Semantic focus mediates pitch auditory feedback control in phrasal prosody.

This study investigated the effect of semantic focus on pitch auditory feedback control in the production of phrasal prosody through an experiment using pitch-shifted auditory feedback. We hypothesized that pitch-shift responses would be mediated by semantic focus because highly informative focus types, such as corrective focus, impose more specific constraints on the prosodic form of a phrase and require greater consistency in the production of pitch excursions compared to sentences with no such focus elements. Twenty-eight participants produced sentences with and without corrective focus while their auditory feedback was briefly and unexpectedly perturbed in pitch by +/-200 cents at the start of the sentence.

Task-Dependent Modulation of Auditory Feedback Control of Vocal Intensity.

Auditory feedback control of fundamental frequency (f) is modulated in a task-dependent manner. When voice pitch auditory feedback perturbations are applied in sentence versus sustained-vowel production, larger and faster vocal f responses are measured in sentence production. This task-dependency reflects the scaling of auditory targets for pitch for the precision required in each speech task.

The Effect of Pitch and Loudness Auditory Feedback Perturbations on Vocal Quality During Sustained Phonation.

Objective: Dysphonia is a reduction in vocal quality that impacts communication and is often an early sign of a voice disorder. There is little information regarding the effects of auditory feedback control of loudness and pitch on voice quality. In this study, we used both loudness-shift and pitch-shift paradigms to study the relationship between auditory feedback control and vocal quality as measured by smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS), which reflects the harmonicity of the voice signal.

Evidence That Bimanual Motor Timing Performance Is Not a Significant Factor in Developmental Stuttering.

Purpose: Stuttering involves a breakdown in the speech motor system. We address whether stuttering in its early stage is specific to the speech motor system or whether its impact is observable across motor systems.

Method: As an extension of Olander, Smith, and Zelaznik (2010), we measured bimanual motor timing performance in 115 children: 70 children who stutter (CWS) and 45 children who do not stutter (CWNS).