Objectives And Background: To investigate whether voice focus adjustments can alter the audio-vocal feedback and consequently modulate speech/voice motor control. Speaking with a forward-focused voice was expected to enhance audio-vocal feedback and thus decrease the variability of vocal fundamental frequency (F0).
Materials And Method: Twenty-two healthy, untrained adults (10 males and 12 females) were requested to sustain vowel /a/ with their natural focus and a forward focus and to naturally read the nasal, oral, and mixed oral-nasal sentences in normal noise-masked auditory conditions. Meanwhile, a miniature accelerometer was externally attached on the noise to detect the nasal vibrations during vocalization. Audio recordings were made and analyzed using the long-term average spectrum (LTAS) and power spectral analysis of F0.
Results: Compared with naturally-focused vowel production and oral sentences, forward-focused vowel productions and nasal sentences both showed significant increases in nasal accelerometric amplitude and the spectral power within the range of 200∼300 Hz, and significantly decreased the F0 variability below 3 Hz, which has been reported to be associated with enhanced auditory feedback in our previous research. The auditory masking not only significantly increased the low-frequency F0 variability, but also significantly decreased the ratio of the spectral power within 200∼300 Hz to the power within 300∼1000 Hz for the vowel and sentence productions. Gender differences were found in the correlations between the degree of nasal coupling and F0 stability as well as in the LTAS characteristics in response to noise.
Conclusions: Variations in nasal-oral acoustic coupling not only change the formant features of speech signals, but involuntarily influence the auditory feedback control of vocal fold vibrations. Speakers tend to show improved F0 stability in response to a forward-focused voice adjustment.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.07.026 | DOI Listing |
Ear Hear
January 2025
Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Radboud University Medical Centre, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Objectives: Real-time monitoring of cochlear function to predict the loss of residual hearing after cochlear implantation is now possible. Current approaches monitor the cochlear microphonic (CM) during implantation from the electrode at the tip of the implant. A drop in CM response of >30% is associated with poorer hearing outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neurosci
January 2025
Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Generative models have diverse applications, including language processing and birdsong analysis. In this study, we demonstrate how a statistical test, designed to prevent overgeneralization in sequence generation, can be used to infer minimal models for the syllable sequences in Bengalese finch songs. We focus on the partially observable Markov model (POMM), which consists of states and the probabilistic transitions between them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
December 2024
Department of Industrial Design, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
Research into new solutions for wearable assistive devices for the visually impaired is an important area of assistive technology (AT). This plays a crucial role in improving the functionality and independence of the visually impaired, helping them to participate fully in their daily lives and in various community activities. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the literature published over the last decade on wearable assistive devices for the visually impaired, retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) using CiteSpace, to provide an overview of the current state of research, trends, and hotspots in the field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLang Speech
January 2025
Department of Educational Psychology, Leadership, & Counseling, Texas Tech University, USA.
Adapting one's speaking style is particularly crucial as children start interacting with diverse conversational partners in various communication contexts. The study investigated the capacity of preschool children aged 3-5 years ( = 28) to modify their speaking styles in response to background noise, referred to as noise-adapted speech, and when talking to an interlocutor who pretended to have hearing loss, referred to as clear speech. We examined how two modified speaking styles differed across the age range.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConscious Cogn
December 2024
Department of Business and Marketing, Faculty of Commerce, Kyushu Sangyo University, 3-1 Matsukadai 2-Chome, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 813-8503, Japan. Electronic address:
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