speech-sound discrimination. Obligatory P1 and N2 responses for standard syllables and the mismatch negativity (MMN) response for five different syllable deviants presented in a linguistic multifeature paradigm were recorded in silent and background noise conditions. The participants were 18 typically developing 22- to 26-month-old monolingual children with healthy ears. The results showed that the P1 amplitude was smaller and the N2 amplitude larger in the noisy conditions compared with the silent conditions. In the noisy condition, the MMN was absent for the intensity and vowel changes and diminished for the consonant, frequency, and vowel duration changes embedded in speech syllables. Furthermore, the frontal MMN component was attenuated in the noisy condition. However, noise had no effect on P1, N2, or MMN latencies. The results from this study suggest multiple effects of background noise on the central auditory processing of toddlers. It modulates the early stages of sound encoding and dampens neural discrimination vital for accurate speech perception. These results imply that speech processing of toddlers, who may spend long periods of daytime in noisy conditions, is vulnerable to background noise. In noisy conditions, toddlers' neural representations of some speech sounds might be weakened. Thus, special attention should be paid to acoustic conditions and background noise levels in children's daily environments

  17. An oscillopathic approach to developmental dyslexia: From genes to speech processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiménez-Bravo, Miguel; Marrero, Victoria; Benítez-Burraco, Antonio

    2017-06-30

    Developmental dyslexia is a heterogeneous condition entailing problems with reading and spelling. Several genes have been linked or associated to the disease, many of which contribute to the development and function of brain areas important for auditory and phonological processing. Nonetheless, a clear link between genes, the brain, and the symptoms of dyslexia is still pending. The goal of this paper is contributing to bridge this gap. With this aim, we have focused on how the dyslexic brain fails to process speech sounds and reading cues. We have adopted an oscillatory perspective, according to which dyslexia may result from a deficient integration of different brain rhythms during reading/spellings tasks. Moreover, we show that some candidate genes for this condition are related to brain rhythms. This fresh approach is expected to provide a better understanding of the aetiology and the clinical presentation of developmental dyslexia, but also to achieve an earlier and more accurate diagnosis of the disease. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. A comparison between the first-fit settings of two multichannel digital signal-processing strategies: music quality ratings and speech-in-noise scores.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higgins, Paul; Searchfield, Grant; Coad, Gavin

    2012-06-01

    The aim of this study was to determine which level-dependent hearing aid digital signal-processing strategy (DSP) participants preferred when listening to music and/or performing a speech-in-noise task. Two receiver-in-the-ear hearing aids were compared: one using 32-channel adaptive dynamic range optimization (ADRO) and the other wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) incorporating dual fast (4 channel) and slow (15 channel) processing. The manufacturers' first-fit settings based on participants' audiograms were used in both cases. Results were obtained from 18 participants on a quick speech-in-noise (QuickSIN; Killion, Niquette, Gudmundsen, Revit, & Banerjee, 2004) task and for 3 music listening conditions (classical, jazz, and rock). Participants preferred the quality of music and performed better at the QuickSIN task using the hearing aids with ADRO processing. A potential reason for the better performance of the ADRO hearing aids was less fluctuation in output with change in sound dynamics. ADRO processing has advantages for both music quality and speech recognition in noise over the multichannel WDRC processing that was used in the study. Further evaluations of which DSP aspects contribute to listener preference are required.

  19. On Optimal Linear Filtering of Speech for Near-End Listening Enhancement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Taal, Cees H.; Jensen, Jesper; Leijon, Arne

    2013-01-01

    In this letter the focus is on linear filtering of speech before degradation due to additive background noise. The goal is to design the filter such that the speech intelligibility index (SII) is maximized when the speech is played back in a known noisy environment. Moreover, a power constraint i...

  20. Letter and symbol identification: No evidence for letter-specific crowding mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castet, Eric; Descamps, Marine; Denis-Noël, Ambre; Colé, Pascale

    2017-09-01

    It has been proposed that letters, as opposed to symbols, trigger specialized crowding processes, boosting identification of the first and last letters of words. This hypothesis is based on evidence that single-letter accuracy as a function of within-string position has a W shape (the classic serial position function [SPF] in psycholinguistics) whereas an inverted V shape is obtained when measured with symbols. Our main goal was to test the robustness of the latter result. Our hypothesis was that any letter/symbol difference might result from short-term visual memory processes (due to the partial report [PR] procedures used in SPF studies) rather than from crowding. We therefore removed the involvement of short-term memory by precueing target-item position and compared SPFs with precueing and postcueing. Perimetric complexity was stringently matched between letters and symbols. In postcueing conditions similar to previous studies, we did not reproduce the inverted V shape for symbols: Clear-cut W shapes were observed with an overall smaller accuracy for symbols compared to letters. This letter/symbol difference was dramatically reduced in precueing conditions in keeping with our prediction. Our results are not consistent with the claim that letter strings trigger specialized crowding processes. We argue that PR procedures are not fit to isolate crowding processes.

  1. Parent-child interaction in motor speech therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Namasivayam, Aravind Kumar; Jethava, Vibhuti; Pukonen, Margit; Huynh, Anna; Goshulak, Debra; Kroll, Robert; van Lieshout, Pascal

    2018-01-01

    This study measures the reliability and sensitivity of a modified Parent-Child Interaction Observation scale (PCIOs) used to monitor the quality of parent-child interaction. The scale is part of a home-training program employed with direct motor speech intervention for children with speech sound disorders. Eighty-four preschool age children with speech sound disorders were provided either high- (2×/week/10 weeks) or low-intensity (1×/week/10 weeks) motor speech intervention. Clinicians completed the PCIOs at the beginning, middle, and end of treatment. Inter-rater reliability (Kappa scores) was determined by an independent speech-language pathologist who assessed videotaped sessions at the midpoint of the treatment block. Intervention sensitivity of the scale was evaluated using a Friedman test for each item and then followed up with Wilcoxon pairwise comparisons where appropriate. We obtained fair-to-good inter-rater reliability (Kappa = 0.33-0.64) for the PCIOs using only video-based scoring. Child-related items were more strongly influenced by differences in treatment intensity than parent-related items, where a greater number of sessions positively influenced parent learning of treatment skills and child behaviors. The adapted PCIOs is reliable and sensitive to monitor the quality of parent-child interactions in a 10-week block of motor speech intervention with adjunct home therapy. Implications for rehabilitation Parent-centered therapy is considered a cost effective method of speech and language service delivery. However, parent-centered models may be difficult to implement for treatments such as developmental motor speech interventions that require a high degree of skill and training. For children with speech sound disorders and motor speech difficulties, a translated and adapted version of the parent-child observation scale was found to be sufficiently reliable and sensitive to assess changes in the quality of the parent-child interactions during

  2. Speech, Sound and Music Processing: Embracing Research in India

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    classical music and its impact in cognitive science are the focus of discussion. Eminent scientist from the USA, Japan, Sweden, France, Poland, Taiwan, India and other European and Asian countries have delivered state-of-the-art lectures in these areas every year at different places providing an opportunity......The Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval (CMMR) 2011 conference was the 8th event of this international series, and the first that took place outside Europe. Since its beginnings in 2003, this conference has been co-organized by the Laboratoire de M´ecanique et d’Acoustique in Marseille, France......, and the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology (ad:mt), University of Aalborg, Esbjerg, Denmark, and has taken place in France, Italy, Spain, and Denmark. Historically, CMMR offers a cross-disciplinary overview of current music information retrieval and sound modeling activities and related topics...

  3. "When He's around His Brothers ... He's Not so Quiet": The Private and Public Worlds of School-Aged Children with Speech Sound Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Sharynne; Daniel, Graham; Barr, Jacqueline

    2013-01-01

    Children interact with people in context: including home, school, and in the community. Understanding children's relationships within context is important for supporting children's development. Using child-friendly methodologies, the purpose of this research was to understand the lives of children with speech sound disorder (SSD) in context.…

  4. Speech Acts and the Different Perspectives on the Meaning of “Very Sorry” in the Letter on Hainan Island Incident

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine Permata Sari

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to analyze the types of speech acts in the text and to analyze different perspectives on the meaning “very sorry” between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. The object of the study is a letter of saying sorry from the U.S. Ambassador for China Joseph Prueher to the Foreign Minister of the PRC Tang Jiaxuan on the incident in Hainan Island which caused the death of the Chinese’s pilot and the custody of the aircraft crew and the surveillance aircraft relating the emergency landing without any prior permission. The researcher employed the speech acts theory proposed by Searle (1979 as cited by Wardhaugh (2006 to analyze speech acts types and to obtain the dominant type and the implication used in the text. The strategies of apology by Cohen and Olshtain (1986 as cited by Zhang (2001 were also employed. This study is descriptive qualitative research. The result showed the biggest percentages of the types were expressive and assertive. The researcher also found the different perspectives on the meaning of “very sorry” between the US and the PRC which led into misunderstanding influenced by the culture. This research benefits the English language learners to understand the meaning of locutions which they hear and to acknowledge the culture influences society perspectives in understanding the meaning especially for non-English speakers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2017.200102

  5. Hearing speech in music.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ekström, Seth-Reino; Borg, Erik

    2011-01-01

    The masking effect of a piano composition, played at different speeds and in different octaves, on speech-perception thresholds was investigated in 15 normal-hearing and 14 moderately-hearing-impaired subjects. Running speech (just follow conversation, JFC) testing and use of hearing aids increased the everyday validity of the findings. A comparison was made with standard audiometric noises [International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA) noise and speech spectrum-filtered noise (SPN)]. All masking sounds, music or noise, were presented at the same equivalent sound level (50 dBA). The results showed a significant effect of piano performance speed and octave (Ptempo had the largest effect; and high octave and slow tempo, the smallest. Music had a lower masking effect than did ICRA noise with two or six speakers at normal vocal effort (Pmusic offers an interesting opportunity for studying masking under realistic conditions, where spectral and temporal features can be varied independently. The results have implications for composing music with vocal parts, designing acoustic environments and creating a balance between speech perception and privacy in social settings.

  6. Thinking soap But Speaking ‘oaps’. The Sound Preparation Period: Backward Calculation From Utterance to Muscle Innervation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nora Wiedenmann

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available

    In this article’s model—on speech and on speech errors, dyscoordinations, and disorders—, the time-course from the muscle innervation impetuses to the utterance of sounds as intended for canonical speech sound sequences is calculated backward. This time-course is shown as the sum of all the known physiological durations of speech sounds and speech gestures that are necessary to produce an utterance. The model introduces two internal clocks, based on positive or negative factors, representing certain physiologically-based time-courses during the sound preparation period (Lautvorspann. The use of these internal clocks show that speech gestures—like other motor activities—work according to a simple serialization principle: Under non-default conditions,
    alterations of the time-courses may cause speech errors of sound serialization, dyscoordinations of sounds as observed during first language acquisition, or speech disorders as pathological cases. These alterations of the time-course are modelled by varying the two internal-clock factors. The calculation of time-courses uses as default values the sound durations of the context-dependent Munich PHONDAT Database of Spoken German (see Appendix 4. As a new, human approach, this calculation agrees mathematically with the approach of Linear Programming / Operations Research. This work gives strong support to the fairly old suspicion (of 1908 of the famous Austrian speech error scientist Meringer [15], namely that one mostly thinks and articulates in a different serialization than is audible from one’s uttered sound sequences.

  7. Sound frequency affects speech emotion perception: Results from congenital amusia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sydney eLolli

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Congenital amusics, or tone-deaf individuals, show difficulty in perceiving and producing small pitch differences. While amusia has marked effects on music perception, its impact on speech perception is less clear. Here we test the hypothesis that individual differences in pitch perception affect judgment of emotion in speech, by applying band-pass filters to spoken statements of emotional speech. A norming study was first conducted on Mechanical Turk to ensure that the intended emotions from the Macquarie Battery for Evaluation of Prosody (MBEP were reliably identifiable by US English speakers. The most reliably identified emotional speech samples were used in in Experiment 1, in which subjects performed a psychophysical pitch discrimination task, and an emotion identification task under band-pass and unfiltered speech conditions. Results showed a significant correlation between pitch discrimination threshold and emotion identification accuracy for band-pass filtered speech, with amusics (defined here as those with a pitch discrimination threshold > 16 Hz performing worse than controls. This relationship with pitch discrimination was not seen in unfiltered speech conditions. Given the dissociation between band-pass filtered and unfiltered speech conditions, we inferred that amusics may be compensating for poorer pitch perception by using speech cues that are filtered out in this manipulation.

  8. The role of across-frequency envelope processing for speech intelligibility

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chabot-Leclerc, Alexandre; Jørgensen, Søren; Dau, Torsten

    2013-01-01

    Speech intelligibility models consist of a preprocessing part that transforms the stimuli into some internal (auditory) representation, and a decision metric that quantifies effects of transmission channel, speech interferers, and auditory processing on the speech intelligibility. Here, two recent...... speech intelligibility models, the spectro-temporal modulation index [STMI; Elhilali et al. (2003)] and the speech-based envelope power spectrum model [sEPSM; Jørgensen and Dau (2011)] were evaluated in conditions of noisy speech subjected to reverberation, and to nonlinear distortions through either...

  9. The role of across-frequency envelope processing for speech intelligibility

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chabot-Leclerc, Alexandre; Jørgensen, Søren; Dau, Torsten

    2013-01-01

    Speech intelligibility models consist of a preprocessing part that transforms the stimuli into some internal (auditory) representation, and a decision metric that quantifies effects of transmission channel, speech interferers, and auditory processing on the speech intelligibility. Here, two recent...... speech intelligibility models, the spectro-temporal modulation index (STMI; Elhilali et al., 2003) and the speech-based envelope power spectrum model (sEPSM; Jørgensen and Dau, 2011) were evaluated in conditions of noisy speech subjected to reverberation, and to nonlinear distortions through either...

  10. Validating a perceptual distraction model in a personal two-zone sound system

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rämö, Jussi; Christensen, Lasse; Bech, Søren

    2017-01-01

    This paper focuses on validating a perceptual distraction model, which aims to predict user’s perceived distraction caused by audio-on-audio interference, e.g., two competing audio sources within the same listening space. Originally, the distraction model was trained with music-on-music stimuli...... using a simple loudspeaker setup, consisting of only two loudspeakers, one for the target sound source and the other for the interfering sound source. Recently, the model was successfully validated in a complex personal sound-zone system with speech-on-music stimuli. Second round of validations were...... conducted by physically altering the sound-zone system and running a set of new listening experiments utilizing two sound zones within the sound-zone system. Thus, validating the model using a different sound-zone system with both speech-on-music and music-on-speech stimuli sets. Preliminary results show...

  11. High school music classes enhance the neural processing of speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tierney, Adam; Krizman, Jennifer; Skoe, Erika; Johnston, Kathleen; Kraus, Nina

    2013-01-01

    Should music be a priority in public education? One argument for teaching music in school is that private music instruction relates to enhanced language abilities and neural function. However, the directionality of this relationship is unclear and it is unknown whether school-based music training can produce these enhancements. Here we show that 2 years of group music classes in high school enhance the neural encoding of speech. To tease apart the relationships between music and neural function, we tested high school students participating in either music or fitness-based training. These groups were matched at the onset of training on neural timing, reading ability, and IQ. Auditory brainstem responses were collected to a synthesized speech sound presented in background noise. After 2 years of training, the neural responses of the music training group were earlier than at pre-training, while the neural timing of students in the fitness training group was unchanged. These results represent the strongest evidence to date that in-school music education can cause enhanced speech encoding. The neural benefits of musical training are, therefore, not limited to expensive private instruction early in childhood but can be elicited by cost-effective group instruction during adolescence.

  12. Disabled vs nondisabled readers: perceptual vs higher-order processing of one vs three letters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allegretti, C L; Puglisi, J T

    1986-10-01

    12 disabled and 12 nondisabled readers (mean age, 11 yr.) were compared on a letter-search task which separated perceptual processing from higher-order processing. Participants were presented a first stimulus (for 200 msec. to minimize eye movements) followed by a second stimulus immediately to estimate the amount of information initially perceived or after a 3000-msec. interval to examine information more permanently stored. Participants were required to decide whether any letter present in the first stimulus was also present in the second. Two processing loads (1 and 3 letters) were examined. Disabled readers showed more pronounced deficits when they were given very little time to process information or more information to process.

  13. Reducing the Effects of Background Noise during Auditory Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Speech Processing: Qualitative and Quantitative Comparisons between Two Image Acquisition Schemes and Noise Cancellation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blackman, Graham A.; Hall, Deborah A.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: The intense sound generated during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) complicates studies of speech and hearing. This experiment evaluated the benefits of using active noise cancellation (ANC), which attenuates the level of the scanner sound at the participant's ear by up to 35 dB around the peak at 600 Hz. Method: Speech and…

  14. Speech-specific tuning of neurons in human superior temporal gyrus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Alexander M; Dykstra, Andrew R; Jayaram, Vinay; Leonard, Matthew K; Travis, Katherine E; Gygi, Brian; Baker, Janet M; Eskandar, Emad; Hochberg, Leigh R; Halgren, Eric; Cash, Sydney S

    2014-10-01

    How the brain extracts words from auditory signals is an unanswered question. We recorded approximately 150 single and multi-units from the left anterior superior temporal gyrus of a patient during multiple auditory experiments. Against low background activity, 45% of units robustly fired to particular spoken words with little or no response to pure tones, noise-vocoded speech, or environmental sounds. Many units were tuned to complex but specific sets of phonemes, which were influenced by local context but invariant to speaker, and suppressed during self-produced speech. The firing of several units to specific visual letters was correlated with their response to the corresponding auditory phonemes, providing the first direct neural evidence for phonological recoding during reading. Maximal decoding of individual phonemes and words identities was attained using firing rates from approximately 5 neurons within 200 ms after word onset. Thus, neurons in human superior temporal gyrus use sparse spatially organized population encoding of complex acoustic-phonetic features to help recognize auditory and visual words. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  15. Ultrasound biofeedback treatment for persisting childhood apraxia of speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Preston, Jonathan L; Brick, Nickole; Landi, Nicole

    2013-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a treatment program that includes ultrasound biofeedback for children with persisting speech sound errors associated with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Six children ages 9-15 years participated in a multiple baseline experiment for 18 treatment sessions during which treatment focused on producing sequences involving lingual sounds. Children were cued to modify their tongue movements using visual feedback from real-time ultrasound images. Probe data were collected before, during, and after treatment to assess word-level accuracy for treated and untreated sound sequences. As participants reached preestablished performance criteria, new sequences were introduced into treatment. All participants met the performance criterion (80% accuracy for 2 consecutive sessions) on at least 2 treated sound sequences. Across the 6 participants, performance criterion was met for 23 of 31 treated sequences in an average of 5 sessions. Some participants showed no improvement in untreated sequences, whereas others showed generalization to untreated sequences that were phonetically similar to the treated sequences. Most gains were maintained 2 months after the end of treatment. The percentage of phonemes correct increased significantly from pretreatment to the 2-month follow-up. A treatment program including ultrasound biofeedback is a viable option for improving speech sound accuracy in children with persisting speech sound errors associated with CAS.

  16. Automated recognition of helium speech. Phase I: Investigation of microprocessor based analysis/synthesis system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jelinek, H. J.

    1986-01-01

    This is the Final Report of Electronic Design Associates on its Phase I SBIR project. The purpose of this project is to develop a method for correcting helium speech, as experienced in diver-surface communication. The goal of the Phase I study was to design, prototype, and evaluate a real time helium speech corrector system based upon digital signal processing techniques. The general approach was to develop hardware (an IBM PC board) to digitize helium speech and software (a LAMBDA computer based simulation) to translate the speech. As planned in the study proposal, this initial prototype may now be used to assess expected performance from a self contained real time system which uses an identical algorithm. The Final Report details the work carried out to produce the prototype system. Four major project tasks were: a signal processing scheme for converting helium speech to normal sounding speech was generated. The signal processing scheme was simulated on a general purpose (LAMDA) computer. Actual helium speech was supplied to the simulation and the converted speech was generated. An IBM-PC based 14 bit data Input/Output board was designed and built. A bibliography of references on speech processing was generated.

  17. Linguistic Processing of Accented Speech Across the Lifespan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandrina eCristia

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available In most of the world, people have regular exposure to multiple accents. Therefore, learning to quickly process accented speech is a prerequisite to successful communication. In this paper, we examine work on the perception of accented speech across the lifespan, from early infancy to late adulthood. Unfamiliar accents initially impair linguistic processing by infants, children, younger adults, and older adults, but listeners of all ages come to adapt to accented speech. Emergent research also goes beyond these perceptual abilities, by assessing links with production and the relative contributions of linguistic knowledge and general cognitive skills. We conclude by underlining points of convergence across ages, and the gaps left to face in future work.

  18. Electrophysiological evidence for speech-specific audiovisual integration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baart, Martijn; Stekelenburg, Jeroen J; Vroomen, Jean

    2014-01-01

    Lip-read speech is integrated with heard speech at various neural levels. Here, we investigated the extent to which lip-read induced modulations of the auditory N1 and P2 (measured with EEG) are indicative of speech-specific audiovisual integration, and we explored to what extent the ERPs were modulated by phonetic audiovisual congruency. In order to disentangle speech-specific (phonetic) integration from non-speech integration, we used Sine-Wave Speech (SWS) that was perceived as speech by half of the participants (they were in speech-mode), while the other half was in non-speech mode. Results showed that the N1 obtained with audiovisual stimuli peaked earlier than the N1 evoked by auditory-only stimuli. This lip-read induced speeding up of the N1 occurred for listeners in speech and non-speech mode. In contrast, if listeners were in speech-mode, lip-read speech also modulated the auditory P2, but not if listeners were in non-speech mode, thus revealing speech-specific audiovisual binding. Comparing ERPs for phonetically congruent audiovisual stimuli with ERPs for incongruent stimuli revealed an effect of phonetic stimulus congruency that started at ~200 ms after (in)congruence became apparent. Critically, akin to the P2 suppression, congruency effects were only observed if listeners were in speech mode, and not if they were in non-speech mode. Using identical stimuli, we thus confirm that audiovisual binding involves (partially) different neural mechanisms for sound processing in speech and non-speech mode. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  19. Audiovisual speech perception development at varying levels of perceptual processing

    OpenAIRE

    Lalonde, Kaylah; Holt, Rachael Frush

    2016-01-01

    This study used the auditory evaluation framework [Erber (1982). Auditory Training (Alexander Graham Bell Association, Washington, DC)] to characterize the influence of visual speech on audiovisual (AV) speech perception in adults and children at multiple levels of perceptual processing. Six- to eight-year-old children and adults completed auditory and AV speech perception tasks at three levels of perceptual processing (detection, discrimination, and recognition). The tasks differed in the le...

  20. The pathways for intelligible speech: multivariate and univariate perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, S; Kyong, J S; Rosen, S; Golestani, N; Warren, J E; McGettigan, C; Mourão-Miranda, J; Wise, R J S; Scott, S K

    2014-09-01

    An anterior pathway, concerned with extracting meaning from sound, has been identified in nonhuman primates. An analogous pathway has been suggested in humans, but controversy exists concerning the degree of lateralization and the precise location where responses to intelligible speech emerge. We have demonstrated that the left anterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) responds preferentially to intelligible speech (Scott SK, Blank CC, Rosen S, Wise RJS. 2000. Identification of a pathway for intelligible speech in the left temporal lobe. Brain. 123:2400-2406.). A functional magnetic resonance imaging study in Cerebral Cortex used equivalent stimuli and univariate and multivariate analyses to argue for the greater importance of bilateral posterior when compared with the left anterior STS in responding to intelligible speech (Okada K, Rong F, Venezia J, Matchin W, Hsieh IH, Saberi K, Serences JT,Hickok G. 2010. Hierarchical organization of human auditory cortex: evidence from acoustic invariance in the response to intelligible speech. 20: 2486-2495.). Here, we also replicate our original study, demonstrating that the left anterior STS exhibits the strongest univariate response and, in decoding using the bilateral temporal cortex, contains the most informative voxels showing an increased response to intelligible speech. In contrast, in classifications using local "searchlights" and a whole brain analysis, we find greater classification accuracy in posterior rather than anterior temporal regions. Thus, we show that the precise nature of the multivariate analysis used will emphasize different response profiles associated with complex sound to speech processing. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press.

  1. The role of reverberation-related binaural cues in the externalization of speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catic, Jasmina; Santurette, Sébastien; Dau, Torsten

    2015-08-01

    The perception of externalization of speech sounds was investigated with respect to the monaural and binaural cues available at the listeners' ears in a reverberant environment. Individualized binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) were used to simulate externalized sound sources via headphones. The measured BRIRs were subsequently modified such that the proportion of the response containing binaural vs monaural information was varied. Normal-hearing listeners were presented with speech sounds convolved with such modified BRIRs. Monaural reverberation cues were found to be sufficient for the externalization of a lateral sound source. In contrast, for a frontal source, an increased amount of binaural cues from reflections was required in order to obtain well externalized sound images. It was demonstrated that the interaction between the interaural cues of the direct sound and the reverberation strongly affects the perception of externalization. An analysis of the short-term binaural cues showed that the amount of fluctuations of the binaural cues corresponded well to the externalization ratings obtained in the listening tests. The results further suggested that the precedence effect is involved in the auditory processing of the dynamic binaural cues that are utilized for externalization perception.

  2. Neural overlap in processing music and speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peretz, Isabelle; Vuvan, Dominique; Lagrois, Marie-Élaine; Armony, Jorge L.

    2015-01-01

    Neural overlap in processing music and speech, as measured by the co-activation of brain regions in neuroimaging studies, may suggest that parts of the neural circuitries established for language may have been recycled during evolution for musicality, or vice versa that musicality served as a springboard for language emergence. Such a perspective has important implications for several topics of general interest besides evolutionary origins. For instance, neural overlap is an important premise for the possibility of music training to influence language acquisition and literacy. However, neural overlap in processing music and speech does not entail sharing neural circuitries. Neural separability between music and speech may occur in overlapping brain regions. In this paper, we review the evidence and outline the issues faced in interpreting such neural data, and argue that converging evidence from several methodologies is needed before neural overlap is taken as evidence of sharing. PMID:25646513

  3. Incidental learning of sound categories is impaired in developmental dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabay, Yafit; Holt, Lori L

    2015-12-01

    Developmental dyslexia is commonly thought to arise from specific phonological impairments. However, recent evidence is consistent with the possibility that phonological impairments arise as symptoms of an underlying dysfunction of procedural learning. The nature of the link between impaired procedural learning and phonological dysfunction is unresolved. Motivated by the observation that speech processing involves the acquisition of procedural category knowledge, the present study investigates the possibility that procedural learning impairment may affect phonological processing by interfering with the typical course of phonetic category learning. The present study tests this hypothesis while controlling for linguistic experience and possible speech-specific deficits by comparing auditory category learning across artificial, nonlinguistic sounds among dyslexic adults and matched controls in a specialized first-person shooter videogame that has been shown to engage procedural learning. Nonspeech auditory category learning was assessed online via within-game measures and also with a post-training task involving overt categorization of familiar and novel sound exemplars. Each measure reveals that dyslexic participants do not acquire procedural category knowledge as effectively as age- and cognitive-ability matched controls. This difference cannot be explained by differences in perceptual acuity for the sounds. Moreover, poor nonspeech category learning is associated with slower phonological processing. Whereas phonological processing impairments have been emphasized as the cause of dyslexia, the current results suggest that impaired auditory category learning, general in nature and not specific to speech signals, could contribute to phonological deficits in dyslexia with subsequent negative effects on language acquisition and reading. Implications for the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of developmental dyslexia are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

  4. Result on speech perception after conversion from Spectra® to Freedom®.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magalhães, Ana Tereza de Matos; Goffi-Gomez, Maria Valéria Schmidt; Hoshino, Ana Cristina; Tsuji, Robinson Koji; Bento, Ricardo Ferreira; Brito, Rubens

    2012-04-01

    New technology in the Freedom® speech processor for cochlear implants was developed to improve how incoming acoustic sound is processed; this applies not only for new users, but also for previous generations of cochlear implants. To identify the contribution of this technology-- the Nucleus 22®--on speech perception tests in silence and in noise, and on audiometric thresholds. A cross-sectional cohort study was undertaken. Seventeen patients were selected. The last map based on the Spectra® was revised and optimized before starting the tests. Troubleshooting was used to identify malfunction. To identify the contribution of the Freedom® technology for the Nucleus22®, auditory thresholds and speech perception tests were performed in free field in sound-proof booths. Recorded monosyllables and sentences in silence and in noise (SNR = 0dB) were presented at 60 dBSPL. The nonparametric Wilcoxon test for paired data was used to compare groups. Freedom® applied for the Nucleus22® showed a statistically significant difference in all speech perception tests and audiometric thresholds. The Freedom® technology improved the performance of speech perception and audiometric thresholds of patients with Nucleus 22®.

  5. Relative Contributions of the Dorsal vs. Ventral Speech Streams to Speech Perception are Context Dependent: a lesion study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Corianne Rogalsky

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The neural basis of speech perception has been debated for over a century. While it is generally agreed that the superior temporal lobes are critical for the perceptual analysis of speech, a major current topic is whether the motor system contributes to speech perception, with several conflicting findings attested. In a dorsal-ventral speech stream framework (Hickok & Poeppel 2007, this debate is essentially about the roles of the dorsal versus ventral speech processing streams. A major roadblock in characterizing the neuroanatomy of speech perception is task-specific effects. For example, much of the evidence for dorsal stream involvement comes from syllable discrimination type tasks, which have been found to behaviorally doubly dissociate from auditory comprehension tasks (Baker et al. 1981. Discrimination task deficits could be a result of difficulty perceiving the sounds themselves, which is the typical assumption, or it could be a result of failures in temporary maintenance of the sensory traces, or the comparison and/or the decision process. Similar complications arise in perceiving sentences: the extent of inferior frontal (i.e. dorsal stream activation during listening to sentences increases as a function of increased task demands (Love et al. 2006. Another complication is the stimulus: much evidence for dorsal stream involvement uses speech samples lacking semantic context (CVs, non-words. The present study addresses these issues in a large-scale lesion-symptom mapping study. 158 patients with focal cerebral lesions from the Mutli-site Aphasia Research Consortium underwent a structural MRI or CT scan, as well as an extensive psycholinguistic battery. Voxel-based lesion symptom mapping was used to compare the neuroanatomy involved in the following speech perception tasks with varying phonological, semantic, and task loads: (i two discrimination tasks of syllables (non-words and words, respectively, (ii two auditory comprehension tasks

  6. Barista: A Framework for Concurrent Speech Processing by USC-SAIL

    OpenAIRE

    Can, Doğan; Gibson, James; Vaz, Colin; Georgiou, Panayiotis G.; Narayanan, Shrikanth S.

    2014-01-01

    We present Barista, an open-source framework for concurrent speech processing based on the Kaldi speech recognition toolkit and the libcppa actor library. With Barista, we aim to provide an easy-to-use, extensible framework for constructing highly customizable concurrent (and/or distributed) networks for a variety of speech processing tasks. Each Barista network specifies a flow of data between simple actors, concurrent entities communicating by message passing, modeled after Kaldi tools. Lev...

  7. Binaural Processing of Multiple Sound Sources

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-08-18

    AFRL-AFOSR-VA-TR-2016-0298 Binaural Processing of Multiple Sound Sources William Yost ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY 660 S MILL AVE STE 312 TEMPE, AZ 85281...18-08-2016 2. REPORT TYPE Final Performance 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 15 Jul 2012 to 14 Jul 2016 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Binaural Processing of...three topics cited above are entirely within the scope of the AFOSR grant. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Binaural hearing, Sound Localization, Interaural signal

  8. Differential Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorders in Danish-speaking Children

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clausen, Marit Carolin; Fox-Boyer, Anette

    in selecting the right intervention approach to resolve the SSD. Different quantitative and qualitative measurements are currently used to subgroup children with SSD. A quantitative method of classifying children is by accuracy of their productions. According to this approach, the severity of children’s SSD...... and clinical decision-making about the need for intervention should not be based on the quantitative approach only. A qualitative classification approach is needed for a distinct subgrouping of children with SSD whereas PCC-A can be used as additional information about the severity of the SSD. Keywords: speech...... is classified by calculating the percentage of correctly produced consonants (i.e. percentage consonants correct, PCC-A) (Shriberg et al., 1997). Alternatively, a qualitative approach seeks to ascertain which types of phonological processes are present in children’s speech, i.e. developmental or idiosyncratic...

  9. The role of musical aptitude and language skills in preattentive duration processing in school-aged children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milovanov, Riia; Huotilainen, Minna; Esquef, Paulo A A; Alku, Paavo; Välimäki, Vesa; Tervaniemi, Mari

    2009-08-28

    We examined 10-12-year old elementary school children's ability to preattentively process sound durations in music and speech stimuli. In total, 40 children had either advanced foreign language production skills and higher musical aptitude or less advanced results in both musicality and linguistic tests. Event-related potential (ERP) recordings of the mismatch negativity (MMN) show that the duration changes in musical sounds are more prominently and accurately processed than changes in speech sounds. Moreover, children with advanced pronunciation and musicality skills displayed enhanced MMNs to duration changes in both speech and musical sounds. Thus, our study provides further evidence for the claim that musical aptitude and linguistic skills are interconnected and the musical features of the stimuli could have a preponderant role in preattentive duration processing.

  10. Results of the Sensory Profile in Children with Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newmeyer Amy J.; Grether, Sandra; Aylward, Christa; deGrauw, Ton; Akers, Rachel; Grasha, Carol; Ishikawa, Keiko; White, Jaye

    2009-01-01

    Speech-sound disorders are common in preschool-age children, and are characterized by difficulty in the planning and production of speech sounds and their combination into words and sentences. The objective of this study was to review and compare the results of the "Sensory Profile" ([Dunn, 1999]) in children with a specific type of speech-sound…

  11. Teacher candidates' mastery of phoneme-grapheme correspondence: massed versus distributed practice in teacher education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sayeski, Kristin L; Earle, Gentry A; Eslinger, R Paige; Whitenton, Jessy N

    2017-04-01

    Matching phonemes (speech sounds) to graphemes (letters and letter combinations) is an important aspect of decoding (translating print to speech) and encoding (translating speech to print). Yet, many teacher candidates do not receive explicit training in phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Difficulty with accurate phoneme production and/or lack of understanding of sound-symbol correspondence can make it challenging for teachers to (a) identify student errors on common assessments and (b) serve as a model for students when teaching beginning reading or providing remedial reading instruction. For students with dyslexia, lack of teacher proficiency in this area is particularly problematic. This study examined differences between two learning conditions (massed and distributed practice) on teacher candidates' development of phoneme-grapheme correspondence knowledge and skills. An experimental, pretest-posttest-delayed test design was employed with teacher candidates (n = 52) to compare a massed practice condition (one, 60-min session) to a distributed practice condition (four, 15-min sessions distributed over 4 weeks) for learning phonemes associated with letters and letter combinations. Participants in the distributed practice condition significantly outperformed participants in the massed practice condition on their ability to correctly produce phonemes associated with different letters and letter combinations. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.

  12. The abstract representations in speech processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cutler, Anne

    2008-11-01

    Speech processing by human listeners derives meaning from acoustic input via intermediate steps involving abstract representations of what has been heard. Recent results from several lines of research are here brought together to shed light on the nature and role of these representations. In spoken-word recognition, representations of phonological form and of conceptual content are dissociable. This follows from the independence of patterns of priming for a word's form and its meaning. The nature of the phonological-form representations is determined not only by acoustic-phonetic input but also by other sources of information, including metalinguistic knowledge. This follows from evidence that listeners can store two forms as different without showing any evidence of being able to detect the difference in question when they listen to speech. The lexical representations are in turn separate from prelexical representations, which are also abstract in nature. This follows from evidence that perceptual learning about speaker-specific phoneme realization, induced on the basis of a few words, generalizes across the whole lexicon to inform the recognition of all words containing the same phoneme. The efficiency of human speech processing has its basis in the rapid execution of operations over abstract representations.

  13. Neural overlap in processing music and speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peretz, Isabelle; Vuvan, Dominique; Lagrois, Marie-Élaine; Armony, Jorge L

    2015-03-19

    Neural overlap in processing music and speech, as measured by the co-activation of brain regions in neuroimaging studies, may suggest that parts of the neural circuitries established for language may have been recycled during evolution for musicality, or vice versa that musicality served as a springboard for language emergence. Such a perspective has important implications for several topics of general interest besides evolutionary origins. For instance, neural overlap is an important premise for the possibility of music training to influence language acquisition and literacy. However, neural overlap in processing music and speech does not entail sharing neural circuitries. Neural separability between music and speech may occur in overlapping brain regions. In this paper, we review the evidence and outline the issues faced in interpreting such neural data, and argue that converging evidence from several methodologies is needed before neural overlap is taken as evidence of sharing. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  14. Impaired Letter-String Processing in Developmental Dyslexia: What Visual-to-Phonology Code Mapping Disorder?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valdois, Sylviane; Lassus-Sangosse, Delphine; Lobier, Muriel

    2012-01-01

    Poor parallel letter-string processing in developmental dyslexia was taken as evidence of poor visual attention (VA) span, that is, a limitation of visual attentional resources that affects multi-character processing. However, the use of letter stimuli in oral report tasks was challenged on its capacity to highlight a VA span disorder. In…

  15. Speech intelligibility for normal hearing and hearing-impaired listeners in simulated room acoustic conditions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arweiler, Iris; Dau, Torsten; Poulsen, Torben

    Speech intelligibility depends on many factors such as room acoustics, the acoustical properties and location of the signal and the interferers, and the ability of the (normal and impaired) auditory system to process monaural and binaural sounds. In the present study, the effect of reverberation...... on spatial release from masking was investigated in normal hearing and hearing impaired listeners using three types of interferers: speech shaped noise, an interfering female talker and speech-modulated noise. Speech reception thresholds (SRT) were obtained in three simulated environments: a listening room......, a classroom and a church. The data from the study provide constraints for existing models of speech intelligibility prediction (based on the speech intelligibility index, SII, or the speech transmission index, STI) which have shortcomings when reverberation and/or fluctuating noise affect speech...

  16. THE ONTOGENESIS OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. E. Braudo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to acquaint the specialists, working with children having developmental disorders, with age-related norms for speech development. Many well-known linguists and psychologists studied speech ontogenesis (logogenesis. Speech is a higher mental function, which integrates many functional systems. Speech development in infants during the first months after birth is ensured by the innate hearing and emerging ability to fix the gaze on the face of an adult. Innate emotional reactions are also being developed during this period, turning into nonverbal forms of communication. At about 6 months a baby starts to pronounce some syllables; at 7–9 months – repeats various sounds combinations, pronounced by adults. At 10–11 months a baby begins to react on the words, referred to him/her. The first words usually appear at an age of 1 year; this is the start of the stage of active speech development. At this time it is acceptable, if a child confuses or rearranges sounds, distorts or misses them. By the age of 1.5 years a child begins to understand abstract explanations of adults. Significant vocabulary enlargement occurs between 2 and 3 years; grammatical structures of the language are being formed during this period (a child starts to use phrases and sentences. Preschool age (3–7 y. o. is characterized by incorrect, but steadily improving pronunciation of sounds and phonemic perception. The vocabulary increases; abstract speech and retelling are being formed. Children over 7 y. o. continue to improve grammar, writing and reading skills. The described stages may not have strict age boundaries, as soon as they are dependent not only on environment, but also on the child’s mental constitution, heredity and character.

  17. Language/Culture Modulates Brain and Gaze Processes in Audiovisual Speech Perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hisanaga, Satoko; Sekiyama, Kaoru; Igasaki, Tomohiko; Murayama, Nobuki

    2016-10-13

    Several behavioural studies have shown that the interplay between voice and face information in audiovisual speech perception is not universal. Native English speakers (ESs) are influenced by visual mouth movement to a greater degree than native Japanese speakers (JSs) when listening to speech. However, the biological basis of these group differences is unknown. Here, we demonstrate the time-varying processes of group differences in terms of event-related brain potentials (ERP) and eye gaze for audiovisual and audio-only speech perception. On a behavioural level, while congruent mouth movement shortened the ESs' response time for speech perception, the opposite effect was observed in JSs. Eye-tracking data revealed a gaze bias to the mouth for the ESs but not the JSs, especially before the audio onset. Additionally, the ERP P2 amplitude indicated that ESs processed multisensory speech more efficiently than auditory-only speech; however, the JSs exhibited the opposite pattern. Taken together, the ESs' early visual attention to the mouth was likely to promote phonetic anticipation, which was not the case for the JSs. These results clearly indicate the impact of language and/or culture on multisensory speech processing, suggesting that linguistic/cultural experiences lead to the development of unique neural systems for audiovisual speech perception.

  18. High school music classes enhance the neural processing of speech

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam eTierney

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Should music be a priority in public education? One argument for teaching music in school is that private music instruction relates to enhanced language abilities and neural function. However, the directionality of this relationship is unclear and it is unknown whether school-based music training can produce these enhancements. Here we show that two years of group music classes in high school enhance the subcortical encoding of speech. To tease apart the relationships between music and neural function, we tested high school students participating in either music or fitness-based training. These groups were matched at the onset of training on neural timing, reading ability, and IQ. Auditory brainstem responses were collected to a synthesized speech sound presented in background noise. After 2 years of training, the subcortical responses of the music training group were earlier than at pretraining, while the neural timing of students in the fitness training group was unchanged. These results represent the strongest evidence to date that in-school music education can cause enhanced speech encoding. The neural benefits of musical training are, therefore, not limited to expensive private instruction early in childhood but can be elicited by cost-effective group instruction during adolescence.

  19. Speech Intelligibility and Hearing Protector Selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-08-29

    not only affect the listener of speech communication in a noisy environment, HPDs can also affect the speaker . Tufts and Frank (2003) found that...of hearing protection on speech intelligibility in noise. Sound and Vibration . 20(10): 12-14. Berger, E. H. 1980. EARLog #4 – The

  20. [Telemonitoring of swallowing function: technologies in speech therapy practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tedesco, Angela; Lavermicocca, Valentina; Notarnicola, Marilina; De Francesco, Luca; Dellomonaco, Anna Rita

    2018-02-01

    The process of medical-healthcare technological revolution represents an advantage for the patient and for the care provider, in terms of costs and distances reduction. The telehomecare approach could be useful for monitoring the swallowing disorder in neurodegenerative diseases, preventing complications. In this study the applicability of telemedicine techniques for the monitoring of swallowing function, in patients affected by Huntington's disease (HD), was evaluated through the acquisition and analysis of the sound of swallowing. Two patients with HD were outpatient screened for dysphagia through the Bedside Swallowing Assessment Scale (BSAS) sensitized with pulse oximetry and cervical auscultation. Subsequently, the swallowing functionality was telemonitored for three months with Skype. The swallowing sounds were acquired with a detection microphone attached to the lateral edge of the trachea during fluid intake. The sounds were instantly processed and graphically represented through the Praat software. The analysis of the acoustic signal acquired remotely has made it possible to identify the situations that required immediate speech therapy intervention, suggesting to the patients further modifications of food consistencies, and saving frequent moving to the hospital even in the absence of critical situations. Remote assistance applied to speech therapy could represent a benefit for patients and their carers and a more efficient use of medical and health resources.

  1. Associations among measures of sequential processing in motor and linguistics tasks in adults with and without a family history of childhood apraxia of speech: a replication study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Button, Le; Peter, Beate; Stoel-Gammon, Carol; Raskind, Wendy H

    2013-03-01

    The purpose of this study was to address the hypothesis that childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is influenced by an underlying deficit in sequential processing that is also expressed in other modalities. In a sample of 21 adults from five multigenerational families, 11 with histories of various familial speech sound disorders, 3 biologically related adults from a family with familial CAS showed motor sequencing deficits in an alternating motor speech task. Compared with the other adults, these three participants showed deficits in tasks requiring high loads of sequential processing, including nonword imitation, nonword reading and spelling. Qualitative error analyses in real word and nonword imitations revealed group differences in phoneme sequencing errors. Motor sequencing ability was correlated with phoneme sequencing errors during real word and nonword imitation, reading and spelling. Correlations were characterized by extremely high scores in one family and extremely low scores in another. Results are consistent with a central deficit in sequential processing in CAS of familial origin.

  2. Collected Letters of José Martí: a linguistic approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guerra, Ana Jústiz

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Any approach to José Marti’s literary production should consider the study of his collected letters, which are noticeable for its content and expressive devices. This article synthesizes the criteria of former researchers who have considered Marti’s collected letters as a privileged genre among the multiple and diverse cultivated by the Apostle (speeches, dramas, essays, journal article, short stories and literary criticism. The collected letters takes a large proportion of his prolific literary production and its expressive force has been widely recognized as a source of inspiration for other poets. His collection of letters is outstanding and lasting in time for its expressive magnificence, its depth of content and precise choice of words. Originally written for a definite addressee, the letters are currently read by new generations of readers, who rediscover a new message in each. Topic considered in this article is part of a wider range study which is been prepared as Ph. D. thesis.

  3. "Non-Vocalization": A Phonological Error Process in the Speech of Severely and Profoundly Hearing Impaired Adults, from the Point of View of the Theory of Phonology as Human Behaviour

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halpern, Orly; Tobin, Yishai

    2008-01-01

    "Non-vocalization" (N-V) is a newly described phonological error process in hearing impaired speakers. In N-V the hearing impaired person actually articulates the phoneme but without producing a voice. The result is an error process looking as if it is produced but sounding as if it is omitted. N-V was discovered by video recording the speech of…

  4. Irrelevant speech does not interfere with serial recall in early blind listeners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kattner, Florian; Ellermeier, Wolfgang

    2014-01-01

    Phonological working memory is known be (a) inversely related to the duration of the items to be learned (word-length effect), and (b) impaired by the presence of irrelevant speech-like sounds (irrelevant-speech effect). As it is discussed controversially whether these memory disruptions are subject to attentional control, both effects were studied in sighted participants and in a sample of early blind individuals who are expected to be superior in selectively attending to auditory stimuli. Results show that, while performance depended on word length in both groups, irrelevant speech interfered with recall only in the sighted group, but not in blind participants. This suggests that blind listeners may be able to effectively prevent irrelevant sound from being encoded in the phonological store, presumably due to superior auditory processing. The occurrence of a word-length effect, however, implies that blind and sighted listeners are utilizing the same phonological rehearsal mechanism in order to maintain information in the phonological store.

  5. Recognizing speech in a novel accent: the motor theory of speech perception reframed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moulin-Frier, Clément; Arbib, Michael A

    2013-08-01

    The motor theory of speech perception holds that we perceive the speech of another in terms of a motor representation of that speech. However, when we have learned to recognize a foreign accent, it seems plausible that recognition of a word rarely involves reconstruction of the speech gestures of the speaker rather than the listener. To better assess the motor theory and this observation, we proceed in three stages. Part 1 places the motor theory of speech perception in a larger framework based on our earlier models of the adaptive formation of mirror neurons for grasping, and for viewing extensions of that mirror system as part of a larger system for neuro-linguistic processing, augmented by the present consideration of recognizing speech in a novel accent. Part 2 then offers a novel computational model of how a listener comes to understand the speech of someone speaking the listener's native language with a foreign accent. The core tenet of the model is that the listener uses hypotheses about the word the speaker is currently uttering to update probabilities linking the sound produced by the speaker to phonemes in the native language repertoire of the listener. This, on average, improves the recognition of later words. This model is neutral regarding the nature of the representations it uses (motor vs. auditory). It serve as a reference point for the discussion in Part 3, which proposes a dual-stream neuro-linguistic architecture to revisits claims for and against the motor theory of speech perception and the relevance of mirror neurons, and extracts some implications for the reframing of the motor theory.

  6. Correlational Analysis of Speech Intelligibility Tests and Metrics for Speech Transmission

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-12-04

    sounds, are more prone to masking than the high-energy, wide-spectrum vowels. Such contaminated speech is still audible but not clear. Thus, speech...Science; 2012 June 12–14; Kuala Lumpur ( Malaysia ): New York (NY): IEEE; c2012. p. 676–682. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. 47...ARRABITO 1 UNIV OF COLORADO (PDF) K AREHART 1 NASA (PDF) J ALLEN 1 FOOD AND DRUG ADM-DEPT (PDF) OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

  7. Plasticity in the Human Speech Motor System Drives Changes in Speech Perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lametti, Daniel R.; Rochet-Capellan, Amélie; Neufeld, Emily; Shiller, Douglas M.

    2014-01-01

    Recent studies of human speech motor learning suggest that learning is accompanied by changes in auditory perception. But what drives the perceptual change? Is it a consequence of changes in the motor system? Or is it a result of sensory inflow during learning? Here, subjects participated in a speech motor-learning task involving adaptation to altered auditory feedback and they were subsequently tested for perceptual change. In two separate experiments, involving two different auditory perceptual continua, we show that changes in the speech motor system that accompany learning drive changes in auditory speech perception. Specifically, we obtained changes in speech perception when adaptation to altered auditory feedback led to speech production that fell into the phonetic range of the speech perceptual tests. However, a similar change in perception was not observed when the auditory feedback that subjects' received during learning fell into the phonetic range of the perceptual tests. This indicates that the central motor outflow associated with vocal sensorimotor adaptation drives changes to the perceptual classification of speech sounds. PMID:25080594

  8. Filtering the Unknown: Speech Activity Detection in Heterogeneous Video Collections

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huijbregts, M.A.H.; Wooters, Chuck; Ordelman, Roeland J.F.

    2007-01-01

    In this paper we discuss the speech activity detection system that we used for detecting speech regions in the Dutch TRECVID video collection. The system is designed to filter non-speech like music or sound effects out of the signal without the use of predefined non-speech models. Because the system

  9. Speech Processing to Improve the Perception of Speech in Background Noise for Children With Auditory Processing Disorder and Typically Developing Peers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flanagan, Sheila; Zorilă, Tudor-Cătălin; Stylianou, Yannis; Moore, Brian C J

    2018-01-01

    Auditory processing disorder (APD) may be diagnosed when a child has listening difficulties but has normal audiometric thresholds. For adults with normal hearing and with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment, an algorithm called spectral shaping with dynamic range compression (SSDRC) has been shown to increase the intelligibility of speech when background noise is added after the processing. Here, we assessed the effect of such processing using 8 children with APD and 10 age-matched control children. The loudness of the processed and unprocessed sentences was matched using a loudness model. The task was to repeat back sentences produced by a female speaker when presented with either speech-shaped noise (SSN) or a male competing speaker (CS) at two signal-to-background ratios (SBRs). Speech identification was significantly better with SSDRC processing than without, for both groups. The benefit of SSDRC processing was greater for the SSN than for the CS background. For the SSN, scores were similar for the two groups at both SBRs. For the CS, the APD group performed significantly more poorly than the control group. The overall improvement produced by SSDRC processing could be useful for enhancing communication in a classroom where the teacher's voice is broadcast using a wireless system.

  10. Speech processing: from peripheral to hemispheric asymmetry of the auditory system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazard, Diane S; Collette, Jean-Louis; Perrot, Xavier

    2012-01-01

    Language processing from the cochlea to auditory association cortices shows side-dependent specificities with an apparent left hemispheric dominance. The aim of this article was to propose to nonspeech specialists a didactic review of two complementary theories about hemispheric asymmetry in speech processing. Starting from anatomico-physiological and clinical observations of auditory asymmetry and interhemispheric connections, this review then exposes behavioral (dichotic listening paradigm) as well as functional (functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography) experiments that assessed hemispheric specialization for speech processing. Even though speech at an early phonological level is regarded as being processed bilaterally, a left-hemispheric dominance exists for higher-level processing. This asymmetry may arise from a segregation of the speech signal, broken apart within nonprimary auditory areas in two distinct temporal integration windows--a fast one on the left and a slower one on the right--modeled through the asymmetric sampling in time theory or a spectro-temporal trade-off, with a higher temporal resolution in the left hemisphere and a higher spectral resolution in the right hemisphere, modeled through the spectral/temporal resolution trade-off theory. Both theories deal with the concept that lower-order tuning principles for acoustic signal might drive higher-order organization for speech processing. However, the precise nature, mechanisms, and origin of speech processing asymmetry are still being debated. Finally, an example of hemispheric asymmetry alteration, which has direct clinical implications, is given through the case of auditory aging that mixes peripheral disorder and modifications of central processing. Copyright © 2011 The American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society, Inc.

  11. Song and speech: examining the link between singing talent and speech imitation ability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markus eChristiner

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available In previous research on speech imitation, musicality and an ability to sing were isolated as the strongest indicators of good pronunciation skills in foreign languages. We, therefore, wanted to take a closer look at the nature of the ability to sing, which shares a common ground with the ability to imitate speech. This study focuses on whether good singing performance predicts good speech imitation. Fourty-one singers of different levels of proficiency were selected for the study and their ability to sing, to imitate speech, their musical talent and working memory were tested. Results indicated that singing performance is a better indicator of the ability to imitate speech than the playing of a musical instrument. A multiple regression revealed that 64 % of the speech imitation score variance could be explained by working memory together with educational background and singing performance. A second multiple regression showed that 66 % of the speech imitation variance of completely unintelligible and unfamiliar language stimuli (Hindi could be explained by working memory together with a singer’s sense of rhythm and quality of voice. This supports the idea that both vocal behaviors have a common grounding in terms of vocal and motor flexibility, ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, neural orchestration and sound memory with singing fitting better into the category of "speech" on the productive level and "music" on the acoustic level. As a result, good singers benefit from vocal and motor flexibility, productively and cognitively, in three ways. 1. Motor flexibility and the ability to sing improve language and musical function. 2. Good singers retain a certain plasticity and are open to new and unusual sound combinations during adulthood both perceptually and productively. 3. The ability to sing improves the memory span of the auditory short term memory.

  12. A Change of a Consonant Status: the Bedouinisation of the [j] Sound in the Speech of Kuwaitis: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdulmohsen A. Dashti

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available In light of sociolinguist phonological change, the following study investigates the [j] sound in the speech of Kuwaitis as the predominant form and characterizes the sedentary population which is made up of both the indigenous and non-indigenous group; while [ʤ] is the realisation of the Bedouins who are also a part of the indigenous population. Although [ʤ] is the classical variant, it has, for some time, been regarded by Kuwaitis as the stigmatized form and the [j] as the one that carries prestige. This study examines the change of status of [j] and [ʤ] in the speech of Kuwaitis. The main hypothesis is that [j] no longer carries prestige. To test this hypothesis, 40 Kuwaitis of different gender, ages, educational background, and social networks were spontaneously chosen to be interviewed. Their speech was phonetically transcribed and accordingly was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Results indicate that the [j] variant is undergoing change of status and that the social parameters and the significant political and social changes, that Kuwait has undergone recently, have triggered this linguistic shift.

  13. The Tuning of Human Neonates' Preference for Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vouloumanos, Athena; Hauser, Marc D.; Werker, Janet F.; Martin, Alia

    2010-01-01

    Human neonates prefer listening to speech compared to many nonspeech sounds, suggesting that humans are born with a bias for speech. However, neonates' preference may derive from properties of speech that are not unique but instead are shared with the vocalizations of other species. To test this, thirty neonates and sixteen 3-month-olds were…

  14. Speech-in-noise perception deficit in adults with dyslexia: effects of background type and listening configuration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dole, Marjorie; Hoen, Michel; Meunier, Fanny

    2012-06-01

    Developmental dyslexia is associated with impaired speech-in-noise perception. The goal of the present research was to further characterize this deficit in dyslexic adults. In order to specify the mechanisms and processing strategies used by adults with dyslexia during speech-in-noise perception, we explored the influence of background type, presenting single target-words against backgrounds made of cocktail party sounds, modulated speech-derived noise or stationary noise. We also evaluated the effect of three listening configurations differing in terms of the amount of spatial processing required. In a monaural condition, signal and noise were presented to the same ear while in a dichotic situation, target and concurrent sound were presented to two different ears, finally in a spatialised configuration, target and competing signals were presented as if they originated from slightly differing positions in the auditory scene. Our results confirm the presence of a speech-in-noise perception deficit in dyslexic adults, in particular when the competing signal is also speech, and when both signals are presented to the same ear, an observation potentially relating to phonological accounts of dyslexia. However, adult dyslexics demonstrated better levels of spatial release of masking than normal reading controls when the background was speech, suggesting that they are well able to rely on denoising strategies based on spatial auditory scene analysis strategies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Double Fourier analysis for Emotion Identification in Voiced Speech

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sierra-Sosa, D.; Bastidas, M.; Ortiz P, D.; Quintero, O.L.

    2016-01-01

    We propose a novel analysis alternative, based on two Fourier Transforms for emotion recognition from speech. Fourier analysis allows for display and synthesizes different signals, in terms of power spectral density distributions. A spectrogram of the voice signal is obtained performing a short time Fourier Transform with Gaussian windows, this spectrogram portraits frequency related features, such as vocal tract resonances and quasi-periodic excitations during voiced sounds. Emotions induce such characteristics in speech, which become apparent in spectrogram time-frequency distributions. Later, the signal time-frequency representation from spectrogram is considered an image, and processed through a 2-dimensional Fourier Transform in order to perform the spatial Fourier analysis from it. Finally features related with emotions in voiced speech are extracted and presented. (paper)

  16. Individual differences in speech-in-noise perception parallel neural speech processing and attention in preschoolers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Elaine C.; Carr, Kali Woodruff; White-Schwoch, Travis; Otto-Meyer, Sebastian; Kraus, Nina

    2016-01-01

    From bustling classrooms to unruly lunchrooms, school settings are noisy. To learn effectively in the unwelcome company of numerous distractions, children must clearly perceive speech in noise. In older children and adults, speech-in-noise perception is supported by sensory and cognitive processes, but the correlates underlying this critical listening skill in young children (3–5 year olds) remain undetermined. Employing a longitudinal design (two evaluations separated by ~12 months), we followed a cohort of 59 preschoolers, ages 3.0–4.9, assessing word-in-noise perception, cognitive abilities (intelligence, short-term memory, attention), and neural responses to speech. Results reveal changes in word-in-noise perception parallel changes in processing of the fundamental frequency (F0), an acoustic cue known for playing a role central to speaker identification and auditory scene analysis. Four unique developmental trajectories (speech-in-noise perception groups) confirm this relationship, in that improvements and declines in word-in-noise perception couple with enhancements and diminishments of F0 encoding, respectively. Improvements in word-in-noise perception also pair with gains in attention. Word-in-noise perception does not relate to strength of neural harmonic representation or short-term memory. These findings reinforce previously-reported roles of F0 and attention in hearing speech in noise in older children and adults, and extend this relationship to preschool children. PMID:27864051

  17. Finding the music of speech: Musical knowledge influences pitch processing in speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanden Bosch der Nederlanden, Christina M; Hannon, Erin E; Snyder, Joel S

    2015-10-01

    Few studies comparing music and language processing have adequately controlled for low-level acoustical differences, making it unclear whether differences in music and language processing arise from domain-specific knowledge, acoustic characteristics, or both. We controlled acoustic characteristics by using the speech-to-song illusion, which often results in a perceptual transformation to song after several repetitions of an utterance. Participants performed a same-different pitch discrimination task for the initial repetition (heard as speech) and the final repetition (heard as song). Better detection was observed for pitch changes that violated rather than conformed to Western musical scale structure, but only when utterances transformed to song, indicating that music-specific pitch representations were activated and influenced perception. This shows that music-specific processes can be activated when an utterance is heard as song, suggesting that the high-level status of a stimulus as either language or music can be behaviorally dissociated from low-level acoustic factors. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Sound-based assistive technology support to hearing, speaking and seeing

    CERN Document Server

    Ifukube, Tohru

    2017-01-01

    This book "Sound-based Assistive Technology" explains a technology to help speech-, hearing- and sight-impaired people. They might benefit in some way from an enhancement in their ability to recognize and produce speech or to detect sounds in their surroundings. Additionally, it is considered how sound-based assistive technology might be applied to the areas of speech recognition, speech synthesis, environmental recognition, virtual reality and robots. It is the primary focus of this book to provide an understanding of both the methodology and basic concepts of assistive technology rather than listing the variety of assistive devices developed in Japan or other countries. Although this book presents a number of different topics, they are sufficiently independent from one another that the reader may begin at any chapter without experiencing confusion. It should be acknowledged that much of the research quoted in this book was conducted in the author's laboratories both at Hokkaido University and the University...

  19. MMSE Estimator for Children’s Speech with Car and Weather Noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sayuthi, V.

    2018-04-01

    Previous research mentioned that most people need and use vehicles for various purposes, in this recent time and future, as a means of traveling. Many ways can be done in a vehicle, such as for enjoying entertainment, and doing work, so vehicles not just only as a means of traveling. In this study, we will examine the children’s speech from a girl in the vehicle that affected by noise disturbances from the sound source of car noise and the weather sound noise around it, in this case, the rainy weather noise. Vehicle sounds may be from car engine or car air conditioner. The minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimator is used as an attempt to obtain or detect the children’s clear speech by representing simulation research as random process signal that factored by the autocorrelation of both the child’s voice and the disturbance noise signal. This MMSE estimator can be considered as wiener filter as the clear sound are reconstructed again. We expected that the results of this study can help as the basis for development of entertainment or communication technology for passengers of vehicles in the future, particularly using MMSE estimators.

  20. Auditory analysis for speech recognition based on physiological models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeon, Woojay; Juang, Biing-Hwang

    2004-05-01

    To address the limitations of traditional cepstrum or LPC based front-end processing methods for automatic speech recognition, more elaborate methods based on physiological models of the human auditory system may be used to achieve more robust speech recognition in adverse environments. For this purpose, a modified version of a model of the primary auditory cortex featuring a three dimensional mapping of auditory spectra [Wang and Shamma, IEEE Trans. Speech Audio Process. 3, 382-395 (1995)] is adopted and investigated for its use as an improved front-end processing method. The study is conducted in two ways: first, by relating the model's redundant representation to traditional spectral representations and showing that the former not only encompasses information provided by the latter, but also reveals more relevant information that makes it superior in describing the identifying features of speech signals; and second, by observing the statistical features of the representation for various classes of sound to show how different identifying features manifest themselves as specific patterns on the cortical map, thereby becoming a place-coded data set on which detection theory could be applied to simulate auditory perception and cognition.

  1. Speech reception with different bilateral directional processing schemes: Influence of binaural hearing, audiometric asymmetry, and acoustic scenario.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neher, Tobias; Wagener, Kirsten C; Latzel, Matthias

    2017-09-01

    Hearing aid (HA) users can differ markedly in their benefit from directional processing (or beamforming) algorithms. The current study therefore investigated candidacy for different bilateral directional processing schemes. Groups of elderly listeners with symmetric (N = 20) or asymmetric (N = 19) hearing thresholds for frequencies below 2 kHz, a large spread in the binaural intelligibility level difference (BILD), and no difference in age, overall degree of hearing loss, or performance on a measure of selective attention took part. Aided speech reception was measured using virtual acoustics together with a simulation of a linked pair of completely occluding behind-the-ear HAs. Five processing schemes and three acoustic scenarios were used. The processing schemes differed in the tradeoff between signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement and binaural cue preservation. The acoustic scenarios consisted of a frontal target talker presented against two speech maskers from ±60° azimuth or spatially diffuse cafeteria noise. For both groups, a significant interaction between BILD, processing scheme, and acoustic scenario was found. This interaction implied that, in situations with lateral speech maskers, HA users with BILDs larger than about 2 dB profited more from preserved low-frequency binaural cues than from greater SNR improvement, whereas for smaller BILDs the opposite was true. Audiometric asymmetry reduced the influence of binaural hearing. In spatially diffuse noise, the maximal SNR improvement was generally beneficial. N 0 S π detection performance at 500 Hz predicted the benefit from low-frequency binaural cues. Together, these findings provide a basis for adapting bilateral directional processing to individual and situational influences. Further research is needed to investigate their generalizability to more realistic HA conditions (e.g., with low-frequency vent-transmitted sound). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Stuttering Frequency, Speech Rate, Speech Naturalness, and Speech Effort During the Production of Voluntary Stuttering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidow, Jason H; Grossman, Heather L; Edge, Robin L

    2018-05-01

    Voluntary stuttering techniques involve persons who stutter purposefully interjecting disfluencies into their speech. Little research has been conducted on the impact of these techniques on the speech pattern of persons who stutter. The present study examined whether changes in the frequency of voluntary stuttering accompanied changes in stuttering frequency, articulation rate, speech naturalness, and speech effort. In total, 12 persons who stutter aged 16-34 years participated. Participants read four 300-syllable passages during a control condition, and three voluntary stuttering conditions that involved attempting to produce purposeful, tension-free repetitions of initial sounds or syllables of a word for two or more repetitions (i.e., bouncing). The three voluntary stuttering conditions included bouncing on 5%, 10%, and 15% of syllables read. Friedman tests and follow-up Wilcoxon signed ranks tests were conducted for the statistical analyses. Stuttering frequency, articulation rate, and speech naturalness were significantly different between the voluntary stuttering conditions. Speech effort did not differ between the voluntary stuttering conditions. Stuttering frequency was significantly lower during the three voluntary stuttering conditions compared to the control condition, and speech effort was significantly lower during two of the three voluntary stuttering conditions compared to the control condition. Due to changes in articulation rate across the voluntary stuttering conditions, it is difficult to conclude, as has been suggested previously, that voluntary stuttering is the reason for stuttering reductions found when using voluntary stuttering techniques. Additionally, future investigations should examine different types of voluntary stuttering over an extended period of time to determine their impact on stuttering frequency, speech rate, speech naturalness, and speech effort.

  3. Task-Modulated Cortical Representations of Natural Sound Source Categories

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjortkjær, Jens; Kassuba, Tanja; Madsen, Kristoffer Hougaard

    2018-01-01

    In everyday sound environments, we recognize sound sources and events by attending to relevant aspects of an acoustic input. Evidence about the cortical mechanisms involved in extracting relevant category information from natural sounds is, however, limited to speech. Here, we used functional MRI...

  4. Post eLetter Solutions: Healthy Results for Improving Patient Communication Processes at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boulter, Rhonda

    2009-06-01

    The primary objective of the Australia Post eLetter project 1 was to determine the feasibility of using the eLetter service with the Patient Administration System Appointment Scheduling Module to provide a fully automated mailing function that would eliminate the need for manual processing of mail delivery. Issues with timely delivery of letters throughout all outpatient sites at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) have been identified as being mainly due to limited human resources being available to perform mailing duties and the like. This new desktop service enables staff to transmit data electronically in conjunction with the appointment software for large quantity mail postings to Australia Post via a secure line. Australia Post then validates the address, appends a barcode, prints the letter, envelopes it and inserts it into the mail distribution network in the state of the recipient. This article depicts the process that has eliminated the manual processing of a letter via the traditional Microsoft application, Wordmate, a system at RHH that was always difficult to use. With the introduction of eLetter, the RHH's Specialist Clinics have significantly improved the timeliness and quality of communication with patients as well as reducing administration tasks for staff.

  5. By the sound of it. An ERP investigation of human action sound processing in 7-month-old infants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena Geangu

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Recent evidence suggests that human adults perceive human action sounds as a distinct category from human vocalizations, environmental, and mechanical sounds, activating different neural networks (Engel et al., 2009; Lewis et al., 2011. Yet, little is known about the development of such specialization. Using event-related potentials (ERP, this study investigated neural correlates of 7-month-olds’ processing of human action (HA sounds in comparison to human vocalizations (HV, environmental (ENV, and mechanical (MEC sounds. Relative to the other categories, HA sounds led to increased positive amplitudes between 470 and 570 ms post-stimulus onset at left anterior temporal locations, while HV led to increased negative amplitudes at the more posterior temporal locations in both hemispheres. Collectively, human produced sounds (HA + HV led to significantly different response profiles compared to non-living sound sources (ENV + MEC at parietal and frontal locations in both hemispheres. Overall, by 7 months of age human action sounds are being differentially processed in the brain, consistent with a dichotomy for processing living versus non-living things. This provides novel evidence regarding the typical categorical processing of socially relevant sounds.

  6. Participation of the classical speech areas in auditory long-term memory.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anke Ninija Karabanov

    Full Text Available Accumulating evidence suggests that storing speech sounds requires transposing rapidly fluctuating sound waves into more easily encoded oromotor sequences. If so, then the classical speech areas in the caudalmost portion of the temporal gyrus (pSTG and in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG may be critical for performing this acoustic-oromotor transposition. We tested this proposal by applying repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS to each of these left-hemisphere loci, as well as to a nonspeech locus, while participants listened to pseudowords. After 5 minutes these stimuli were re-presented together with new ones in a recognition test. Compared to control-site stimulation, pSTG stimulation produced a highly significant increase in recognition error rate, without affecting reaction time. By contrast, IFG stimulation led only to a weak, non-significant, trend toward recognition memory impairment. Importantly, the impairment after pSTG stimulation was not due to interference with perception, since the same stimulation failed to affect pseudoword discrimination examined with short interstimulus intervals. Our findings suggest that pSTG is essential for transforming speech sounds into stored motor plans for reproducing the sound. Whether or not the IFG also plays a role in speech-sound recognition could not be determined from the present results.

  7. Participation of the classical speech areas in auditory long-term memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karabanov, Anke Ninija; Paine, Rainer; Chao, Chi Chao; Schulze, Katrin; Scott, Brian; Hallett, Mark; Mishkin, Mortimer

    2015-01-01

    Accumulating evidence suggests that storing speech sounds requires transposing rapidly fluctuating sound waves into more easily encoded oromotor sequences. If so, then the classical speech areas in the caudalmost portion of the temporal gyrus (pSTG) and in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) may be critical for performing this acoustic-oromotor transposition. We tested this proposal by applying repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to each of these left-hemisphere loci, as well as to a nonspeech locus, while participants listened to pseudowords. After 5 minutes these stimuli were re-presented together with new ones in a recognition test. Compared to control-site stimulation, pSTG stimulation produced a highly significant increase in recognition error rate, without affecting reaction time. By contrast, IFG stimulation led only to a weak, non-significant, trend toward recognition memory impairment. Importantly, the impairment after pSTG stimulation was not due to interference with perception, since the same stimulation failed to affect pseudoword discrimination examined with short interstimulus intervals. Our findings suggest that pSTG is essential for transforming speech sounds into stored motor plans for reproducing the sound. Whether or not the IFG also plays a role in speech-sound recognition could not be determined from the present results.

  8. Perception of Intersensory Synchrony in Audiovisual Speech: Not that Special

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vroomen, Jean; Stekelenburg, Jeroen J.

    2011-01-01

    Perception of intersensory temporal order is particularly difficult for (continuous) audiovisual speech, as perceivers may find it difficult to notice substantial timing differences between speech sounds and lip movements. Here we tested whether this occurs because audiovisual speech is strongly paired ("unity assumption"). Participants made…

  9. Intervention efficacy and intensity for children with speech sound disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allen, Melissa M

    2013-06-01

    Clinicians do not have an evidence base they can use to recommend optimum intervention intensity for preschool children who present with speech sound disorder (SSD). This study examined the effect of dose frequency on phonological performance and the efficacy of the multiple oppositions approach. Fifty-four preschool children with SSD were randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions. Two intervention conditions received the multiple oppositions approach either 3 times per week for 8 weeks (P3) or once weekly for 24 weeks (P1). A control (C) condition received a storybook intervention. Percentage of consonants correct (PCC) was evaluated at 8 weeks and after 24 sessions. PCC gain was examined after a 6-week maintenance period. The P3 condition had a significantly better phonological outcome than the P1 and C conditions at 8 weeks and than the P1 condition after 24 weeks. There were no significant differences between the P1 and C conditions. There was no significant difference between the P1 and P3 conditions in PCC gain during the maintenance period. Preschool children with SSD who received the multiple oppositions approach made significantly greater gains when they were provided with a more intensive dose frequency and when cumulative intervention intensity was held constant.

  10. Acoustic assessment of speech privacy curtains in two nursing units

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pope, Diana S.; Miller-Klein, Erik T.

    2016-01-01

    Hospitals have complex soundscapes that create challenges to patient care. Extraneous noise and high reverberation rates impair speech intelligibility, which leads to raised voices. In an unintended spiral, the increasing noise may result in diminished speech privacy, as people speak loudly to be heard over the din. The products available to improve hospital soundscapes include construction materials that absorb sound (acoustic ceiling tiles, carpet, wall insulation) and reduce reverberation rates. Enhanced privacy curtains are now available and offer potential for a relatively simple way to improve speech privacy and speech intelligibility by absorbing sound at the hospital patient's bedside. Acoustic assessments were performed over 2 days on two nursing units with a similar design in the same hospital. One unit was built with the 1970s’ standard hospital construction and the other was newly refurbished (2013) with sound-absorbing features. In addition, we determined the effect of an enhanced privacy curtain versus standard privacy curtains using acoustic measures of speech privacy and speech intelligibility indexes. Privacy curtains provided auditory protection for the patients. In general, that protection was increased by the use of enhanced privacy curtains. On an average, the enhanced curtain improved sound absorption from 20% to 30%; however, there was considerable variability, depending on the configuration of the rooms tested. Enhanced privacy curtains provide measureable improvement to the acoustics of patient rooms but cannot overcome larger acoustic design issues. To shorten reverberation time, additional absorption, and compact and more fragmented nursing unit floor plate shapes should be considered. PMID:26780959

  11. Acoustic assessment of speech privacy curtains in two nursing units.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pope, Diana S; Miller-Klein, Erik T

    2016-01-01

    Hospitals have complex soundscapes that create challenges to patient care. Extraneous noise and high reverberation rates impair speech intelligibility, which leads to raised voices. In an unintended spiral, the increasing noise may result in diminished speech privacy, as people speak loudly to be heard over the din. The products available to improve hospital soundscapes include construction materials that absorb sound (acoustic ceiling tiles, carpet, wall insulation) and reduce reverberation rates. Enhanced privacy curtains are now available and offer potential for a relatively simple way to improve speech privacy and speech intelligibility by absorbing sound at the hospital patient's bedside. Acoustic assessments were performed over 2 days on two nursing units with a similar design in the same hospital. One unit was built with the 1970s' standard hospital construction and the other was newly refurbished (2013) with sound-absorbing features. In addition, we determined the effect of an enhanced privacy curtain versus standard privacy curtains using acoustic measures of speech privacy and speech intelligibility indexes. Privacy curtains provided auditory protection for the patients. In general, that protection was increased by the use of enhanced privacy curtains. On an average, the enhanced curtain improved sound absorption from 20% to 30%; however, there was considerable variability, depending on the configuration of the rooms tested. Enhanced privacy curtains provide measureable improvement to the acoustics of patient rooms but cannot overcome larger acoustic design issues. To shorten reverberation time, additional absorption, and compact and more fragmented nursing unit floor plate shapes should be considered.

  12. Acoustic assessment of speech privacy curtains in two nursing units

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana S Pope

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Hospitals have complex soundscapes that create challenges to patient care. Extraneous noise and high reverberation rates impair speech intelligibility, which leads to raised voices. In an unintended spiral, the increasing noise may result in diminished speech privacy, as people speak loudly to be heard over the din. The products available to improve hospital soundscapes include construction materials that absorb sound (acoustic ceiling tiles, carpet, wall insulation and reduce reverberation rates. Enhanced privacy curtains are now available and offer potential for a relatively simple way to improve speech privacy and speech intelligibility by absorbing sound at the hospital patient′s bedside. Acoustic assessments were performed over 2 days on two nursing units with a similar design in the same hospital. One unit was built with the 1970s′ standard hospital construction and the other was newly refurbished (2013 with sound-absorbing features. In addition, we determined the effect of an enhanced privacy curtain versus standard privacy curtains using acoustic measures of speech privacy and speech intelligibility indexes. Privacy curtains provided auditory protection for the patients. In general, that protection was increased by the use of enhanced privacy curtains. On an average, the enhanced curtain improved sound absorption from 20% to 30%; however, there was considerable variability, depending on the configuration of the rooms tested. Enhanced privacy curtains provide measureable improvement to the acoustics of patient rooms but cannot overcome larger acoustic design issues. To shorten reverberation time, additional absorption, and compact and more fragmented nursing unit floor plate shapes should be considered.

  13. Amusia results in abnormal brain activity following inappropriate intonation during speech comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Cunmei; Hamm, Jeff P; Lim, Vanessa K; Kirk, Ian J; Chen, Xuhai; Yang, Yufang

    2012-01-01

    Pitch processing is a critical ability on which humans' tonal musical experience depends, and which is also of paramount importance for decoding prosody in speech. Congenital amusia refers to deficits in the ability to properly process musical pitch, and recent evidence has suggested that this musical pitch disorder may impact upon the processing of speech sounds. Here we present the first electrophysiological evidence demonstrating that individuals with amusia who speak Mandarin Chinese are impaired in classifying prosody as appropriate or inappropriate during a speech comprehension task. When presented with inappropriate prosody stimuli, control participants elicited a larger P600 and smaller N100 relative to the appropriate condition. In contrast, amusics did not show significant differences between the appropriate and inappropriate conditions in either the N100 or the P600 component. This provides further evidence that the pitch perception deficits associated with amusia may also affect intonation processing during speech comprehension in those who speak a tonal language such as Mandarin, and suggests music and language share some cognitive and neural resources.

  14. Amusia results in abnormal brain activity following inappropriate intonation during speech comprehension.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cunmei Jiang

    Full Text Available Pitch processing is a critical ability on which humans' tonal musical experience depends, and which is also of paramount importance for decoding prosody in speech. Congenital amusia refers to deficits in the ability to properly process musical pitch, and recent evidence has suggested that this musical pitch disorder may impact upon the processing of speech sounds. Here we present the first electrophysiological evidence demonstrating that individuals with amusia who speak Mandarin Chinese are impaired in classifying prosody as appropriate or inappropriate during a speech comprehension task. When presented with inappropriate prosody stimuli, control participants elicited a larger P600 and smaller N100 relative to the appropriate condition. In contrast, amusics did not show significant differences between the appropriate and inappropriate conditions in either the N100 or the P600 component. This provides further evidence that the pitch perception deficits associated with amusia may also affect intonation processing during speech comprehension in those who speak a tonal language such as Mandarin, and suggests music and language share some cognitive and neural resources.

  15. Speech parts as Poisson processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badalamenti, A F

    2001-09-01

    This paper presents evidence that six of the seven parts of speech occur in written text as Poisson processes, simple or recurring. The six major parts are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, with the interjection occurring too infrequently to support a model. The data consist of more than the first 5000 words of works by four major authors coded to label the parts of speech, as well as periods (sentence terminators). Sentence length is measured via the period and found to be normally distributed with no stochastic model identified for its occurrence. The models for all six speech parts but the noun significantly distinguish some pairs of authors and likewise for the joint use of all words types. Any one author is significantly distinguished from any other by at least one word type and sentence length very significantly distinguishes each from all others. The variety of word type use, measured by Shannon entropy, builds to about 90% of its maximum possible value. The rate constants for nouns are close to the fractions of maximum entropy achieved. This finding together with the stochastic models and the relations among them suggest that the noun may be a primitive organizer of written text.

  16. The DNA of prophetic speech

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2014-03-04

    Mar 4, 2014 ... It is expected that people will be drawn into the reality of God by authentic prophetic speech, .... strands of the DNA molecule show themselves to be arranged ... explains, chemical patterns act like the letters of a code, .... viewing the self-reflection regarding the ministry of renewal from the .... Irresistible force.

  17. Speech processing system demonstrated by positron emission tomography (PET). A review of the literature

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirano, Shigeru; Naito, Yasushi; Kojima, Hisayoshi

    1996-01-01

    We review the literature on speech processing in the central nervous system as demonstrated by positron emission tomography (PET). Activation study using PET has been proved to be a useful and non-invasive method of investigating the speech processing system in normal subjects. In speech recognition, the auditory association areas and lexico-semantic areas called Wernicke's area play important roles. Broca's area, motor areas, supplementary motor cortices and the prefrontal area have been proved to be related to speech output. Visual speech stimulation activates not only the visual association areas but also the temporal region and prefrontal area, especially in lexico-semantic processing. Higher level speech processing, such as conversation which includes auditory processing, vocalization and thinking, activates broad areas in both hemispheres. This paper also discusses problems to be resolved in the future. (author) 42 refs

  18. Speech auditory brainstem response (speech ABR) characteristics depending on recording conditions, and hearing status: an experimental parametric study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akhoun, Idrick; Moulin, Annie; Jeanvoine, Arnaud; Ménard, Mikael; Buret, François; Vollaire, Christian; Scorretti, Riccardo; Veuillet, Evelyne; Berger-Vachon, Christian; Collet, Lionel; Thai-Van, Hung

    2008-11-15

    Speech elicited auditory brainstem responses (Speech ABR) have been shown to be an objective measurement of speech processing in the brainstem. Given the simultaneous stimulation and recording, and the similarities between the recording and the speech stimulus envelope, there is a great risk of artefactual recordings. This study sought to systematically investigate the source of artefactual contamination in Speech ABR response. In a first part, we measured the sound level thresholds over which artefactual responses were obtained, for different types of transducers and experimental setup parameters. A watermelon model was used to model the human head susceptibility to electromagnetic artefact. It was found that impedances between the electrodes had a great effect on electromagnetic susceptibility and that the most prominent artefact is due to the transducer's electromagnetic leakage. The only artefact-free condition was obtained with insert-earphones shielded in a Faraday cage linked to common ground. In a second part of the study, using the previously defined artefact-free condition, we recorded speech ABR in unilateral deaf subjects and bilateral normal hearing subjects. In an additional control condition, Speech ABR was recorded with the insert-earphones used to deliver the stimulation, unplugged from the ears, so that the subjects did not perceive the stimulus. No responses were obtained from the deaf ear of unilaterally hearing impaired subjects, nor in the insert-out-of-the-ear condition in all the subjects, showing that Speech ABR reflects the functioning of the auditory pathways.

  19. Quadcopter Control Using Speech Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malik, H.; Darma, S.; Soekirno, S.

    2018-04-01

    This research reported a comparison from a success rate of speech recognition systems that used two types of databases they were existing databases and new databases, that were implemented into quadcopter as motion control. Speech recognition system was using Mel frequency cepstral coefficient method (MFCC) as feature extraction that was trained using recursive neural network method (RNN). MFCC method was one of the feature extraction methods that most used for speech recognition. This method has a success rate of 80% - 95%. Existing database was used to measure the success rate of RNN method. The new database was created using Indonesian language and then the success rate was compared with results from an existing database. Sound input from the microphone was processed on a DSP module with MFCC method to get the characteristic values. Then, the characteristic values were trained using the RNN which result was a command. The command became a control input to the single board computer (SBC) which result was the movement of the quadcopter. On SBC, we used robot operating system (ROS) as the kernel (Operating System).

  20. Childhood apraxia of speech and multiple phonological disorders in Cairo-Egyptian Arabic speaking children: language, speech, and oro-motor differences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aziz, Azza Adel; Shohdi, Sahar; Osman, Dalia Mostafa; Habib, Emad Iskander

    2010-06-01

    Childhood apraxia of speech is a neurological childhood speech-sound disorder in which the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in the absence of neuromuscular deficits. Children with childhood apraxia of speech and those with multiple phonological disorder share some common phonological errors that can be misleading in diagnosis. This study posed a question about a possible significant difference in language, speech and non-speech oral performances between children with childhood apraxia of speech, multiple phonological disorder and normal children that can be used for a differential diagnostic purpose. 30 pre-school children between the ages of 4 and 6 years served as participants. Each of these children represented one of 3 possible subject-groups: Group 1: multiple phonological disorder; Group 2: suspected cases of childhood apraxia of speech; Group 3: control group with no communication disorder. Assessment procedures included: parent interviews; testing of non-speech oral motor skills and testing of speech skills. Data showed that children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech showed significantly lower language score only in their expressive abilities. Non-speech tasks did not identify significant differences between childhood apraxia of speech and multiple phonological disorder groups except for those which required two sequential motor performances. In speech tasks, both consonant and vowel accuracy were significantly lower and inconsistent in childhood apraxia of speech group than in the multiple phonological disorder group. Syllable number, shape and sequence accuracy differed significantly in the childhood apraxia of speech group than the other two groups. In addition, children with childhood apraxia of speech showed greater difficulty in processing prosodic features indicating a clear need to address these variables for differential diagnosis and treatment of children with childhood apraxia of speech. Copyright (c

  1. Indonesian Text-To-Speech System Using Diphone Concatenative Synthesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sutarman

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we describe the design and develop a database of Indonesian diphone synthesis using speech segment of recorded voice to be converted from text to speech and save it as audio file like WAV or MP3. In designing and develop a database of Indonesian diphone there are several steps to follow; First, developed Diphone database includes: create a list of sample of words consisting of diphones organized by prioritizing looking diphone located in the middle of a word if not at the beginning or end; recording the samples of words by segmentation. ;create diphones made with a tool Diphone Studio 1.3. Second, develop system using Microsoft Visual Delphi 6.0, includes: the conversion system from the input of numbers, acronyms, words, and sentences into representations diphone. There are two kinds of conversion (process alleged in analyzing the Indonesian text-to-speech system. One is to convert the text to be sounded to phonem and two, to convert the phonem to speech. Method used in this research is called Diphone Concatenative synthesis, in which recorded sound segments are collected. Every segment consists of a diphone (2 phonems. This synthesizer may produce voice with high level of naturalness. The Indonesian Text to Speech system can differentiate special phonemes like in ‘Beda’ and ‘Bedak’ but sample of other spesific words is necessary to put into the system. This Indonesia TTS system can handle texts with abbreviation, there is the facility to add such words.

  2. Combined Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech Treatment (CAAST): effects of a novel therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wambaugh, Julie L; Wright, Sandra; Nessler, Christina; Mauszycki, Shannon C

    2014-12-01

    This investigation was designed to examine the effects of a newly developed treatment for aphasia and acquired apraxia of speech (AOS). Combined Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech Treatment (CAAST) targets language and speech production simultaneously, with treatment techniques derived from Response Elaboration Training (Kearns, 1985) and Sound Production Treatment (Wambaugh, Kalinyak-Fliszar, West, & Doyle, 1998). The purpose of this study was to determine whether CAAST was associated with positive changes in verbal language and speech production with speakers with aphasia and AOS. Four participants with chronic aphasia and AOS received CAAST applied sequentially to sets of pictures in the context of multiple baseline designs. CAAST entailed elaboration of participant-initiated utterances, with sound production training applied as needed to the elaborated productions. The dependent variables were (a) production of correct information units (CIUs; Nicholas & Brookshire, 1993) in response to experimental picture stimuli, (b) percentage of consonants correct in sentence repetition, and (c) speech intelligibility. CAAST was associated with increased CIU production in trained and untrained picture sets for all participants. Gains in sound production accuracy and speech intelligibility varied across participants; a modification of CAAST to provide additional speech production treatment may be desirable.

  3. Audio-visual speech perception in infants and toddlers with Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and Williams syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Souza, Dean; D'Souza, Hana; Johnson, Mark H; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

    2016-08-01

    Typically-developing (TD) infants can construct unified cross-modal percepts, such as a speaking face, by integrating auditory-visual (AV) information. This skill is a key building block upon which higher-level skills, such as word learning, are built. Because word learning is seriously delayed in most children with neurodevelopmental disorders, we assessed the hypothesis that this delay partly results from a deficit in integrating AV speech cues. AV speech integration has rarely been investigated in neurodevelopmental disorders, and never previously in infants. We probed for the McGurk effect, which occurs when the auditory component of one sound (/ba/) is paired with the visual component of another sound (/ga/), leading to the perception of an illusory third sound (/da/ or /tha/). We measured AV integration in 95 infants/toddlers with Down, fragile X, or Williams syndrome, whom we matched on Chronological and Mental Age to 25 TD infants. We also assessed a more basic AV perceptual ability: sensitivity to matching vs. mismatching AV speech stimuli. Infants with Williams syndrome failed to demonstrate a McGurk effect, indicating poor AV speech integration. Moreover, while the TD children discriminated between matching and mismatching AV stimuli, none of the other groups did, hinting at a basic deficit or delay in AV speech processing, which is likely to constrain subsequent language development. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Emotional sounds modulate early neural processing of emotional pictures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antje B M Gerdes

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available In our natural environment, emotional information is conveyed by converging visual and auditory information; multimodal integration is of utmost importance. In the laboratory, however, emotion researchers have mostly focused on the examination of unimodal stimuli. Few existing studies on multimodal emotion processing have focused on human communication such as the integration of facial and vocal expressions. Extending the concept of multimodality, the current study examines how the neural processing of emotional pictures is influenced by simultaneously presented sounds. Twenty pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures of complex scenes were presented to 22 healthy participants. On the critical trials these pictures were paired with pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sounds. Sound presentation started 500 ms before picture onset and each stimulus presentation lasted for 2s. EEG was recorded from 64 channels and ERP analyses focused on the picture onset. In addition, valence, and arousal ratings were obtained. Previous findings for the neural processing of emotional pictures were replicated. Specifically, unpleasant compared to neutral pictures were associated with an increased parietal P200 and a more pronounced centroparietal late positive potential (LPP, independent of the accompanying sound valence. For audiovisual stimulation, increased parietal P100 and P200 were found in response to all pictures which were accompanied by unpleasant or pleasant sounds compared to pictures with neutral sounds. Most importantly, incongruent audiovisual pairs of unpleasant pictures and pleasant sounds enhanced parietal P100 and P200 compared to pairings with congruent sounds. Taken together, the present findings indicate that emotional sounds modulate early stages of visual processing and, therefore, provide an avenue by which multimodal experience may enhance perception.

  5. Speech and Hearing Science in Ancient India--A Review of Sanskrit Literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Savithri, S. R.

    1988-01-01

    The study reviewed Sanskrit books written between 1500 BC and 1904 AD concerning diseases, speech pathology, and audiology. Details are provided of the ancient Indian system of disease classification, the classification of speech sounds, causes of speech disorders, and treatment of speech and language disorders. (DB)

  6. A Diagnostic Marker to Discriminate Childhood Apraxia of Speech from Speech Delay: III. Theoretical Coherence of the Pause Marker with Speech Processing Deficits in Childhood Apraxia of Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shriberg, Lawrence D.; Strand, Edythe A.; Fourakis, Marios; Jakielski, Kathy J.; Hall, Sheryl D.; Karlsson, Heather B.; Mabie, Heather L.; McSweeny, Jane L.; Tilkens, Christie M.; Wilson, David L.

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Previous articles in this supplement described rationale for and development of the pause marker (PM), a diagnostic marker of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), and studies supporting its validity and reliability. The present article assesses the theoretical coherence of the PM with speech processing deficits in CAS. Method: PM and other…

  7. Cross-language and second language speech perception

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bohn, Ocke-Schwen

    2017-01-01

    in cross-language and second language speech perception research: The mapping issue (the perceptual relationship of sounds of the native and the nonnative language in the mind of the native listener and the L2 learner), the perceptual and learning difficulty/ease issue (how this relationship may or may...... not cause perceptual and learning difficulty), and the plasticity issue (whether and how experience with the nonnative language affects the perceptual organization of speech sounds in the mind of L2 learners). One important general conclusion from this research is that perceptual learning is possible at all...

  8. The role of reverberation-related binaural cues in the externalization of speech

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Catic, Jasmina; Santurette, Sébastien; Dau, Torsten

    2015-01-01

    The perception of externalization of speech sounds was investigated with respect to the monaural and binaural cues available at the listeners’ ears in a reverberant environment. Individualized binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) were used to simulate externalized sound sources via headphones....... The measured BRIRs were subsequently modified such that the proportion of the response containing binaural vs monaural information was varied. Normal-hearing listeners were presented with speech sounds convolved with such modified BRIRs. Monaural reverberation cues were found to be sufficient...

  9. Training the Brain to Weight Speech Cues Differently: A Study of Finnish Second-language Users of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ylinen, Sari; Uther, Maria; Latvala, Antti; Vepsalainen, Sara; Iverson, Paul; Akahane-Yamada, Reiko; Naatanen, Risto

    2010-01-01

    Foreign-language learning is a prime example of a task that entails perceptual learning. The correct comprehension of foreign-language speech requires the correct recognition of speech sounds. The most difficult speech-sound contrasts for foreign-language learners often are the ones that have multiple phonetic cues, especially if the cues are…

  10. Current trends in multilingual speech processing

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    In this paper, we describe recent work at Idiap Research Institute in the domain of multilingual speech processing and provide some insights into emerging ... and industry for technologies to help break down domestic and international language barriers, these also being barriers to the expansion of policy and commerce.

  11. أوهَامُ السِّيرَافي في نِسْبَةِ الآراءِ إلى الفَرَّاء(دراسة صوتية Seraphic illusions in the ratio of views to the fur (study Sounds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Haidar Fakery Miran د. حيدر فخري ميران

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Acoustic study is the important factor which takes place on the basis of linguistic single building, and through two directions: first: singular sound, and the second: the sound when installation. These two sides formed the inter Arabic through a series of audio clips producing human speech. The interest in the lesson voice Arab linked directly related to the study of Arabic letters and their impact on the Koran as the voices necessary give it right and deserved in terms of output and capacity, began to search for a linguistically through extrapolation thought the voice of the Arab where letters recommended and non-recommended in poetry reading and ended up including improves reading the Qur'an and what does not improve and the latter of interesting intonation scientists.

  12. Hearing speech in music

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seth-Reino Ekström

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The masking effect of a piano composition, played at different speeds and in different octaves, on speech-perception thresholds was investigated in 15 normal-hearing and 14 moderately-hearing-impaired subjects. Running speech (just follow conversation, JFC testing and use of hearing aids increased the everyday validity of the findings. A comparison was made with standard audiometric noises [International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA noise and speech spectrum-filtered noise (SPN]. All masking sounds, music or noise, were presented at the same equivalent sound level (50 dBA. The results showed a significant effect of piano performance speed and octave (P<.01. Low octave and fast tempo had the largest effect; and high octave and slow tempo, the smallest. Music had a lower masking effect than did ICRA noise with two or six speakers at normal vocal effort (P<.01 and SPN (P<.05. Subjects with hearing loss had higher masked thresholds than the normal-hearing subjects (P<.01, but there were smaller differences between masking conditions (P<.01. It is pointed out that music offers an interesting opportunity for studying masking under realistic conditions, where spectral and temporal features can be varied independently. The results have implications for composing music with vocal parts, designing acoustic environments and creating a balance between speech perception and privacy in social settings.

  13. Comparative analysis of rhytmic abilities in children with and without speech and language disorders

    OpenAIRE

    Frangež, Mateja

    2014-01-01

    Music and speech consist of sound, acoustic undulation, and contain structural patterns of pitch, duration and magnitude. Processing both music and prosodic patterns take place in some joint neural areas, but there is also significant difference in the representation of speech and music in the brain. Music and language are markedly different in their form, function and use of syntactic structures. Complex structure and functioning of the brain enable music to expand its impact on other areas ...

  14. The pupil response is sensitive to divided attention during speech processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koelewijn, Thomas; Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara G; Zekveld, Adriana A; Kramer, Sophia E

    2014-06-01

    Dividing attention over two streams of speech strongly decreases performance compared to focusing on only one. How divided attention affects cognitive processing load as indexed with pupillometry during speech recognition has so far not been investigated. In 12 young adults the pupil response was recorded while they focused on either one or both of two sentences that were presented dichotically and masked by fluctuating noise across a range of signal-to-noise ratios. In line with previous studies, the performance decreases when processing two target sentences instead of one. Additionally, dividing attention to process two sentences caused larger pupil dilation and later peak pupil latency than processing only one. This suggests an effect of attention on cognitive processing load (pupil dilation) during speech processing in noise. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Towards parameter-free classification of sound effects in movies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chu, Selina; Narayanan, Shrikanth; Kuo, C.-C. J.

    2005-08-01

    The problem of identifying intense events via multimedia data mining in films is investigated in this work. Movies are mainly characterized by dialog, music, and sound effects. We begin our investigation with detecting interesting events through sound effects. Sound effects are neither speech nor music, but are closely associated with interesting events such as car chases and gun shots. In this work, we utilize low-level audio features including MFCC and energy to identify sound effects. It was shown in previous work that the Hidden Markov model (HMM) works well for speech/audio signals. However, this technique requires a careful choice in designing the model and choosing correct parameters. In this work, we introduce a framework that will avoid such necessity and works well with semi- and non-parametric learning algorithms.

  16. Sound stream segregation: a neuromorphic approach to solve the “cocktail party problem” in real-time

    OpenAIRE

    Thakur, Chetan Singh; Wang, Runchun M.; Afshar, Saeed; Hamilton, Tara J.; Tapson, Jonathan C.; Shamma, Shihab A.; van Schaik, André

    2015-01-01

    The human auditory system has the ability to segregate complex auditory scenes into a foreground component and a background, allowing us to listen to specific speech sounds from a mixture of sounds. Selective attention plays a crucial role in this process, colloquially known as the “cocktail party effect.” It has not been possible to build a machine that can emulate this human ability in real-time. Here, we have developed a framework for the implementation of a neuromorphic sound segregation ...

  17. Innovative Speech Reconstructive Surgery

    OpenAIRE

    Hashem Shemshadi

    2003-01-01

    Proper speech functioning in human being, depends on the precise coordination and timing balances in a series of complex neuro nuscular movements and actions. Starting from the prime organ of energy source of expelled air from respirato y system; deliver such air to trigger vocal cords; swift changes of this phonatory episode to a comprehensible sound in RESONACE and final coordination of all head and neck structures to elicit final speech in ...

  18. The relevance of visual information on learning sounds in infancy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    ter Schure, S.M.M.

    2016-01-01

    Newborn infants are sensitive to combinations of visual and auditory speech. Does this ability to match sounds and sights affect how infants learn the sounds of their native language? And are visual articulations the only type of visual information that can influence sound learning? This

  19. Processing of spatial sounds in the impaired auditory system

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arweiler, Iris

    with an intelligibility-weighted “efficiency factor” which revealed that the spectral characteristics of the ER’s caused the reduced benefit. Hearing-impaired listeners were able to utilize the ER energy as effectively as normal-hearing listeners, most likely because binaural processing was not required...... implications for speech perception models and the development of compensation strategies in future generations of hearing instruments.......Understanding speech in complex acoustic environments presents a challenge for most hearing-impaired listeners. In conditions where normal-hearing listeners effortlessly utilize spatial cues to improve speech intelligibility, hearing-impaired listeners often struggle. In this thesis, the influence...

  20. Recovering With Acquired Apraxia of Speech: The First 2 Years.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haley, Katarina L; Shafer, Jennifer N; Harmon, Tyson G; Jacks, Adam

    2016-12-01

    This study was intended to document speech recovery for 1 person with acquired apraxia of speech quantitatively and on the basis of her lived experience. The second author sustained a traumatic brain injury that resulted in acquired apraxia of speech. Over a 2-year period, she documented her recovery through 22 video-recorded monologues. We analyzed these monologues using a combination of auditory perceptual, acoustic, and qualitative methods. Recovery was evident for all quantitative variables examined. For speech sound production, the recovery was most prominent during the first 3 months, but slower improvement was evident for many months. Measures of speaking rate, fluency, and prosody changed more gradually throughout the entire period. A qualitative analysis of topics addressed in the monologues was consistent with the quantitative speech recovery and indicated a subjective dynamic relationship between accuracy and rate, an observation that several factors made speech sound production variable, and a persisting need for cognitive effort while speaking. Speech features improved over an extended time, but the recovery trajectories differed, indicating dynamic reorganization of the underlying speech production system. The relationship among speech dimensions should be examined in other cases and in population samples. The combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis methods offers advantages for understanding clinically relevant aspects of recovery.

  1. The neural basis of speech sound discrimination from infancy to adulthood

    OpenAIRE

    Partanen, Eino

    2013-01-01

    Rapid processing of speech is facilitated by neural representations of native language phonemes. However, some disorders and developmental conditions, such as developmental dyslexia, can hamper the development of these neural memory traces, leading to language delays and poor academic achievement. While the early identification of such deficits is paramount so that interventions can be started as early as possible, there is currently no systematically used ecologically valid paradigm for the ...

  2. Modeling speech intelligibility based on the signal-to-noise envelope power ratio

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Søren

    of modulation frequency selectivity in the auditory processing of sound with a decision metric for intelligibility that is based on the signal-to-noise envelope power ratio (SNRenv). The proposed speech-based envelope power spectrum model (sEPSM) is demonstrated to account for the effects of stationary...... through three commercially available mobile phones. The model successfully accounts for the performance across the phones in conditions with a stationary speech-shaped background noise, whereas deviations were observed in conditions with “Traffic” and “Pub” noise. Overall, the results of this thesis...

  3. Examining the Relationship between Letter Processing and Word Processing Skills in Deaf and Hearing Readers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guldenoglu, Birkan; Miller, Paul; Kargin, Tevhide

    2014-01-01

    The present study aimed to examine the relationship between letter processing and word processing skills in deaf and hearing readers. The participants were 105 students (51 of them hearing, 54 of them deaf) who were evenly and randomly recruited from two levels of education (primary = 3rd-4th graders; middle = 6th-7th graders). The students were…

  4. Modular and Adaptive Control of Sound Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Nort, Douglas

    This dissertation presents research into the creation of systems for the control of sound synthesis and processing. The focus differs from much of the work related to digital musical instrument design, which has rightly concentrated on the physicality of the instrument and interface: sensor design, choice of controller, feedback to performer and so on. Often times a particular choice of sound processing is made, and the resultant parameters from the physical interface are conditioned and mapped to the available sound parameters in an exploratory fashion. The main goal of the work presented here is to demonstrate the importance of the space that lies between physical interface design and the choice of sound manipulation algorithm, and to present a new framework for instrument design that strongly considers this essential part of the design process. In particular, this research takes the viewpoint that instrument designs should be considered in a musical control context, and that both control and sound dynamics must be considered in tandem. In order to achieve this holistic approach, the work presented in this dissertation assumes complementary points of view. Instrument design is first seen as a function of musical context, focusing on electroacoustic music and leading to a view on gesture that relates perceived musical intent to the dynamics of an instrumental system. The important design concept of mapping is then discussed from a theoretical and conceptual point of view, relating perceptual, systems and mathematically-oriented ways of examining the subject. This theoretical framework gives rise to a mapping design space, functional analysis of pertinent existing literature, implementations of mapping tools, instrumental control designs and several perceptual studies that explore the influence of mapping structure. Each of these reflect a high-level approach in which control structures are imposed on top of a high-dimensional space of control and sound synthesis

  5. The influence of meaning on the perception of speech sounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kazanina, Nina; Phillips, Colin; Idsardi, William

    2006-07-25

    As part of knowledge of language, an adult speaker possesses information on which sounds are used in the language and on the distribution of these sounds in a multidimensional acoustic space. However, a speaker must know not only the sound categories of his language but also the functional significance of these categories, in particular, which sound contrasts are relevant for storing words in memory and which sound contrasts are not. Using magnetoencephalographic brain recordings with speakers of Russian and Korean, we demonstrate that a speaker's perceptual space, as reflected in early auditory brain responses, is shaped not only by bottom-up analysis of the distribution of sounds in his language but also by more abstract analysis of the functional significance of those sounds.

  6. Auditory short-term memory trace formation for nonspeech and speech in SLI and dyslexia as indexed by the N100 and mismatch negativity electrophysiological responses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuomainen, Outi T

    2015-04-15

    This study investigates nonspeech and speech processing in specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia. We used a passive mismatch negativity (MMN) task to tap automatic brain responses and an active behavioural task to tap attended discrimination of nonspeech and speech sounds. Using the roving standard MMN paradigm, we varied the number of standards ('few' vs. 'many') to investigate the effect of sound repetition on N100 and MMN responses. The results revealed that the SLI group needed more repetitions than dyslexics and controls to create a strong enough sensory trace to elicit MMN. In contrast, in the behavioural task, we observed good discrimination of speech and nonspeech in all groups. The findings indicate that auditory processing deficits in SLI and dyslexia are dissociable and that memory trace formation may be implicated in SLI.

  7. Speech recognition from spectral dynamics

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Carrier nature of speech; modulation spectrum; spectral dynamics ... the relationships between phonetic values of sounds and their short-term spectral envelopes .... the number of free parameters that need to be estimated from training data.

  8. The Frame Constraint on Experimentally Elicited Speech Errors in Japanese

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saito, Akie; Inoue, Tomoyoshi

    2017-01-01

    The so-called syllable position effect in speech errors has been interpreted as reflecting constraints posed by the frame structure of a given language, which is separately operating from linguistic content during speech production. The effect refers to the phenomenon that when a speech error occurs, replaced and replacing sounds tend to be in the…

  9. Current trends in multilingual speech processing

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    2016-08-26

    ; speech-to-speech translation; language identification. ... interest owing to two strong driving forces. Firstly, technical advances in speech recognition and synthesis are posing new challenges and opportunities to researchers.

  10. Monaural and binaural benefit from early reflections for speech intelligibility

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arweiler, Iris; Buchholz, Jörg; Dau, Torsten

    2010-01-01

    The auditory system takes advantage of early reflections (ER’s) in a room by integrating them with the direct sound (DS) and thereby increasing the effective speech level. The energy, spectral content and direction of the ER’s are dependent on wall absorptions and room geometries and therefore di...... to investigate if ER processing is a monaural or binaural effect....

  11. Speech masking and cancelling and voice obscuration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holzrichter, John F.

    2013-09-10

    A non-acoustic sensor is used to measure a user's speech and then broadcasts an obscuring acoustic signal diminishing the user's vocal acoustic output intensity and/or distorting the voice sounds making them unintelligible to persons nearby. The non-acoustic sensor is positioned proximate or contacting a user's neck or head skin tissue for sensing speech production information.

  12. The Multisensory Sound Lab: Sounds You Can See and Feel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lederman, Norman; Hendricks, Paula

    1994-01-01

    A multisensory sound lab has been developed at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (District of Columbia). A special floor allows vibrations to be felt, and a spectrum analyzer displays frequencies and harmonics visually. The lab is used for science education, auditory training, speech therapy, music and dance instruction, and relaxation…

  13. The Process of Optimizing Mechanical Sound Quality in Product Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Eriksen, Kaare; Holst, Thomas

    2011-01-01

    The research field concerning optimizing product sound quality is a relatively unexplored area, and may become difficult for designers to operate in. To some degree, sound is a highly subjective parameter, which is normally targeted sound specialists. This paper describes the theoretical...... and practical background for managing a process of optimizing the mechanical sound quality in a product design by using simple tools and workshops systematically. The procedure is illustrated by a case study of a computer navigation tool (computer mouse or mouse). The process is divided into 4 phases, which...... clarify the importance of product sound, defining perceptive demands identified by users, and, finally, how to suggest mechanical principles for modification of an existing sound design. The optimized mechanical sound design is followed by tests on users of the product in its use context. The result...

  14. The mechanism of speech processing in congenital amusia: evidence from Mandarin speakers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fang Liu

    Full Text Available Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of pitch perception that causes severe problems with music processing but only subtle difficulties in speech processing. This study investigated speech processing in a group of Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia. Thirteen Mandarin amusics and thirteen matched controls participated in a set of tone and intonation perception tasks and two pitch threshold tasks. Compared with controls, amusics showed impaired performance on word discrimination in natural speech and their gliding tone analogs. They also performed worse than controls on discriminating gliding tone sequences derived from statements and questions, and showed elevated thresholds for pitch change detection and pitch direction discrimination. However, they performed as well as controls on word identification, and on statement-question identification and discrimination in natural speech. Overall, tasks that involved multiple acoustic cues to communicative meaning were not impacted by amusia. Only when the tasks relied mainly on pitch sensitivity did amusics show impaired performance compared to controls. These findings help explain why amusia only affects speech processing in subtle ways. Further studies on a larger sample of Mandarin amusics and on amusics of other language backgrounds are needed to consolidate these results.

  15. The mechanism of speech processing in congenital amusia: evidence from Mandarin speakers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Fang; Jiang, Cunmei; Thompson, William Forde; Xu, Yi; Yang, Yufang; Stewart, Lauren

    2012-01-01

    Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of pitch perception that causes severe problems with music processing but only subtle difficulties in speech processing. This study investigated speech processing in a group of Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia. Thirteen Mandarin amusics and thirteen matched controls participated in a set of tone and intonation perception tasks and two pitch threshold tasks. Compared with controls, amusics showed impaired performance on word discrimination in natural speech and their gliding tone analogs. They also performed worse than controls on discriminating gliding tone sequences derived from statements and questions, and showed elevated thresholds for pitch change detection and pitch direction discrimination. However, they performed as well as controls on word identification, and on statement-question identification and discrimination in natural speech. Overall, tasks that involved multiple acoustic cues to communicative meaning were not impacted by amusia. Only when the tasks relied mainly on pitch sensitivity did amusics show impaired performance compared to controls. These findings help explain why amusia only affects speech processing in subtle ways. Further studies on a larger sample of Mandarin amusics and on amusics of other language backgrounds are needed to consolidate these results.

  16. 12 CFR 614.4810 - Standby letters of credit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... party in the performance of an obligation. (b) As a matter of sound banking practice, banks for... 12 Banks and Banking 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Standby letters of credit. 614.4810 Section 614.4810 Banks and Banking FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION FARM CREDIT SYSTEM LOAN POLICIES AND OPERATIONS Banks...

  17. Neural Entrainment to Speech Modulates Speech Intelligibility

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Riecke, Lars; Formisano, Elia; Sorger, Bettina; Baskent, Deniz; Gaudrain, Etienne

    2018-01-01

    Speech is crucial for communication in everyday life. Speech-brain entrainment, the alignment of neural activity to the slow temporal fluctuations (envelope) of acoustic speech input, is a ubiquitous element of current theories of speech processing. Associations between speech-brain entrainment and

  18. Vocal Noise Cancellation From Respiratory Sounds

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Moussavi, Zahra

    2001-01-01

    Although background noise cancellation for speech or electrocardiographic recording is well established, however when the background noise contains vocal noises and the main signal is a breath sound...

  19. Knockdown of the dyslexia-associated gene Kiaa0319 impairs temporal responses to speech stimuli in rat primary auditory cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Centanni, T M; Booker, A B; Sloan, A M; Chen, F; Maher, B J; Carraway, R S; Khodaparast, N; Rennaker, R; LoTurco, J J; Kilgard, M P

    2014-07-01

    One in 15 school age children have dyslexia, which is characterized by phoneme-processing problems and difficulty learning to read. Dyslexia is associated with mutations in the gene KIAA0319. It is not known whether reduced expression of KIAA0319 can degrade the brain's ability to process phonemes. In the current study, we used RNA interference (RNAi) to reduce expression of Kiaa0319 (the rat homolog of the human gene KIAA0319) and evaluate the effect in a rat model of phoneme discrimination. Speech discrimination thresholds in normal rats are nearly identical to human thresholds. We recorded multiunit neural responses to isolated speech sounds in primary auditory cortex (A1) of rats that received in utero RNAi of Kiaa0319. Reduced expression of Kiaa0319 increased the trial-by-trial variability of speech responses and reduced the neural discrimination ability of speech sounds. Intracellular recordings from affected neurons revealed that reduced expression of Kiaa0319 increased neural excitability and input resistance. These results provide the first evidence that decreased expression of the dyslexia-associated gene Kiaa0319 can alter cortical responses and impair phoneme processing in auditory cortex. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  20. Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for early and automatic detection of phonological equivalence in variable speech inputs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kharlamov, Viktor; Campbell, Kenneth; Kazanina, Nina

    2011-11-01

    Speech sounds are not always perceived in accordance with their acoustic-phonetic content. For example, an early and automatic process of perceptual repair, which ensures conformity of speech inputs to the listener's native language phonology, applies to individual input segments that do not exist in the native inventory or to sound sequences that are illicit according to the native phonotactic restrictions on sound co-occurrences. The present study with Russian and Canadian English speakers shows that listeners may perceive phonetically distinct and licit sound sequences as equivalent when the native language system provides robust evidence for mapping multiple phonetic forms onto a single phonological representation. In Russian, due to an optional but productive t-deletion process that affects /stn/ clusters, the surface forms [sn] and [stn] may be phonologically equivalent and map to a single phonological form /stn/. In contrast, [sn] and [stn] clusters are usually phonologically distinct in (Canadian) English. Behavioral data from identification and discrimination tasks indicated that [sn] and [stn] clusters were more confusable for Russian than for English speakers. The EEG experiment employed an oddball paradigm with nonwords [asna] and [astna] used as the standard and deviant stimuli. A reliable mismatch negativity response was elicited approximately 100 msec postchange in the English group but not in the Russian group. These findings point to a perceptual repair mechanism that is engaged automatically at a prelexical level to ensure immediate encoding of speech inputs in phonological terms, which in turn enables efficient access to the meaning of a spoken utterance.

  1. Context effects on processing widely deviant sounds in newborn infants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gábor Péter Háden

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Detecting and orienting towards sounds carrying new information is a crucial feature of the human brain that supports adaptation to the environment. Rare, acoustically widely deviant sounds presented amongst frequent tones elicit large event related brain potentials (ERPs in neonates. Here we tested whether these discriminative ERP responses reflect only the activation of fresh afferent neuronal populations (i.e., neuronal circuits not affected by the tones or they also index the processing of contextual mismatch between the rare and the frequent sounds.In two separate experiments, we presented sleeping newborns with 150 different environmental sounds and the same number of white noise bursts. Both sounds served either as deviants in an oddball paradigm with the frequent standard stimulus a tone (Novel/Noise deviant, or as the standard stimulus with the tone as deviant (Novel/Noise standard, or they were delivered alone with the same timing as the deviants in the oddball condition (Novel/Noise alone.Whereas the ERP responses to noise–deviants elicited similar responses as the same sound presented alone, the responses elicited by environmental sounds in the corresponding conditions morphologically differed from each other. Thus whereas the ERP response to the noise sounds can be explained by the different refractory state of stimulus specific neuronal populations, the ERP response to environmental sounds indicated context sensitive processing. These results provide evidence for an innate tendency of context dependent auditory processing as well as a basis for the different developmental trajectories of processing acoustical deviance and contextual novelty.

  2. Stop consonant voicing in young children's speech: Evidence from a cross-sectional study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganser, Emily

    There are intuitive reasons to believe that speech-sound acquisition and language acquisition should be related in development. Surprisingly, only recently has research begun to parse just how the two might be related. This study investigated possible correlations between speech-sound acquisition and language acquisition, as part of a large-scale, longitudinal study of the relationship between different types of phonological development and vocabulary growth in the preschool years. Productions of voiced and voiceless stop-initial words were recorded from 96 children aged 28-39 months. Voice Onset Time (VOT, in ms) for each token context was calculated. A mixed-model logistic regression was calculated which predicted whether the sound was intended to be voiced or voiceless based on its VOT. This model estimated the slopes of the logistic function for each child. This slope was referred to as Robustness of Contrast (based on Holliday, Reidy, Beckman, and Edwards, 2015), defined as being the degree of categorical differentiation between the production of two speech sounds or classes of sounds, in this case, voiced and voiceless stops. Results showed a wide range of slopes for individual children, suggesting that slope-derived Robustness of Contrast could be a viable means of measuring a child's acquisition of the voicing contrast. Robustness of Contrast was then compared to traditional measures of speech and language skills to investigate whether there was any correlation between the production of stop voicing and broader measures of speech and language development. The Robustness of Contrast measure was found to correlate with all individual measures of speech and language, suggesting that it might indeed be predictive of later language skills.

  3. Using ILD or ITD Cues for Sound Source Localization and Speech Understanding in a Complex Listening Environment by Listeners with Bilateral and with Hearing-Preservation Cochlear Implants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loiselle, Louise H.; Dorman, Michael F.; Yost, William A.; Cook, Sarah J.; Gifford, Rene H.

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: To assess the role of interaural time differences and interaural level differences in (a) sound-source localization, and (b) speech understanding in a cocktail party listening environment for listeners with bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) and for listeners with hearing-preservation CIs. Methods: Eleven bilateral listeners with MED-EL…

  4. Bimodal bilingualism as multisensory training?: Evidence for improved audiovisual speech perception after sign language exposure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Joshua T; Darcy, Isabelle; Newman, Sharlene D

    2016-02-15

    The aim of the present study was to characterize effects of learning a sign language on the processing of a spoken language. Specifically, audiovisual phoneme comprehension was assessed before and after 13 weeks of sign language exposure. L2 ASL learners performed this task in the fMRI scanner. Results indicated that L2 American Sign Language (ASL) learners' behavioral classification of the speech sounds improved with time compared to hearing nonsigners. Results indicated increased activation in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) after sign language exposure, which suggests concomitant increased phonological processing of speech. A multiple regression analysis indicated that learner's rating on co-sign speech use and lipreading ability was correlated with SMG activation. This pattern of results indicates that the increased use of mouthing and possibly lipreading during sign language acquisition may concurrently improve audiovisual speech processing in budding hearing bimodal bilinguals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. [Modeling developmental aspects of sensorimotor control of speech production].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kröger, B J; Birkholz, P; Neuschaefer-Rube, C

    2007-05-01

    Detailed knowledge of the neurophysiology of speech acquisition is important for understanding the developmental aspects of speech perception and production and for understanding developmental disorders of speech perception and production. A computer implemented neural model of sensorimotor control of speech production was developed. The model is capable of demonstrating the neural functions of different cortical areas during speech production in detail. (i) Two sensory and two motor maps or neural representations and the appertaining neural mappings or projections establish the sensorimotor feedback control system. These maps and mappings are already formed and trained during the prelinguistic phase of speech acquisition. (ii) The feedforward sensorimotor control system comprises the lexical map (representations of sounds, syllables, and words of the first language) and the mappings from lexical to sensory and to motor maps. The training of the appertaining mappings form the linguistic phase of speech acquisition. (iii) Three prelinguistic learning phases--i. e. silent mouthing, quasi stationary vocalic articulation, and realisation of articulatory protogestures--can be defined on the basis of our simulation studies using the computational neural model. These learning phases can be associated with temporal phases of prelinguistic speech acquisition obtained from natural data. The neural model illuminates the detailed function of specific cortical areas during speech production. In particular it can be shown that developmental disorders of speech production may result from a delayed or incorrect process within one of the prelinguistic learning phases defined by the neural model.

  6. Environmental Sound Training in Cochlear Implant Users

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shafiro, Valeriy; Sheft, Stanley; Kuvadia, Sejal; Gygi, Brian

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: The study investigated the effect of a short computer-based environmental sound training regimen on the perception of environmental sounds and speech in experienced cochlear implant (CI) patients. Method: Fourteen CI patients with the average of 5 years of CI experience participated. The protocol consisted of 2 pretests, 1 week apart,…

  7. Auditory feedback perturbation in children with developmental speech disorders

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Terband, H.R.; van Brenk, F.J.; van Doornik-van der Zee, J.C.

    2014-01-01

    Background/purpose: Several studies indicate a close relation between auditory and speech motor functions in children with speech sound disorders (SSD). The aim of this study was to investigate the ability to compensate and adapt for perturbed auditory feedback in children with SSD compared to

  8. Letters on nuclear controversy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kafka, P.; Maier-Leibnitz, H.

    1982-01-01

    Heinz Maier-Leibnitz a well-known scientist, nuclear physicist, for 50 years, who publicily supported the idea not to overrate the dangers of peaceful utilization of nuclear energy, has grown tired of talking only to colleagues. He invites a junior fellow physicist, who held engaged speeches against the nuclear power plant Zwentendorf, to an exchange of thoughts. Peter Kafka, an astro-physicist studied the self organisation of the universe from the big bang to the economic crisis and encountered the question of which conditions have to be fulfilled to prevent progress from becoming caranogenous. He became one of the spokesmen of 'political ecology' and called for resistance again large-scale technological use of scientific knowledge. He was enthusiastic about the idea of an exchange of letters, because he - just like his partner - believes in gaining knowledge by discussion. The variety of subjects is sketched briefly in form of three lectures. In the letters both scientists discuss intensly about: - Freedom of science and responsibility of science. - Decisions on energy questions under time-pressure. - Risks of nuclear plants. - Large scale technology and large-scale research or decentralization. - Energy utilization and energy waste. - Nuclear energy and alternatives. - Sense and nonsense of detailed future planning. In the end no one has convinced the other. The reader however finds a lot of new incentives in the letters - printed in unabridged form - a lot of new and significant arguments for a discussion which has only just started. (orig.) [de

  9. Noise-Robust Monitoring of Lombard Speech Using a Wireless Neck-surface Accelerometer and Microphone

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-08-20

    simultaneously powered via USB and battery. The system contains a small receiver that is equipped with the same Bluetooth module as the transmitter (BC127...G. R., “Subglottal impedance-based inverse filtering of voiced sounds using neck surface acceleration,” IEEE Trans. Audio Speech Lang. Processing

  10. Noise and pitch interact during the cortical segregation of concurrent speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bidelman, Gavin M; Yellamsetty, Anusha

    2017-08-01

    Behavioral studies reveal listeners exploit intrinsic differences in voice fundamental frequency (F0) to segregate concurrent speech sounds-the so-called "F0-benefit." More favorable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the environment, an extrinsic acoustic factor, similarly benefits the parsing of simultaneous speech. Here, we examined the neurobiological substrates of these two cues in the perceptual segregation of concurrent speech mixtures. We recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while listeners performed a speeded double-vowel identification task. Listeners heard two concurrent vowels whose F0 differed by zero or four semitones presented in either clean (no noise) or noise-degraded (+5 dB SNR) conditions. Behaviorally, listeners were more accurate in correctly identifying both vowels for larger F0 separations but F0-benefit was more pronounced at more favorable SNRs (i.e., pitch × SNR interaction). Analysis of the ERPs revealed that only the P2 wave (∼200 ms) showed a similar F0 x SNR interaction as behavior and was correlated with listeners' perceptual F0-benefit. Neural classifiers applied to the ERPs further suggested that speech sounds are segregated neurally within 200 ms based on SNR whereas segregation based on pitch occurs later in time (400-700 ms). The earlier timing of extrinsic SNR compared to intrinsic F0-based segregation implies that the cortical extraction of speech from noise is more efficient than differentiating speech based on pitch cues alone, which may recruit additional cortical processes. Findings indicate that noise and pitch differences interact relatively early in cerebral cortex and that the brain arrives at the identities of concurrent speech mixtures as early as ∼200 ms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Evaluation of Sound Quality, Boominess and Boxiness in Small Rooms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Weisser, Adam; Rindel, Jens Holger

    2006-01-01

    ratings. The classical bass ratio definitions showed poor correlation with all subjective ratings. The overall sound quality ratings gave different results for speech and music. For speech the preferred mean RT should be as low as possible, whereas for music there was found a preferred range between 0......The acoustics of small rooms has been studied with emphasis on sound quality, boominess and boxiness when the rooms are used for speech or music. Seven rooms with very different characteristics have been used for the study. Subjective listening tests were made using binaural recordings...... of reproduced speech and music. The test results were compared with a large number of objective acoustic parameters based on the frequency-dependent reverberation times measured in the rooms. This has led to the proposal of three new acoustic parameters, which have shown high correlation with the subjective...

  12. A multigenerational family study of oral and hand motor sequencing ability provides evidence for a familial speech sound disorder subtype

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peter, Beate; Raskind, Wendy H.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose To evaluate phenotypic expressions of speech sound disorder (SSD) in multigenerational families with evidence of familial forms of SSD. Method Members of five multigenerational families (N = 36) produced rapid sequences of monosyllables and disyllables and tapped computer keys with repetitive and alternating movements. Results Measures of repetitive and alternating motor speed were correlated within and between the two motor systems. Repetitive and alternating motor speeds increased in children and decreased in adults as a function of age. In two families with children who had severe speech deficits consistent with disrupted praxis, slowed alternating, but not repetitive, oral movements characterized most of the affected children and adults with a history of SSD, and slowed alternating hand movements were seen in some of the biologically related participants as well. Conclusion Results are consistent with a familial motor-based SSD subtype with incomplete penetrance, motivating new clinical questions about motor-based intervention not only in the oral but also the limb system. PMID:21909176

  13. Tipos de erros de fala em crianças com transtorno fonológico em função do histórico de otite média Speech errors in children with speech sound disorders according to otitis media history

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haydée Fiszbein Wertzner

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Descrever os índices articulatórios quanto aos diferentes tipos de erros e verificar a existência de um tipo de erro preferencial em crianças com transtorno fonológico, em função da presença ou não de histórico de otite média. MÉTODOS: Participaram deste estudo prospectivo e transversal, 21 sujeitos com idade entre 5 anos e 2 meses e 7 anos e 9 meses com diagnóstico de transtorno fonológico. Os sujeitos foram agrupados de acordo com a presença do histórico otite média. O grupo experimental 1 (GE1 foi composto por 14 sujeitos com histórico de otite média e o grupo experimental 2 (GE2 por sete sujeitos que não apresentaram histórico de otite média. Foram calculadas a quantidade de erros de fala (distorções, omissões e substituições e os índices articulatórios. Os dados foram submetidos à análise estatística. RESULTADOS: Os grupos GE1 e GE2 diferiram quanto ao desempenho nos índices na comparação entre as duas provas de fonologia aplicadas. Observou-se em todas as análises que os índices que avaliam as substituições indicaram o tipo de erro mais cometido pelas crianças com transtorno fonológico. CONCLUSÃO: Os índices foram efetivos na indicação da substituição como o erro mais ocorrente em crianças com TF. A maior ocorrência de erros de fala observada na nomeação de figuras em crianças com histórico de otite média indica que tais erros, possivelmente, estão associados à dificuldade na representação fonológica causada pela perda auditiva transitória que vivenciaram.PURPOSE: To describe articulatory indexes for the different speech errors and to verify the existence of a preferred type of error in children with speech sound disorder, according to the presence or absence of otitis media history. METHODS: Participants in this prospective and cross-sectional study were 21 subjects aged between 5 years and 2 months and 7 years and 9 months with speech sound disorder. Subjects were

  14. Tutorial: Speech Assessment for Multilingual Children Who Do Not Speak the Same Language(s) as the Speech-Language Pathologist.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Sharynne; Verdon, Sarah

    2017-08-15

    The aim of this tutorial is to support speech-language pathologists (SLPs) undertaking assessments of multilingual children with suspected speech sound disorders, particularly children who speak languages that are not shared with their SLP. The tutorial was written by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech, which comprises 46 researchers (SLPs, linguists, phoneticians, and speech scientists) who have worked in 43 countries and used 27 languages in professional practice. Seventeen panel members met for a 1-day workshop to identify key points for inclusion in the tutorial, 26 panel members contributed to writing this tutorial, and 34 members contributed to revising this tutorial online (some members contributed to more than 1 task). This tutorial draws on international research evidence and professional expertise to provide a comprehensive overview of working with multilingual children with suspected speech sound disorders. This overview addresses referral, case history, assessment, analysis, diagnosis, and goal setting and the SLP's cultural competence and preparation for working with interpreters and multicultural support workers and dealing with organizational and government barriers to and facilitators of culturally competent practice. The issues raised in this tutorial are applied in a hypothetical case study of an English-speaking SLP's assessment of a multilingual Cantonese- and English-speaking 4-year-old boy. Resources are listed throughout the tutorial.

  15. Why the Left Hemisphere Is Dominant for Speech Production: Connecting the Dots

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harvey Martin Sussman

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Evidence from seemingly disparate areas of speech/language research is reviewed to form a unified theoretical account for why the left hemisphere is specialized for speech production. Research findings from studies investigating hemispheric lateralization of infant babbling, the primacy of the syllable in phonological structure, rhyming performance in split-brain patients, rhyming ability and phonetic categorization in children diagnosed with developmental apraxia of speech, rules governing exchange errors in spoonerisms, organizational principles of neocortical control of learned motor behaviors, and multi-electrode recordings of human neuronal responses to speech sounds are described and common threads highlighted. It is suggested that the emergence, in developmental neurogenesis, of a hard-wired, syllabically-organized, neural substrate representing the phonemic sound elements of one’s language, particularly the vocalic nucleus, is the crucial factor underlying the left hemisphere’s dominance for speech production.

  16. Sound production treatment for acquired apraxia of speech: Effects of blocked and random practice on multisyllabic word production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wambaugh, Julie; Nessler, Christina; Wright, Sandra; Mauszycki, Shannon; DeLong, Catharine

    2016-10-01

    This study was designed to examine the effects of practice schedule, blocked vs random, on outcomes of a behavioural treatment for acquired apraxia of speech (AOS), Sound Production Treatment (SPT). SPT was administered to four speakers with chronic AOS and aphasia in the context of multiple baseline designs across behaviours and participants. Treatment was applied to multiple sound errors within three-to-five syllable words. All participants received both practice schedules: SPT-Random (SPT-R) and SPT-Blocked (SPT-B). Improvements in accuracy of word production for trained items were found for both treatment conditions for all participants. One participant demonstrated better maintenance effects associated with SPT-R. Response generalisation to untreated words varied across participants, but was generally modest and unstable. Stimulus generalisation to production of words in sentence completion was positive for three of the participants. Stimulus generalisation to production of phrases was positive for two of the participants. Findings provide additional efficacy data regarding SPT's effects on articulation of treated items and extend knowledge of the treatment's effects when applied to multiple targets within multisyllabic words.

  17. Mathematical modeling and signal processing in speech and hearing sciences

    CERN Document Server

    Xin, Jack

    2014-01-01

    The aim of the book is to give an accessible introduction of mathematical models and signal processing methods in speech and hearing sciences for senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students with basic knowledge of linear algebra, differential equations, numerical analysis, and probability. Speech and hearing sciences are fundamental to numerous technological advances of the digital world in the past decade, from music compression in MP3 to digital hearing aids, from network based voice enabled services to speech interaction with mobile phones. Mathematics and computation are intimately related to these leaps and bounds. On the other hand, speech and hearing are strongly interdisciplinary areas where dissimilar scientific and engineering publications and approaches often coexist and make it difficult for newcomers to enter.

  18. Demodulation Processes in Auditory Perception

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Feth, Lawrence

    1997-01-01

    The long range goal of this project was the understanding of human auditory processing of information conveyed by complex, time varying signals such as speech, music or important environmental sounds...

  19. Neural correlates of audiovisual speech processing in a second language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barrós-Loscertales, Alfonso; Ventura-Campos, Noelia; Visser, Maya; Alsius, Agnès; Pallier, Christophe; Avila Rivera, César; Soto-Faraco, Salvador

    2013-09-01

    Neuroimaging studies of audiovisual speech processing have exclusively addressed listeners' native language (L1). Yet, several behavioural studies now show that AV processing plays an important role in non-native (L2) speech perception. The current fMRI study measured brain activity during auditory, visual, audiovisual congruent and audiovisual incongruent utterances in L1 and L2. BOLD responses to congruent AV speech in the pSTS were stronger than in either unimodal condition in both L1 and L2. Yet no differences in AV processing were expressed according to the language background in this area. Instead, the regions in the bilateral occipital lobe had a stronger congruency effect on the BOLD response (congruent higher than incongruent) in L2 as compared to L1. According to these results, language background differences are predominantly expressed in these unimodal regions, whereas the pSTS is similarly involved in AV integration regardless of language dominance. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Sadness is unique: Neural processing of emotions in speech prosody in musicians and non-musicians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mona ePark

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Musical training has been shown to have positive effects on several aspects of speech processing, however, the effects of musical training on the neural processing of speech prosody conveying distinct emotions are yet to be better understood. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to investigate whether the neural responses to speech prosody conveying happiness, sadness, and fear differ between musicians and non-musicians. Differences in processing of emotional speech prosody between the two groups were only observed when sadness was expressed. Musicians showed increased activation in the middle frontal gyrus, the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex and the retrosplenial cortex. Our results suggest an increased sensitivity of emotional processing in musicians with respect to sadness expressed in speech, possibly reflecting empathic processes.

  1. Working memory span in Persian-speaking children with speech sound disorders and normal speech development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afshar, Mohamad Reza; Ghorbani, Ali; Rashedi, Vahid; Jalilevand, Nahid; Kamali, Mohamad

    2017-10-01

    The aim of this study was to compare working memory span in Persian-speaking preschool children with speech sound disorder (SSD) and their typically speaking peers. Additionally, the study aimed to examine Non-Word Repetition (NWR), Forward Digit Span (FDS) and Backward Digit Span (BDS) in four groups of children with varying severity levels of SSD. The participants in this study comprised 35 children with SSD and 35 typically developing (TD) children -matched for age and sex-as a control group. The participants were between the age range of 48 and 72 months. Two components of working memory including phonological loop and central executive were compared between two groups. We used two tasks (NWR and FDS) to assess phonological loop component, and one task (BDS) to assess central executive component. Percentage of correct consonants (PCC) was used to calculate the severity of SSD. Significant differences were observed between the two groups in all tasks that assess working memory (p working memory between the various severity groups indicated significant differences between different severities of both NWR and FDS tasks among the SSD children (p  0.05). The result showed that PCC scores in TD children were associated with NWR (p  0.05). The working memory skills were weaker in SSD children, in comparison to TD children. In addition, children with varying levels of severity of SSD differed in terms of NWR and FSD, but not BDS. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Musical background not associated with self-perceived hearing performance or speech perception in postlingual cochlear-implant users

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fuller, Christina; Free, Rolien; Maat, Bert; Baskent, Deniz

    In normal-hearing listeners, musical background has been observed to change the sound representation in the auditory system and produce enhanced performance in some speech perception tests. Based on these observations, it has been hypothesized that musical background can influence sound and speech

  3. Speech and orthodontic appliances: a systematic literature review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Junyu; Wan, Jia; You, Lun

    2018-01-23

    Various types of orthodontic appliances can lead to speech difficulties. However, speech difficulties caused by orthodontic appliances have not been sufficiently investigated by an evidence-based method. The aim of this study is to outline the scientific evidence and mechanism of the speech difficulties caused by orthodontic appliances. Randomized-controlled clinical trials (RCT), controlled clinical trials, and cohort studies focusing on the effect of orthodontic appliances on speech were included. A systematic search was conducted by an electronic search in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library databases, complemented by a manual search. The types of orthodontic appliances, the affected sounds, and duration period of the speech disturbances were extracted. The ROBINS-I tool was applied to evaluate the quality of non-randomized studies, and the bias of RCT was assessed based on the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. No meta-analyses could be performed due to the heterogeneity in the study designs and treatment modalities. Among 448 screened articles, 13 studies were included (n = 297 patients). Different types of orthodontic appliances such as fixed appliances, orthodontic retainers and palatal expanders could influence the clarity of speech. The /i/, /a/, and /e/ vowels as well as /s/, /z/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /r/, and /ʃ/ consonants could be distorted by appliances. Although most speech impairments could return to normal within weeks, speech distortion of the /s/ sound might last for more than 3 months. The low evidence level grading and heterogeneity were the two main limitations in this systematic review. Lingual fixed appliances, palatal expanders, and Hawley retainers have an evident influence on speech production. The /i/, /s/, /t/, and /d/ sounds are the primarily affected ones. The results of this systematic review should be interpreted with caution and more high-quality RCTs with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods are

  4. Surgical improvement of speech disorder caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saigusa, Hideto; Yamaguchi, Satoshi; Nakamura, Tsuyoshi; Komachi, Taro; Kadosono, Osamu; Ito, Hiroyuki; Saigusa, Makoto; Niimi, Seiji

    2012-12-01

    Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive debilitating neurological disease. ALS disturbs the quality of life by affecting speech, swallowing and free mobility of the arms without affecting intellectual function. It is therefore of significance to improve intelligibility and quality of speech sounds, especially for ALS patients with slowly progressive courses. Currently, however, there is no effective or established approach to improve speech disorder caused by ALS. We investigated a surgical procedure to improve speech disorder for some patients with neuromuscular diseases with velopharyngeal closure incompetence. In this study, we performed the surgical procedure for two patients suffering from severe speech disorder caused by slowly progressing ALS. The patients suffered from speech disorder with hypernasality and imprecise and weak articulation during a 6-year course (patient 1) and a 3-year course (patient 2) of slowly progressing ALS. We narrowed bilateral lateral palatopharyngeal wall at velopharyngeal port, and performed this surgery under general anesthesia without muscle relaxant for the two patients. Postoperatively, intelligibility and quality of their speech sounds were greatly improved within one month without any speech therapy. The patients were also able to generate longer speech phrases after the surgery. Importantly, there was no serious complication during or after the surgery. In summary, we performed bilateral narrowing of lateral palatopharyngeal wall as a speech surgery for two patients suffering from severe speech disorder associated with ALS. With this technique, improved intelligibility and quality of speech can be maintained for longer duration for the patients with slowly progressing ALS.

  5. Perceptual and Acoustic Reliability Estimates for the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shriberg, Lawrence D.; Fourakis, Marios; Hall, Sheryl D.; Karlsson, Heather B.; Lohmeier, Heather L.; McSweeny, Jane L.; Potter, Nancy L.; Scheer-Cohen, Alison R.; Strand, Edythe A.; Tilkens, Christie M.; Wilson, David L.

    2010-01-01

    A companion paper describes three extensions to a classification system for paediatric speech sound disorders termed the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). The SDCS uses perceptual and acoustic data reduction methods to obtain information on a speaker's speech, prosody, and voice. The present paper provides reliability estimates for…

  6. Pathways of the inferior frontal occipital fasciculus in overt speech and reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rollans, Claire; Cheema, Kulpreet; Georgiou, George K; Cummine, Jacqueline

    2017-11-19

    In this study, we examined the relationship between tractography-based measures of white matter integrity (ex. fractional anisotropy [FA]) from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and five reading-related tasks, including rapid automatized naming (RAN) of letters, digits, and objects, and reading of real words and nonwords. Twenty university students with no reported history of reading difficulties were tested on all five tasks and their performance was correlated with diffusion measures extracted through DTI tractography. A secondary analysis using whole-brain Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) was also used to find clusters showing significant negative correlations between reaction time and FA. Results showed a significant relationship between the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus FA and performance on the RAN of objects task, as well as a strong relationship to nonword reading, which suggests a role for this tract in slower, non-automatic and/or resource-demanding speech tasks. There were no significant relationships between FA and the faster, more automatic speech tasks (RAN of letters and digits, and real word reading). These findings provide evidence for the role of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in tasks that are highly demanding of orthography-phonology translation (e.g., nonword reading) and semantic processing (e.g., RAN object). This demonstrates the importance of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in basic naming and suggests that this tract may be a sensitive predictor of rapid naming performance within the typical population. We discuss the findings in the context of current models of reading and speech production to further characterize the white matter pathways associated with basic reading processes. Copyright © 2017 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. James Weldon Johnson and the Speech Lab Recordings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chris Mustazza

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available On December 24, 1935, James Weldon Johnson read thirteen of his poems at Columbia University, in a recording session engineered by Columbia Professor of Speech George W. Hibbitt and Barnard colleague Professor W. Cabell Greet, pioneers in the field that became sociolinguistics. Interested in American dialects, Greet and Hibbitt used early sound recording technologies to preserve dialect samples. In the same lab where they recorded T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, and others, James Weldon Johnson read a selection of poems that included several from his seminal collection God’s Trombones and some dialect poems. Mustazza has digitized these and made them publicly available in the PennSound archive. In this essay, Mustazza contextualizes the collection, considering the recordings as sonic inscriptions alongside their textual manifestations. He argues that the collection must be heard within the frames of its production conditions—especially its recording in a speech lab—and that the sound recordings are essential elements in an hermeneutic analysis of the poems. He reasons that the poems’ original topics are reframed and refocused when historicized and contextualized within the frame of The Speech Lab Recordings.

  8. Fine-grained pitch processing of music and speech in congenital amusia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tillmann, Barbara; Rusconi, Elena; Traube, Caroline; Butterworth, Brian; Umiltà, Carlo; Peretz, Isabelle

    2011-12-01

    Congenital amusia is a lifelong disorder of music processing that has been ascribed to impaired pitch perception and memory. The present study tested a large group of amusics (n=17) and provided evidence that their pitch deficit affects pitch processing in speech to a lesser extent: Fine-grained pitch discrimination was better in spoken syllables than in acoustically matched tones. Unlike amusics, control participants performed fine-grained pitch discrimination better for musical material than for verbal material. These findings suggest that pitch extraction can be influenced by the nature of the material (music vs speech), and that amusics' pitch deficit is not restricted to musical material, but extends to segmented speech events. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America

  9. Combined effects of form- and meaning-based predictability on perceived clarity of speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Signoret, Carine; Johnsrude, Ingrid; Classon, Elisabet; Rudner, Mary

    2018-02-01

    The perceptual clarity of speech is influenced by more than just the acoustic quality of the sound; it also depends on contextual support. For example, a degraded sentence is perceived to be clearer when the content of the speech signal is provided with matching text (i.e., form-based predictability) before hearing the degraded sentence. Here, we investigate whether sentence-level semantic coherence (i.e., meaning-based predictability), enhances perceptual clarity of degraded sentences, and if so, whether the mechanism is the same as that underlying enhancement by matching text. We also ask whether form- and meaning-based predictability are related to individual differences in cognitive abilities. Twenty participants listened to spoken sentences that were either clear or degraded by noise vocoding and rated the clarity of each item. The sentences had either high or low semantic coherence. Each spoken word was preceded by the homologous printed word (matching text), or by a meaningless letter string (nonmatching text). Cognitive abilities were measured with a working memory test. Results showed that perceptual clarity was significantly enhanced both by matching text and by semantic coherence. Importantly, high coherence enhanced the perceptual clarity of the degraded sentences even when they were preceded by matching text, suggesting that the effects of form- and meaning-based predictions on perceptual clarity are independent and additive. However, when working memory capacity indexed by the Size-Comparison Span Test was controlled for, only form-based predictions enhanced perceptual clarity, and then only at some sound quality levels, suggesting that prediction effects are to a certain extent dependent on cognitive abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. The development of speech production in children with cleft palate

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Willadsen, Elisabeth; Chapman, Kathy

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of speech development of children with cleft palate +/- cleft lip. The chapter will begin with a discussion of the impact of clefting on speech. Next, we will provide a brief description of those factors impacting speech development...... for this population of children. Finally, research examining various aspects of speech development of infants and young children with cleft palate (birth to age five) will be reviewed. This final section will be organized by typical stages of speech sound development (e.g., prespeech, the early word stage...

  11. The Prevalence of Speech Disorder in Primary School Students in Yazd-Iran

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    Sedighah Akhavan Karbasi

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Communication disorder is a widespread disabling problems and associated with adverse, long term outcome that impact on individuals, families and academic achievement of children in the school years and affect vocational choices later in adulthood. The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of speech disorders specifically stuttering, voice, and speech-sound disorders in primary school students in Iran-Yazd. In a descriptive study, 7881 primary school students in Yazd evaluated in view from of speech disorders with use of direct and face to face assessment technique in 2005. The prevalence of total speech disorders was 14.8% among whom 13.8% had speech-sound disorder, 1.2% stuttering and 0.47% voice disorder. The prevalence of speech disorders was higher than in males (16.7% as compared to females (12.7%. Pattern of prevalence of the three speech disorders was significantly different according to gender, parental education and by number of family member. There was no significant difference across speech disorders and birth order, religion and paternal consanguinity. These prevalence figures are higher than more studies that using parent or teacher reports.

  12. Language and Speech Improvement for Kindergarten and First Grade. A Supplementary Handbook.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cole, Roberta; And Others

    The 16-unit language and speech improvement handbook for kindergarten and first grade students contains an introductory section which includes a discussion of the child's developmental speech and language characteristics, a sound development chart, a speech and hearing language screening test, the Henja articulation test, and a general outline of…

  13. On the Perception of Speech Sounds as Biologically Significant Signals1,2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pisoni, David B.

    2012-01-01

    This paper reviews some of the major evidence and arguments currently available to support the view that human speech perception may require the use of specialized neural mechanisms for perceptual analysis. Experiments using synthetically produced speech signals with adults are briefly summarized and extensions of these results to infants and other organisms are reviewed with an emphasis towards detailing those aspects of speech perception that may require some need for specialized species-specific processors. Finally, some comments on the role of early experience in perceptual development are provided as an attempt to identify promising areas of new research in speech perception. PMID:399200

  14. Real time speech formant analyzer and display

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holland, George E.; Struve, Walter S.; Homer, John F.

    1987-01-01

    A speech analyzer for interpretation of sound includes a sound input which converts the sound into a signal representing the sound. The signal is passed through a plurality of frequency pass filters to derive a plurality of frequency formants. These formants are converted to voltage signals by frequency-to-voltage converters and then are prepared for visual display in continuous real time. Parameters from the inputted sound are also derived and displayed. The display may then be interpreted by the user. The preferred embodiment includes a microprocessor which is interfaced with a television set for displaying of the sound formants. The microprocessor software enables the sound analyzer to present a variety of display modes for interpretive and therapeutic used by the user.

  15. Evaluating standard airborne sound insulation measures in terms of annoyance, loudness, and audibility ratings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, H K; Bradley, J S

    2009-07-01

    This paper reports the results of an evaluation of the merits of standard airborne sound insulation measures with respect to subjective ratings of the annoyance and loudness of transmitted sounds. Subjects listened to speech and music sounds modified to represent transmission through 20 different walls with sound transmission class (STC) ratings from 34 to 58. A number of variations in the standard measures were also considered. These included variations in the 8-dB rule for the maximum allowed deficiency in the STC measure as well as variations in the standard 32-dB total allowed deficiency. Several spectrum adaptation terms were considered in combination with weighted sound reduction index (R(w)) values as well as modifications to the range of included frequencies in the standard rating contour. A STC measure without an 8-dB rule and an R(w) rating with a new spectrum adaptation term were better predictors of annoyance and loudness ratings of speech sounds. R(w) ratings with one of two modified C(tr) spectrum adaptation terms were better predictors of annoyance and loudness ratings of transmitted music sounds. Although some measures were much better predictors of responses to one type of sound than were the standard STC and R(w) values, no measure was remarkably improved for predicting annoyance and loudness ratings of both music and speech sounds.

  16. The Mechanism of Speech Processing in Congenital Amusia: Evidence from Mandarin Speakers

    OpenAIRE

    Liu, Fang; Jiang, Cunmei; Thompson, William Forde; Xu, Yi; Yang, Yufang; Stewart, Lauren

    2012-01-01

    Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of pitch perception that causes severe problems with music processing but only subtle difficulties in speech processing. This study investigated speech processing in a group of Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia. Thirteen Mandarin amusics and thirteen matched controls participated in a set of tone and intonation perception tasks and two pitch threshold tasks. Compared with controls, amusics showed impaired performance on word discrimin...

  17. Effectiveness of an Integrated Phonological Awareness Approach for Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNeill, Brigid C.; Gillon, Gail T.; Dodd, Barbara

    2009-01-01

    This study investigated the effectiveness of an integrated phonological awareness approach for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Change in speech, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, word decoding, and spelling skills were examined. A controlled multiple single-subject design was employed. Twelve children aged 4-7 years with…

  18. Effects of early language, speech, and cognition on later reading: A mediation analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vanessa N Durand

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available This longitudinal secondary analysis examined which early language and speech abilities are associated with school-aged reading skills, and whether these associations are mediated by cognitive ability. We analyzed vocabulary, syntax, speech sound maturity, and cognition in a sample of healthy children at age 3 years (N=241 in relation to single word reading (decoding, comprehension, and oral reading fluency in the same children at age 9 to 11 years. All predictor variables and the mediator variable were associated with the three reading outcomes. The predictor variables were all associated with cognitive abilities, the mediator. Cognitive abilities partially mediated the effects of language on reading. After mediation, decoding was associated with speech sound maturity; comprehension was associated with receptive vocabulary; and oral fluency was associated with speech sound maturity, receptive vocabulary, and syntax. In summary, all of the effects of language on reading could not be explained by cognition as a mediator. Specific components of language and speech skills in preschool made independent contributions to reading skills 6 to 8 years later. These early precursors to later reading skill represent potential targets for early intervention to improve reading.

  19. Cognitive and linguistic sources of variance in 2-year-olds’ speech-sound discrimination: a preliminary investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lalonde, Kaylah; Holt, Rachael Frush

    2014-02-01

    This preliminary investigation explored potential cognitive and linguistic sources of variance in 2-year-olds’ speech-sound discrimination by using the toddler change/ no-change procedure and examined whether modifications would result in a procedure that can be used consistently with younger 2-year-olds. Twenty typically developing 2-year-olds completed the newly modified toddler change/no-change procedure. Behavioral tests and parent report questionnaires were used to measure several cognitive and linguistic constructs. Stepwise linear regression was used to relate discrimination sensitivity to the cognitive and linguistic measures. In addition, discrimination results from the current experiment were compared with those from 2-year-old children tested in a previous experiment. Receptive vocabulary and working memory explained 56.6% of variance in discrimination performance. Performance was not different on the modified toddler change/no-change procedure used in the current experiment from in a previous investigation, which used the original version of the procedure. The relationship between speech discrimination and receptive vocabulary and working memory provides further evidence that the procedure is sensitive to the strength of perceptual representations. The role for working memory might also suggest that there are specific subject-related, nonsensory factors limiting the applicability of the procedure to children who have not reached the necessary levels of cognitive and linguistic development.

  20. Music and speech listening enhance the recovery of early sensory processing after stroke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Särkämö, Teppo; Pihko, Elina; Laitinen, Sari; Forsblom, Anita; Soinila, Seppo; Mikkonen, Mikko; Autti, Taina; Silvennoinen, Heli M; Erkkilä, Jaakko; Laine, Matti; Peretz, Isabelle; Hietanen, Marja; Tervaniemi, Mari

    2010-12-01

    Our surrounding auditory environment has a dramatic influence on the development of basic auditory and cognitive skills, but little is known about how it influences the recovery of these skills after neural damage. Here, we studied the long-term effects of daily music and speech listening on auditory sensory memory after middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke. In the acute recovery phase, 60 patients who had middle cerebral artery stroke were randomly assigned to a music listening group, an audio book listening group, or a control group. Auditory sensory memory, as indexed by the magnetic MMN (MMNm) response to changes in sound frequency and duration, was measured 1 week (baseline), 3 months, and 6 months after the stroke with whole-head magnetoencephalography recordings. Fifty-four patients completed the study. Results showed that the amplitude of the frequency MMNm increased significantly more in both music and audio book groups than in the control group during the 6-month poststroke period. In contrast, the duration MMNm amplitude increased more in the audio book group than in the other groups. Moreover, changes in the frequency MMNm amplitude correlated significantly with the behavioral improvement of verbal memory and focused attention induced by music listening. These findings demonstrate that merely listening to music and speech after neural damage can induce long-term plastic changes in early sensory processing, which, in turn, may facilitate the recovery of higher cognitive functions. The neural mechanisms potentially underlying this effect are discussed.