Computing nasalance with MFCCs and Convolutional Neural Networks.

Nasalance is a valuable clinical biomarker for hypernasality. It is computed as the ratio of acoustic energy emitted through the nose to the total energy emitted through the mouth and nose (eNasalance). A new approach is proposed to compute nasalance using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) trained with Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (mfccNasalance).

Consonant and vowel articulation accuracy in younger and middle-aged Spanish healthy adults.

Children acquire vowels earlier than consonants, and the former are less vulnerable to speech disorders than the latter. This study explores the hypothesis that a similar contrast exists later in life and that consonants are more vulnerable to ageing than vowels. Data was obtained with two experiments comparing the speech of Younger Adults (YAs) and Middle-aged Adults (MAs).

Recognition of Spanish consonants in 8-talker babble by children with cochlear implants, and by children and adults with normal hearing.

This paper presents the results of closed-set recognition task for 80 Spanish consonant-vowel sounds in 8-talker babble. Three groups of subjects participated in the study: a group of children using cochlear implants (CIs; age range: 7-13), an age-matched group of children with normal hearing (NH), and a group of adults with NH. The speech-to-noise ratios at which the participants recognized 33% of the target consonants were +7.

Cholinergic Potentiation and Audiovisual Repetition-Imitation Therapy Improve Speech Production and Communication Deficits in a Person with Crossed Aphasia by Inducing Structural Plasticity in White Matter Tracts.

Donepezil (DP), a cognitive-enhancing drug targeting the cholinergic system, combined with massed sentence repetition training augmented and speeded up recovery of speech production deficits in patients with chronic conduction aphasia and extensive left hemisphere infarctions (Berthier et al., 2014). Nevertheless, a still unsettled question is whether such improvements correlate with restorative structural changes in gray matter and white matter pathways mediating speech production.

Analysis of Spanish consonant recognition in 8-talker babble.

This paper presents the results of a closed-set recognition task for 80 Spanish consonant-vowel sounds (16 C × 5 V, spoken by 2 talkers) in 8-talker babble (-6, -2, +2 dB). A ranking of resistance to noise was obtained using the signal detection d' measure, and confusion patterns were analyzed using a graphical method (confusion graphs). The resulting ranking indicated the existence of three resistance groups: (1) high resistance: /ʧ, s, ʝ/; (2) mid resistance: /r, l, m, n/; and (3) low resistance: /t, θ, x, ɡ, b, d, k, f, p/.

Mild Developmental Foreign Accent Syndrome and Psychiatric Comorbidity: Altered White Matter Integrity in Speech and Emotion Regulation Networks.

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a speech disorder that is defined by the emergence of a peculiar manner of articulation and intonation which is perceived as foreign. In most cases of acquired FAS (AFAS) the new accent is secondary to small focal lesions involving components of the bilaterally distributed neural network for speech production. In the past few years FAS has also been described in different psychiatric conditions (conversion disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia) as well as in developmental disorders (specific language impairment, apraxia of speech).

Sensitive periods and language in cochlear implant users.

This study explores the hypothesis that the existence of a short sensitive period for lower-level speech perception/articulation skills, and a long one for higher-level language skills, may partly explain the language outcomes of children with cochlear implants (CIs). The participants were fourteen children fitted with a CI before their second birthday. Data about their language skills and the environmental conditions (e.

Loss of regional accent after damage to the speech production network.

Lesion-symptom mapping studies reveal that selective damage to one or more components of the speech production network can be associated with foreign accent syndrome, changes in regional accent (e.g., from Parisian accent to Alsatian accent), stronger regional accent, or re-emergence of a previously learned and dormant regional accent.

Repeating with the right hemisphere: reduced interactions between phonological and lexical-semantic systems in crossed aphasia?

Knowledge on the patterns of repetition amongst individuals who develop language deficits in association with right hemisphere lesions (crossed aphasia) is very limited. Available data indicate that repetition in some crossed aphasics experiencing phonological processing deficits is not heavily influenced by lexical-semantic variables (lexicality, imageability, and frequency) as is regularly reported in phonologically-impaired cases with left hemisphere damage. Moreover, in view of the fact that crossed aphasia is rare, information on the role of right cortical areas and white matter tracts underpinning language repetition deficits is scarce.

The emergence of productive speech and language in Spanish-learning paediatric cochlear implant users.

It has been proposed that cochlear implant users may develop robust categorical perception skills, but that they show limited precision in perception. This article explores if a parallel contrast is observable in production, and if, despite acquiring typical linguistic representations, their early words are inconsistent. The participants were eight Spanish-learning deaf children implanted before their second birthday.

Foreign accent syndrome: a multimodal evaluation in the search of neuroscience-driven treatments.

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a rare condition which is placed in the mildest end of the spectrum of speech disorders. The impairment, not severe enough to elicit phonological errors, is associated with various alterations in the fine execution of speech sounds which cause the impression of foreignness. There is a growing interest in the study of linguistic and paralinguistic components, psychosocial aftermaths, and neural basis of FAS, but there are not yet neuroscience-driven treatments for this condition.

Lexical and grammatical development in a child with cochlear implant and attention deficit: A case study.

This is the first study to explore lexical and grammatical development in a deaf child diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Inattentive sub-type (ADHD/I). The child, whose family language was Spanish, was fitted with a cochlear implant (CI) when she was 18 months old. ADHD/I, for which she was prescribed medication, was diagnosed 3;6 years later.

From 1-word to 2-words with cochlear implant and cued speech: a case study.

This paper describes early language development in a deaf Spanish child fitted with a cochlear implant (CI) when she was 1;6 years old. The girl had been exposed to Cued Speech (CS) since that age. The main aim of the research was to identify potential areas of slow language development as well as the potential benefit of CI and CS.

Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of linguistic input support to a prelingually deaf child with cued speech: A case study.

This paper studies the linguistic input attended by a deaf child exposed to cued speech (CS) in the final part of her prelinguistic period (18-24 months). Subjects are the child, her mother, and her therapist. Analyses have provided data about the quantity of input directed to the child (oral input, more than 1,000 words per half-an-hour session; cued ratio, more than 60% of oral input; and attended ratio, more than 55% of oral input), its linguistic quality (lexical variety, grammatical complexity, etc.