scholarly journals Synchronous, but not Entrained: Exogenous and Endogenous Cortical Rhythms of Speech and Language Processing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Meyer ◽  
Yue Sun ◽  
Andrea E. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Acoustic Information ◽  
Cortical Rhythms ◽  
Abstract Representations ◽  
New Research ◽  
Speech And Language Processing

Research into speech processing is often focused on a phenomenon termed ‘entrainment’, whereby the cortex shadows rhythmic acoustic information with oscillatory activity. Entrainment has been observed to a range of rhythms present in speech; in addition, synchronicity with abstract information (e.g., syntactic structures) has been observed. Entrainment accounts face two challenges: First, speech is not exactly rhythmic; second, synchronicity with representations that lack a clear acoustic counterpart has been described. We propose that apparent entrainment does not always result from acoustic information. Rather, internal rhythms may have functionalities in the generation of abstract representations and predictions. While acoustics may often provide punctate opportunities for entrainment, internal rhythms may also live a life of their own to infer and predict information, leading to intrinsic synchronicity—not to be counted as entrainment. This possibility may open up new research avenues in the psycho– and neurolinguistic study of language processing and language development.

Word recognition in aphasia

2007 ◽  
pp. 140-156
Author(s):  
Sheila Blumstein
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Sentential Context ◽  
The Face ◽  
Speech And Language Processing

This article reviews current knowledge about the nature of auditory word recognition deficits in aphasia. It assumes that the language functioning of adults with aphasia was normal prior to sustaining brain injury, and that their word recognition system was intact. As a consequence, the study of aphasia provides insight into how damage to particular areas of the brain affects speech and language processing, and thus provides a crucial step in mapping out the neural systems underlying speech and language processing. To this end, much of the discussion focuses on word recognition deficits in Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics, two clinical syndromes that have provided the basis for much of the study of the neural basis of language. Clinically, Broca's aphasics have a profound expressive impairment in the face of relatively good auditory language comprehension. This article also considers deficits in processing the sound structure of language, graded activation of the lexicon, lexical competition, influence of word recognition on speech processing, and influence of sentential context on word recognition.

scholarly journals Developing a Shared Task for Speech Processing on Endangered Languages

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina-Anne Levow ◽  
Emily P. Ahn ◽  
Emily M. Bender
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
Resource Requirements ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Speech And Language Processing

Advances in speech and language processing have enabled the creation of applications that could, in principle, accelerate the process of language documentation, as speech communities and linguists work on urgent language documentation and reclamation projects. However, such systems have yet to make a significant impact on language documentation, as resource requirements limit the broad applicability of these new techniques. We aim to exploit the framework of shared tasks to focus the technology research community on tasks which address key pain points in language documentation. Here we present initial steps in the implementation of these new shared tasks, through the creation of data sets drawn from endangered language repositories and baseline systems to perform segmentation and speaker labeling of these audio recordings—important enabling steps in the documentation process. This paper motivates these tasks with a use case, describes data set curation and baseline systems, and presents results on this data. We then highlight the challenges and ethical considerations in developing these speech processing tools and tasks to support endangered language documentation.

scholarly journals Entrainment in Disguise: the Exogenous and Endogenous Cortical Rhythms of Speech and Language Processing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Meyer ◽  
Yue Sun ◽  
Andrea E. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Perceptual Inference ◽  
Endogenous Rhythms ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Inference Problems ◽  
Cortical Rhythms ◽  
Oscillatory Coupling ◽  
Speech And Language Processing

How neural systems represent information beyond the contents of sensory stimuli is a recurrent theme for models of perception and cognition—in particular in speech and language research: Speech is arrhythmic, yet steady oscillatory coupling to speech, so-called entrainment, still occurs. In addition, oscillatory coupling to linguistic information that does not have any physical counterpart has recently been described. We propose here that oscillatory responses to speech are not always entrained by exogenous sensory signals, but may also reflect endogenous rhythms that subserve the internal generation of linguistic representations. While acoustic information in speech provides punctate opportunities for exogenous entrainment proper, endogenous cortical rhythms may segment speech intosemantic and syntactic structures in a form of perceptual inference. The proposed synthesis of endogenous and exogenous information can account for one of the hardest inference problems the human brain faces: the comprehension of language.

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