Increased speech contrast induced by sensorimotor adaptation to a non-uniform auditory perturbation

When auditory feedback is perturbed in a consistent way, speakers learn to adjust their speech to compensate, a process known as sensorimotor adaptation. While this paradigm has been highly informative for our understanding of the role of sensory feedback in speech motor control, its ability to induce behaviorally-relevant changes in speech that affect communication effectiveness remains unclear. Because reduced vowel contrast contributes to intelligibility deficits in many neurogenic speech disorders, we examine human speakers' ability to adapt to a non-uniform perturbation field which was designed to affect vowel distinctiveness, applying a shift that depended on the vowel being produced. Twenty-five participants were exposed to this "vowel centralization" feedback perturbation in which the first to formant frequencies were shifted towards the center of each participant's vowel space, making vowels less distinct from one another. Speakers adapted to this non-uniform shift, learning to produce corner vowels with increased vowel space area and vowel contrast to partially overcome the perceived centralization. The increase in vowel contrast occurred without a concomitant increase in duration and persisted after the feedback shift was removed, including after a 10-minute silent period. These findings establish the validity of a sensorimotor adaptation paradigm to increase vowel contrast, showing that complex, non-uniform alterations to sensory feedback can successfully drive changes relevant to intelligible communication.

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Effects of Noise and Increased Vocal Intensity on Stuttering

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.2002.233 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 233-240 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Sharon F. Garber ◽

Richard R. Martin

Keyword(s):

Normal Level ◽

Auditory Feedback ◽

Concomitant Increase ◽

Vocal Intensity ◽

Presence And Absence

The present study was designed to assess the effects of increased vocal level on stuttering in the presence and absence of noise, and to assess the effects of noise on stuttering with and without a concomitant increase in vocal level. Accordingly, eight adult stutterers spoke in quiet with normal vocal level, in quiet with increased vocal level, in noise with normal level, and in noise with increased level. All subjects reduced stuttering in noise compared with quiet conditions. However, there was no difference in stuttering when subjects spoke with normal compared with increased vocal level. In the present study, reductions in stuttering under noise could not be explained by increases in vocal level. It appears, instead, that reductions in stuttering were related to a decrease in auditory feedback. The condition which resulted in the largest decrease in auditory feedback, speaking in noise with a normal level, also resulted in the largest decrease in stuttering.

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Abnormal Speech Motor Control in Individuals with 16p11.2 Deletions

10.1101/165316 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Carly Demopoulos ◽

Hardik Kothare ◽

Danielle Mizuiri ◽

Jennifer Henderson-Sabes ◽

Brieana Fregeau ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Control ◽

Auditory Feedback ◽

Spectral Peak ◽

Motor Deficits ◽

Speech Motor Control ◽

Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽

Speech And Language ◽

Vowel Production ◽

Identity Changes ◽

Speech Motor

AbstractSpeech and motor deficits are highly prevalent (>70%) in individuals with the 600 kb BP4-BP5 16p11.2 deletion; however, the mechanisms that drive these deficits are unclear, limiting our ability to target interventions and advance treatment. This study examined fundamental aspects of speech motor control in participants with the 16p11.2 deletion. To assess capacity for control of voice, we examined how accurately and quickly subjects changed the pitch of their voice within a trial to correct for a transient perturbation of the pitch of their auditory feedback. When compared to sibling controls, 16p11.2 deletion carriers show an over-exaggerated pitch compensation response to unpredictable mid-vocalization pitch perturbations. We also examined sensorimotor adaptation of speech by assessing how subjects learned to adapt their sustained productions of formants (speech spectral peak frequencies important for vowel identity), in response to consistent changes in their auditory feedback during vowel production. Deletion carriers show reduced sensorimotor adaptation to sustained vowel identity changes in auditory feedback. These results together suggest that 16p11.2 deletion carriers have fundamental impairments in the basic mechanisms of speech motor control and these impairments may partially explain the deficits in speech and language in these individuals.

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Integration of auditory and somatosensory error signals in the neural control of speech movements

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00638.2010 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 106 (2) ◽

pp. 667-679 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Yongqiang Feng ◽

Vincent L. Gracco ◽

Ludo Max

Keyword(s):

Auditory Feedback ◽

Neural Control ◽

Dominant Role ◽

Feedback Signal ◽

Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽

Auditory Modality ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

Articulatory Movements ◽

Jaw Opening ◽

Jaw Position

We investigated auditory and somatosensory feedback contributions to the neural control of speech. In task I, sensorimotor adaptation was studied by perturbing one of these sensory modalities or both modalities simultaneously. The first formant (F1) frequency in the auditory feedback was shifted up by a real-time processor and/or the extent of jaw opening was increased or decreased with a force field applied by a robotic device. All eight subjects lowered F1 to compensate for the up-shifted F1 in the feedback signal regardless of whether or not the jaw was perturbed. Adaptive changes in subjects' acoustic output resulted from adjustments in articulatory movements of the jaw or tongue. Adaptation in jaw opening extent in response to the mechanical perturbation occurred only when no auditory feedback perturbation was applied or when the direction of adaptation to the force was compatible with the direction of adaptation to a simultaneous acoustic perturbation. In tasks II and III, subjects' auditory and somatosensory precision and accuracy were estimated. Correlation analyses showed that the relationships 1) between F1 adaptation extent and auditory acuity for F1 and 2) between jaw position adaptation extent and somatosensory acuity for jaw position were weak and statistically not significant. Taken together, the combined findings from this work suggest that, in speech production, sensorimotor adaptation updates the underlying control mechanisms in such a way that the planning of vowel-related articulatory movements takes into account a complex integration of error signals from previous trials but likely with a dominant role for the auditory modality.

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Covariation of Cochlear Implant Users' Perception and Production of Vowel Contrasts and Their Identification by Listeners With Normal Hearing

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/1092-4388(2001/098) ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 44 (6) ◽

pp. 1257-1267 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Jennell C. Vick ◽

Harlan Lane ◽

Joseph S. Perkell ◽

Melanie L. Matthies ◽

John Gould ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cochlear Implants ◽

Normal Hearing ◽

Enhanced Production ◽

Vowel Space ◽

Before And After ◽

Masking Noise ◽

Perceptual Contrast ◽

Acoustic Space ◽

Vowel Contrast ◽

Phoneme Identification

This study investigates covariation of perception and production of vowel contrasts in speakers who use cochlear implants and identification of those contrasts by listeners with normal hearing. Formant measures were made of seven vowel pairs whose members are neighboring in acoustic space. The vowels were produced in carrier phrases by 8 postlingually deafened adults, before and after they received their cochlear implants (CI). Improvements in a speaker's production and perception of a given vowel contrast and normally hearing listeners' identification of that contrast in masking noise tended to occur together. Specifically, speakers who produced vowel pairs with reduced contrast in the pre-CI condition (measured by separation in the acoustic vowel space) and who showed improvement in their perception of these contrasts post-CI (measured with a phoneme identification test) were found to have enhanced production contrasts post-CI in many cases. These enhanced production contrasts were associated, in turn, with enhanced masked word recognition, as measured from responses of a group of 10 normally hearing listeners. The results support the view that restoring self-hearing allows a speaker to adjust articulatory routines to ensure sufficient perceptual contrast for listeners.

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Compensation to Altered Auditory Feedback in Children With Developmental Language Disorder and Typical Development

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00374 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Caitlin Coughler ◽

Emily Michaela Hamel ◽

Janis Oram Cardy ◽

Lisa M. D. Archibald ◽

David W. Purcell

Keyword(s):

Auditory Feedback ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Language Disorder ◽

Typical Development ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Developmental Language Disorder ◽

Shift Condition ◽

Vowel Space ◽

Processing Component ◽

Speech Motor

Purpose Developmental language disorder (DLD), an unexplained problem using and understanding spoken language, has been hypothesized to have an underlying auditory processing component. Auditory feedback plays a key role in speech motor control. The current study examined whether auditory feedback is used to regulate speech production in a similar way by children with DLD and their typically developing (TD) peers. Method Participants aged 6–11 years completed tasks measuring hearing, language, first formant (F1) discrimination thresholds, partial vowel space, and responses to altered auditory feedback with F1 perturbation. Results Children with DLD tended to compensate more than TD children for the positive F1 manipulation and compensated less than TD children in the negative shift condition. Conclusion Our findings suggest that children with DLD make atypical use of auditory feedback.

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Sensorimotor adaptation and aftereffect to frequency-altered feedback in Mandarin-speaking vocalists and non-vocalists

Concentric. Studies in Linguistics - Concentric ◽

10.1075/consl.00015.nin ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 46 (2) ◽

pp. 125-147

Author(s):

Li-Hsin Ning

Keyword(s):

Auditory Feedback ◽

Stimulus Type ◽

Test Phase ◽

Automatic Process ◽

Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽

Training Phase ◽

Training Experience ◽

Vocal Training ◽

Downward Shift ◽

Motor Representations

Abstract This research examined sensorimotor adaptation and aftereffect in trained vocalists and non-vocalists whose native language is Mandarin. The adaptive frequency-altered feedback paradigm involving a baseline of normal auditory feedback, a training phase of incrementally or decrementally changed feedback, and a test phase of normal auditory feedback was administered. The participants were asked to produce the sustained vowel /a/, Mandarin /ma1/ (“mother”), and Mandarin /ma2/ (“hemp”). The results show that the vocalists compensated less than the non-vocalists, suggesting that the vocalists’ audio-motor representations for pitch could be more entrenched than the non-vocalists’. All the participants displayed sensorimotor adaptation, indicating that online recalibration is an innate and automatic process. The presence of the aftereffect, however, depended on the stimulus type and vocal training experience. It appeared in all speakers’ responses to downward shift of /ma1/ and /ma2/, but only in the non-vocalists’ responses to /a/.

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Feedforward and Feedback Control in Apraxia of Speech: Effects of Noise Masking on Vowel Production

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2014_jslhr-s-13-0300 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 185-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Edwin Maas ◽

Marja-Liisa Mailend ◽

Frank H. Guenther

Keyword(s):

Auditory Feedback ◽

Feedback System ◽

Apraxia Of Speech ◽

Vowel Production ◽

Noise Masking ◽

Acoustic Measures ◽

Masking Condition ◽

Masking Noise ◽

Vowel Contrast ◽

Group Pattern

Purpose This study was designed to test two hypotheses about apraxia of speech (AOS) derived from the Directions Into Velocities of Articulators (DIVA) model (Guenther et al., 2006): the feedforward system deficit hypothesis and the feedback system deficit hypothesis. Method The authors used noise masking to minimize auditory feedback during speech. Six speakers with AOS and aphasia, 4 with aphasia without AOS, and 2 groups of speakers without impairment (younger and older adults) participated. Acoustic measures of vowel contrast, variability, and duration were analyzed. Results Younger, but not older, speakers without impairment showed significantly reduced vowel contrast with noise masking. Relative to older controls, the AOS group showed longer vowel durations overall (regardless of masking condition) and a greater reduction in vowel contrast under masking conditions. There were no significant differences in variability. Three of the 6 speakers with AOS demonstrated the group pattern. Speakers with aphasia without AOS did not differ from controls in contrast, duration, or variability. Conclusion The greater reduction in vowel contrast with masking noise for the AOS group is consistent with the feedforward system deficit hypothesis but not with the feedback system deficit hypothesis; however, effects were small and not present in all individual speakers with AOS. Theoretical implications and alternative interpretations of these findings are discussed.

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Tongue- and Jaw-Specific Contributions to Acoustic Vowel Contrast Changes in the Diphthong /ai/ in Response to Slow, Loud, and Clear Speech

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2017_jslhr-s-17-0114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 60 (11) ◽

pp. 3144-3158 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Antje S. Mefferd

Keyword(s):

Clinical Implications ◽

Clear Speech ◽

3 Dimensional ◽

Electromagnetic Articulography ◽

Vowel Space ◽

Vowel Contrast ◽

Slow Speech ◽

Speech Kinematics ◽

Tongue Displacement ◽

And Task

Purpose This study sought to determine decoupled tongue and jaw displacement changes and their specific contributions to acoustic vowel contrast changes during slow, loud, and clear speech. Method Twenty typical talkers repeated “see a kite again” 5 times in 4 speech conditions (typical, slow, loud, clear). Speech kinematics were recorded using 3-dimensional electromagnetic articulography. Tongue composite displacement, decoupled tongue displacement, and jaw displacement during /ai/, as well as the distance between /a/ and /i/ in the F1–F2 vowel space, were examined during the diphthong /ai/ in “kite.” Results Displacements significantly increased during all 3 speech modifications. However, jaw displacements increased significantly more during clear speech than during loud and slow speech, whereas decoupled tongue displacements increased significantly more during slow speech than during clear and loud speech. In addition, decoupled tongue displacements increased significantly more during clear speech than during loud speech. Increases in acoustic vowel contrast tended to be larger during slow speech than during clear speech and were predominantly tongue-driven, whereas those during clear speech were fairly equally accounted for by changes in decoupled tongue and jaw displacements. Increases in acoustic vowel contrast during loud speech were smallest and were predominantly tongue-driven, particularly in men. Conclusions Findings suggest that task-specific patterns of decoupled tongue and jaw displacement change and task-specific patterns of decoupled tongue and jaw contributions to vowel acoustic change across these speech modifications. Clinical implications are discussed.

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Altered auditory feedback induces coupled changes in formant frequencies during speech production

10.1101/733121 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ding-lan Tang ◽

Daniel R. Lametti ◽

Kate E. Watkins

Keyword(s):

Speech Production ◽

Auditory Feedback ◽

Motor System ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Speech Acoustics ◽

Articulatory Movements ◽

Vowel Space ◽

Speech Feedback ◽

Second Formant ◽

Speech Motor

AbstractSpeaking is one of the most complicated motor behaviours, involving a large number of articulatory muscles which can move independently to command precise changes in speech acoustics. Here, we used real-time manipulations of speech feedback to test whether the acoustics of speech production (e.g. the formants) reflect independently controlled articulatory movements or combinations of movements. During repetitive productions of “head, bed, dead”, either the first (F1) or the second formant (F2) of vowels was shifted and fed back to participants. We then examined whether changes in production in response to these alterations occurred for only the perturbed formant or both formants. In Experiment 1, our results showed that participants who received increased F1 feedback significantly decreased their F1 productions in compensation, but also significantly increased the frequency of their F2 productions. The combined F1-F2 change moved the utterances closer to a known pattern of speech production (i.e. the vowel category “hid, bid, did”). In Experiment 2, we further showed that a downshift in frequency of F2 feedback also induced significant compensatory changes in both the perturbed (F2) and the unperturbed formant (F1) that were in opposite directions. Taken together, the results demonstrate that a shift in auditory feedback of a single formant drives combined changes in related formants. The results suggest that, although formants can be controlled independently, the speech motor system may favour a strategy in which changes in formant production are coupled to maintain speech production within specific regions of the vowel space corresponding to existing speech-sound categories.New & NoteworthyFindings from previous studies examining responses to altered auditory feedback are inconsistent with respect to the changes speakers make to their production. Speakers can compensate by specifically altering their production to offset the acoustic error in feedback. Alternatively, they may compensate by changing their speech production more globally to produce a speech sound closer to an existing category in their repertoire. Our study shows support for the latter strategy.

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