Gender Perception of Speech: Dependence on Fundamental Frequency, Implied Vocal Tract Length, and Source Spectral Tilt.

Objective: To investigate how listeners use fundamental frequency, implied vocal tract length, and source spectral tilt to infer speaker gender.

Methods: Sound files each containing the vowels /i, æ, ɑ, u/ interspersed by brief silences were synthesized. Each of the 210 stimuli was a combination of 10 values for fundamental frequency and 7 values for implied vocal tract length (and the associated formant frequencies) ranging from male-typical to female-typical, and 3 values for source spectral tilt approximating the voice qualities of breathy, normal, and pressed.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Validation, and Diagnostic Accuracy of the Voice Fatigue Handicap Questionnaire-Persian Version.

Objective: The current study aimed to determine the psychometric characteristics of a translated version of the Voice Fatigue Handicap Questionnaire in Persian by examining the validity, reliability, and diagnostic accuracy using data collected from people with and without dysphonia.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Method: The original questionnaire was translated from Italian to Persian using the International Quality of Life Assessment criteria.

Order Affects Clear and Loud Speech Response.

Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the impact of instruction order on the speech production response when adopting higher effort speaking styles, specifically loud and clear speech.

Method: Speech intensity, lip aperture range, and speech rate data were collected from 24 talkers who repeated the utterance "Buy Bobby a puppy" using habitual, clear, and loud speech. Participants were assigned in quasi-random fashion to one of two groups: a Clear-Loud Group (11 participants; order: habitual-clear-loud) or a Loud-Clear Group (13 participants; order: habitual-loud-clear).

Effect of clear speech on acoustic measures of dysprosody in Parkinson disease for different reading tasks.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of clear speech instruction on acoustic measures of dysprosody between reading passages of differing linguistic content for speakers with and without Parkinson Disease (PD).

Method: Ten speakers with PD and 10 controls served as participants and read five simple and three standard reading stimuli twice. First, speakers read habitually and then following clear speech instruction.

Reliability of a Linguistic Segmentation Procedure Specified by Systemic Functional Linguistics to Examine Extemporaneous Speech.

Purpose: Extemporaneous speech tasks provide an ecologically valid sample to examine speech acoustics, but differing methodologies exist in the literature for segmentation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the utility and reliability of a segmentation approach for extemporaneous speech specified by systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and its potential research and clinical applications.

Method: Ten speakers without communication disorders served as participants in this study, and they responded to self-selected extemporaneous speaking prompts.

Prolonged Processing Time for Manual and Vocal Responses in Parkinson Disease: A Psychological Refractory Period Paradigm Study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine a potential increased cognitive processing bottleneck within Parkinson disease (PD) by extending a previous overlapping task methodology. Additionally, this study extends previous overlapping task methodology in PD to examine the influence of modality (vocal vs. manual) on response delays in overlapping tasks in PD.

Quantifying Spatial and Temporal Variability of Clear and Loud Speech Produced While Performing a Concurrent Visuomotor Task.

Purpose: The purpose of this research note was to quantify the impact of concurrent performance of an attention-demanding secondary task on utterance-to-utterance movement variability associated with higher effort speaking styles, namely, clear and loud speech.

Method: Lip and jaw kinematics collected as part of a prior study were analyzed. Participants repeated "Buy Bobby a puppy" using habitual, loud, and clear speech styles in isolation and while performing a secondary tracking task.

Systemic Racism in Communication Sciences and Disorders Academic Programs: A Commentary on Trends in Racial Representation.

Purpose: As a discipline, communication sciences and disorders (CSD) has struggled to address equity and inclusion for students, professionals, and scholars from historically excluded racial groups. Recent publications in this periodical that have begun to confront systemic racism in the discipline have been met with some expected resistance. In this commentary, I attempt to support and expand an argument made by Ellis and Kendall (2021), namely, that systemic racism has been and continues to be a normal and persistent feature of our academic programs.

Practice Mediates Bidirectional Dual-Task Interference When Performing a Novel Sequential Nonword Repetition Task.

Introduction The current study examined the extent to which practice amount mediates dual-task interference patterns associated with concurrent performance of a novel speech task and attention-demanding visuomotor task. Method A Sequential Nonword Repetition Task was used to examine the effect of practice on interference associated with concurrent performance of a Visuomotor Pursuit Task. Twenty-five young adult participants were assigned to either an Extended Practice Group or a Limited Practice Group and performed a novel Sequential Nonword Repetition Task in isolation and while performing a concurrent visuomotor pursuit rotor task.

Effects of Concurrent Manual Task Performance on Connected Speech Acoustics in Individuals With Parkinson Disease.

Purpose Prior investigations suggest that simultaneous performance of more than 1 motor-oriented task may exacerbate speech motor deficits in individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the extent to which performing a low-demand manual task affected the connected speech in individuals with and without PD. Method Individuals with PD and neurologically healthy controls performed speech tasks (reading and extemporaneous speech tasks) and an oscillatory manual task (a counterclockwise circle-drawing task) in isolation (single-task condition) and concurrently (dual-task condition).

Examination of Clear Speech in Parkinson Disease Using Measures of Working Vowel Space.

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to characterize clear speech production for speakers with and without Parkinson disease (PD) using several measures of working vowel space computed from frequently sampled formant trajectories. Method The 1st 2 formant frequencies were tracked for a reading passage that was produced using habitual and clear speaking styles by 15 speakers with PD and 15 healthy control speakers. Vowel space metrics were calculated from the distribution of frequently sampled formant frequency tracks, including vowel space hull area, articulatory-acoustic vowel space, and multiple vowel space density (VSD) measures based on different percentile contours of the formant density distribution.

Effect of Clear Speech on the Duration of Silent Intervals at Syntactic and Phonemic Boundaries in the Speech of Individuals With Parkinson Disease.

Purpose The purpose of the current investigation was to determine the extent to which individuals with and without Parkinson disease (PD) modified silent interval durations when using a clear speaking style. Method Ten individuals with idiopathic PD and 10 older adult control speakers produced a reading passage using both habitual and clear speaking styles. Silent intervals lasting 15 ms and longer were identified and extracted.

Signal Interpretation Considerations When Estimating Subglottal Pressure From Oral Air Pressure.

Purpose Oral air pressure measurements during lip occlusion for /pVpV/ syllable strings are used to estimate subglottal pressure during the vowel. Accuracy of this method relies on smoothly produced syllable repetitions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the oral air pressure waveform during the /p/ lip occlusions and propose physiological explanations for nonflat shapes.

Characterizing the distribution of silent intervals in the connected speech of individuals with Parkinson disease.

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine a statistical approach to differentiating shorter silent intervals (e.g., stop gaps) from longer silent intervals (e.

Examining Acoustic and Kinematic Measures of Articulatory Working Space: Effects of Speech Intensity.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of speech intensity on acoustic and kinematic vowel space measures and conduct a preliminary examination of the relationship between kinematic and acoustic vowel space metrics calculated from continuously sampled lingual marker and formant traces.

Method: Young adult speakers produced 3 repetitions of 2 different sentences at 3 different loudness levels. Lingual kinematic and acoustic signals were collected and analyzed.

Voicing contrast of stop consonant production in the speech of individuals with Parkinson disease ON and OFF dopaminergic medication.

The aims of this study were to: 1) compare voicing contrast in speakers with Parkinson disease (PD) and healthy controls by comparing the separation of voice onset time (VOT) distributions of voiced and voiceless stop consonants and 2) to determine whether the administration of dopaminergic medication affected VOT separation in speakers with PD. Data from a previous study by Fisher and Goberman (2010) were used to compare the VOT measures obtained from a group of speakers with PD with both ON and OFF medication, and a group of healthy controls. Supplementing the previous findings, the current analysis revealed that individuals with PD exhibited significantly less contrast between voiced and voiceless VOT than that observed in healthy speakers.

Fluency adaptation in speakers with Parkinson disease: a motor learning perspective.

Purpose: Fluency adaptation is characterised by a reduction in stuttering-like behaviours over successive readings of the same speech material and is an effect that is typically observed in developmental stuttering. Prominent theories suggest that short-term motor learning associated with practice explain, in part, fluency adaptation. The current investigation examined the fluency adaptation effect in a group of speakers with Parkinson disease (PD) who exhibited stuttering-like disfluencies.

Speech Motor Sequence Learning: Effect of Parkinson Disease and Normal Aging on Dual-Task Performance.

Purpose: Everyday communication is carried out concurrently with other tasks. Therefore, determining how dual tasks interfere with newly learned speech motor skills can offer insight into the cognitive mechanisms underlying speech motor learning in Parkinson disease (PD). The current investigation examines a recently learned speech motor sequence under dual-task conditions.

Speech Motor Sequence Learning: Acquisition and Retention in Parkinson Disease and Normal Aging.

Purpose: The aim of the current investigation was to examine speech motor sequence learning in neurologically healthy younger adults, neurologically healthy older adults, and individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) over a 2-day period.

Method: A sequential nonword repetition task was used to examine learning over 2 days. Participants practiced a sequence of 6 monosyllabic nonwords that was retested following nighttime sleep.

Articulatory-acoustic vowel space: Associations between acoustic and perceptual measures of clear speech.

Purpose: The current investigation examined the relationship between perceptual ratings of speech clarity and acoustic measures of speech production. Included among the acoustic measures was the Articulatory-Acoustic Vowel Space (AAVS), which provides a measure of working formant space derived from continuously sampled formant trajectories in connected speech.

Method: Acoustic measures of articulation and listener ratings of speech clarity were obtained from habitual and clear speech samples produced by 10 neurologically healthy adults.

Articulatory-acoustic vowel space: application to clear speech in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

Background/purpose: Individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) often exhibit decreased range of movement secondary to the disease process, which has been shown to affect articulatory movements. A number of investigations have failed to find statistically significant differences between control and disordered groups, and between speaking conditions, using traditional vowel space area measures. The purpose of the current investigation was to evaluate both between-group (PD versus control) and within-group (habitual versus clear) differences in articulatory function using a novel vowel space measure, the articulatory-acoustic vowel space (AAVS).