Altering the rhythm of target and background talkers differentially affects speech understanding.

Three experiments investigated listeners' ability to use speech rhythm to attend selectively to a single target talker presented in multi-talker babble (Experiments 1 and 2) and in speech-shaped noise (Experiment 3). Participants listened to spoken sentences of the form "Ready [Call sign] go to [Color] [Number] now" and reported the Color and Number spoken by a target talker (cued by the Call sign "Baron"). Experiment 1 altered the natural rhythm of the target talker and background talkers for two-talker and six-talker backgrounds.

Screening for catastrophic neck injuries in sports.

The cervical spine is prone to injury due to the structure of the articulating vertebrae at the level of C4-C6, where the spinal cord occupies more of the spinal canal. Cervical spine injuries can occur in all sports and all ages. Participation in contact sports certainly increases the possibility of cervical spine injuries.