Velar-vowel coarticulation in a virtual target model of stop production.

Velar-vowel coarticulation in English, resulting in so-called velar fronting in front vowel contexts, was studied using ultrasound imaging of the tongue during /k/ onsets of monosyllabic words with no coda or a labial coda. Ten native English speakers were recorded and analyzed. A variety of coarticulation patterns that often appear to contain small differences in typical closure location for similar vowels was found.

Attention demands of language production in adults who stutter.

Objective: We investigated whether language production is atypically resource-demanding in adults who stutter (AWS) versus typically-fluent adults (TFA).

Methods: Fifteen TFA and 15 AWS named pictures overlaid with printed Semantic, Phonological or Unrelated Distractor words while monitoring frequent low tones versus rare high tones. Tones were presented at a short or long Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) relative to picture onset.

Anticipatory coarticulation and stability of speech in typically fluent speakers and people who stutter.

This project replicates and extends previous work on coarticulation in velar-vowel sequences in English. Coarticulatory data for 46 young adult speakers, 23 who stutter and 23 who do not stutter show coarticulatory patterns in young adults who stutter that are no different from typical young adults. Additionally, the stability of velar-vowel production is analysed in token-to-token variability found in multiple repetitions of the same velar-vowel sequence.

Real-time processing in picture naming in adults who stutter: ERP evidence.

Objective: The aim was to compare real-time language/cognitive processing in picture naming in adults who stutter (AWS) versus typically-fluent adults (TFA).

Methods: Participants named pictures preceded by masked prime words. Primes and target picture labels were identical or mismatched.

Exploring semantic and phonological picture-word priming in adults who stutter using event-related potentials.

Objective: Our aim was to investigate how semantic and phonological information is processed in adults who stutter (AWS) preparing to name pictures, following-up a report that event-related potentials (ERPs) in AWS evidenced atypical semantic picture-word priming (Maxfield et al., 2010).

Methods: Fourteen AWS and 14 typically-fluent adults (TFA) participated.

Neural correlates of semantic activation spreading on the path to picture naming in adults who stutter.

Objective: On the path to picture naming, words that relate semantically to the pictured object become activated in the mental lexicon. We used a neuroscientific approach to investigate this semantic activation spreading process in adults who stutter (AWS).

Methods: Fourteen AWS and 14 adults who do not stutter (AWNS) completed a picture-word priming task.

Multi-site diagnosis and management of 260 patients with auditory neuropathy/dys-synchrony (auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder).

Test results and management data are summarized for 260 patients with diagnoses of Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD). Hearing aids were tried in 85 of these patients, and 49 patients tried cochlear implants. Approximately 15% reported some benefit from hearing aids for language learning, while improvement in speech comprehension and language acquisition was reported in 85% of patients who were implanted.

Preattentive cortical-evoked responses to pure tones, harmonic tones, and speech: influence of music training.

Objective: Cortical auditory evoked potentials, including mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a to pure tones, harmonic complexes, and speech syllables, were examined across groups of trained musicians and nonmusicians. Because of the extensive formal and informal auditory training received by musicians throughout their lifespan, it was predicted that these electrophysiological indicators of preattentive pitch discrimination and involuntary attention change would distinguish musicians from nonmusicians and provide insight regarding the influence of auditory training and experience on central auditory function.

Design: A total of 102 (67 trained musicians, 35 nonmusicians) right-handed young women with normal hearing participated in three auditory stimulus conditions: pure tones (25 musicians/15 nonmusicians), harmonic tones (42 musicians/20 nonmusicians), and speech syllables (26 musicians/15 nonmusicians).

The relationship between pitch discrimination and vocal production: comparison of vocal and instrumental musicians.

Auditory pitch discrimination and vocal pitch accuracy are fundamental abilities and essential skills of a professional singer; yet, the relationship between these abilities, particularly in trained vocal musicians, has not been the subject of much research. Difference limens for frequency (DLFs) and pitch production accuracy (PPA) were examined among 20 vocalists, 21 instrumentalists, and 21 nonmusicians. All were right-handed young adult females with normal hearing.

Hearing of note: an electrophysiologic and psychoacoustic comparison of pitch discrimination between vocal and instrumental musicians.

Cortical auditory evoked potentials of instrumental musicians suggest that music expertise modifies pitch processing, yet less is known about vocal musicians. Mismatch negativity (MMN) to pitch deviances and difference limen for frequency (DLF) were examined among 61 young adult women, including 20 vocalists, 21 instrumentalists, and 20 nonmusicians. Stimuli were harmonic tone complexes from the mid-female vocal range (C4-G4).

Modeling open-set spoken word recognition in postlingually deafened adults after cochlear implantation: some preliminary results with the neighborhood activation model.

Hypotheses: Do cochlear implants provide enough information to allow adult cochlear implant users to understand words in ways that are similar to listeners with acoustic hearing? Can we use a computational model to gain insight into the underlying mechanisms used by cochlear implant users to recognize spoken words?

Background: The Neighborhood Activation Model has been shown to be a reasonable model of word recognition for listeners with normal hearing. The Neighborhood Activation Model assumes that words are recognized in relation to other similar-sounding words in a listener's lexicon. The probability of correctly identifying a word is based on the phoneme perception probabilities from a listener's closed-set consonant and vowel confusion matrices modified by the relative frequency of occurrence of the target word compared with similar-sounding words (neighbors).

Perception of Wordlikeness: Effects of Segment Probability and Length on the Processing of Nonwords.

A probabilistic phonotactic grammar based on the probabilities of the constituents contained in a dictionary of English was used to generate multisyllabic nonwords. English-speaking listeners evaluated the wordlikeness of these patterns. Wordlikeness ratings were higher for nonwords containing high-probability constituents and were also higher for nonwords with fewer syllables.