Synesthesia

People with synesthesia have unusual sensory experiences whereby one stimulus elicits another: Words may evoke tastes, numbers evoke colors, and so on. The eliciting stimulus is called the inducer, whereas the synesthetic experience, which is normally percept-like in quality, is referred to as the concurrent. Synesthetic experiences use some of the same neural substrates as “real” perception. The associations are influenced by cross-modal correspondences between the senses (e.g., high pitch being bright or light) and regularities in one’s own environment. Synesthesia comes in many varieties, but these likely stem from a common cause (because different varieties tend to co-occur together). This is normally explained in terms of an atypical neurodevelopmental cascade from genetic differences that affect brain development and give rise to an atypical profile of behaviors (of which synesthesia is one). People with synesthesia not only have unusual sensory experiences—this being the trait that defines them—but also present with a distinctive cognitive profile (affecting memory, imagery, perception) that has impacts on their life choices (e.g., occupation) and may predispose selectively toward certain clinical vulnerabilities.

Aspects of New Zealand English Intonation and Its Meanings: an Experimental Investigation of Forms and Contrasts

<p>The first aim of this thesis was to examine the form of New Zealand English intonation. The results of the first series of experiments illustrated several distinctive features of NZE intonation and the preferential tonal use within this language variety. The results from the first experiment suggests that NZE intonation can be characterised as having a narrow pitch range within the phrase and a wide pitch range at the end of the phrase in relation to British English. The findings in the second analysis illustrate that tonal composition, not sentence type affects the pitch range that NZE speaker uses. In addition to pitch range preferences, NZE speakers were also found to prefer an H*L-L% nuclear tonal composition on statements and an L*L-H% for two types of questions when conversational cues were not required by the task type. The second aim of the thesis was to define the tonal features which may adequately describe the semantic contrasts used in this variety. Five experiments were carried out with this aim in mind. The results revealed that NZE listeners use the height of pitch target values when interpreting the meaning of intonation and that the heights of three tonal constituents would be useful in notating the semantic contrasts in this language variety. First, the pitch accent target is used in this variety to indicate speaker involvement, whereby higher (H*) or later (L+H*) pitch accent targets indicate a greater degree of involvement than lower (L*) or earlier targets (H*), respectively. This claim was supported by a production experiment (Chapter 5) in which speakers were asked to convey contrasting meanings on identical utterances. The results were such that higher and later pitch peaks were produced to convey concern, emphasis and an impressed attitude, while lower and earlier pitch accent peaks indicated an absence of these three meanings. Further support for this claim was provided in a perception experiment (Chapter 7), which investigated how listeners interpret conversational markers indicating discourse completeness. The results show that NZE listeners interpret higher H* targets as indicating speaker involvement and, subsequently, listener-oriented turn cues. However, a non-emphatic H*, or a high pitch accent which is lower in pitch than a preceding high pitch accent, does not convey such cues. Second, the boundary target is used to contrast continuation with high phrase-final targets and finality with low phrase-final targets in NZE. This assertion was supported by a perception experiment (Chapter 6) which examined categorical boundaries determined by the boundary tone height. The results suggest that there is at least one categorical boundary at the IP-Final position, which is marked by the pitch movement to the boundary target from the preceding H*. In addition, the semantic contrast of the boundary target height was illustrated in two experiments. First, a production experiment (Chapter 5) illustrated how NZE speakers indicate conversational continuation cues and concern with high boundaries whereas low boundaries indicated conversational cessation cues and a lack of concern. A separate perception experiment (Chapter 7) showed that NZE listeners interpret higher boundary targets as speaker continuation cues and listener-oriented speaking cues whereas lower boundary targets again indicated conversational cessation cues for the speaker and to the listener. Third, the phrase accent may prove useful in distinguishing a further semantic contrast used in this language variety, with a level pitch movement from H* to the IP-Final boundary target categorised with the H% stimuli (suggested in Chapter 6) while the distinction between H-L% and L-L% may be best defined as a pitch movement which does not fall to the F0 minimum and a movement which does fall to this low value (Chapter 5). Although the existence of a phrase accent could not be proved in this thesis, the results illustrate support for this tonal feature.</p>

Aspects of New Zealand English Intonation and Its Meanings: an Experimental Investigation of Forms and Contrasts

<p>The first aim of this thesis was to examine the form of New Zealand English intonation. The results of the first series of experiments illustrated several distinctive features of NZE intonation and the preferential tonal use within this language variety. The results from the first experiment suggests that NZE intonation can be characterised as having a narrow pitch range within the phrase and a wide pitch range at the end of the phrase in relation to British English. The findings in the second analysis illustrate that tonal composition, not sentence type affects the pitch range that NZE speaker uses. In addition to pitch range preferences, NZE speakers were also found to prefer an H*L-L% nuclear tonal composition on statements and an L*L-H% for two types of questions when conversational cues were not required by the task type. The second aim of the thesis was to define the tonal features which may adequately describe the semantic contrasts used in this variety. Five experiments were carried out with this aim in mind. The results revealed that NZE listeners use the height of pitch target values when interpreting the meaning of intonation and that the heights of three tonal constituents would be useful in notating the semantic contrasts in this language variety. First, the pitch accent target is used in this variety to indicate speaker involvement, whereby higher (H*) or later (L+H*) pitch accent targets indicate a greater degree of involvement than lower (L*) or earlier targets (H*), respectively. This claim was supported by a production experiment (Chapter 5) in which speakers were asked to convey contrasting meanings on identical utterances. The results were such that higher and later pitch peaks were produced to convey concern, emphasis and an impressed attitude, while lower and earlier pitch accent peaks indicated an absence of these three meanings. Further support for this claim was provided in a perception experiment (Chapter 7), which investigated how listeners interpret conversational markers indicating discourse completeness. The results show that NZE listeners interpret higher H* targets as indicating speaker involvement and, subsequently, listener-oriented turn cues. However, a non-emphatic H*, or a high pitch accent which is lower in pitch than a preceding high pitch accent, does not convey such cues. Second, the boundary target is used to contrast continuation with high phrase-final targets and finality with low phrase-final targets in NZE. This assertion was supported by a perception experiment (Chapter 6) which examined categorical boundaries determined by the boundary tone height. The results suggest that there is at least one categorical boundary at the IP-Final position, which is marked by the pitch movement to the boundary target from the preceding H*. In addition, the semantic contrast of the boundary target height was illustrated in two experiments. First, a production experiment (Chapter 5) illustrated how NZE speakers indicate conversational continuation cues and concern with high boundaries whereas low boundaries indicated conversational cessation cues and a lack of concern. A separate perception experiment (Chapter 7) showed that NZE listeners interpret higher boundary targets as speaker continuation cues and listener-oriented speaking cues whereas lower boundary targets again indicated conversational cessation cues for the speaker and to the listener. Third, the phrase accent may prove useful in distinguishing a further semantic contrast used in this language variety, with a level pitch movement from H* to the IP-Final boundary target categorised with the H% stimuli (suggested in Chapter 6) while the distinction between H-L% and L-L% may be best defined as a pitch movement which does not fall to the F0 minimum and a movement which does fall to this low value (Chapter 5). Although the existence of a phrase accent could not be proved in this thesis, the results illustrate support for this tonal feature.</p>

Analysis of Human Voice Spectrum based on Regional Accent in Vowels and Consonants

This study aims to analyze the spectrum of the human voice based on the accents of several regions. This research is included in the type of experimental research. Data were collected from 4 male respondents aged 23 years as research subjects. Respondents come from Central Java, East Java, Jambi, and South Sulawesi or come from Javanese, Malay, and Bugis ethnicities. Each respondent pronounces the vowels /a/ and /e/ as well as the consonants /b/, /d/, and /g/ once in each sound under normal circumstances or does not have throat problems or other things that make the sound abnormal. Voice recording is done in a closed and quiet room without any disturbance by using a microphone connected to a laptop using the cool record edit pro application. The sound spectrum was analyzed using Praat verse 2 software, then the recording was converted to *wav format. Furthermore, the sound spectrum analysis procedure uses software to determine the shape of the spectrum, the maximum or minimum pitch frequency (F0), and the formant frequency of F1-F4 in each sample. The results showed that the response of men from South Sulawesi had the highest tone of 156 Hz in the letter /b/ and 145 Hz in the letters /d/ and /g/ respectively. while the lowest tone of voice owned by men from the Jambi area is 105 Hz, 109 Hz, and 102 Hz for each consonant and the output from F0 (pitch) to F1-F4 (formant) can change and does not describe the high pitch, meaning the formant will always high.

Rethinking the frequency code: a meta-analytic review of the role of acoustic body size in communicative phenomena

The widely cited frequency code hypothesis attempts to explain a diverse range of communicative phenomena through the acoustic projection of body size. The set of phenomena includes size sound symbolism (using /i/ to signal smallness in words such as teeny ), intonational phonology (using rising contours to signal questions) and the indexing of social relations via vocal modulation, such as lowering one's voice pitch to signal dominance. Among other things, the frequency code is commonly interpreted to suggest that polite speech should be universally signalled via high pitch owing to the association of high pitch with small size and submissiveness. We present a cross-cultural meta-analysis of polite speech of 101 speakers from seven different languages. While we find evidence for cross-cultural variation, voice pitch is on average lower when speakers speak politely, contrary to what the frequency code predicts. We interpret our findings in the light of the fact that pitch has a multiplicity of possible communicative meanings. Cultural and contextual variation determines which specific meanings become manifest in a specific interactional context. We use the evidence from our meta-analysis to propose an updated view of the frequency code hypothesis that is based on the existence of many-to-many mappings between speech acoustics and communicative interpretations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part I)’.

Radiation Dose and Image Quality of a High-Pitch Prospective Spiral First Approach in Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA)

Objective: To investigate a high-pitch spiral first (HPSF) approach for coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in an unselected patient cohort and compare diagnostic yield and radiation exposure to CCTAs acquired via conventional, non-high-pitch spiral first (NHPSF) scan regimes. Materials and Methods: All consecutive patients from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017 were included. Two investigation protocols (HPSF/NHPSF) were used with the aim to achieve diagnostic image quality of all coronary segments. Low-pitch secondary scans followed the initial examination if image quality was unsatisfactory. Dosage and image quality were compared between both regimes. Results: 1410 patients were subject to a HPSF and 236 patients to a NHPSF approach. While the HPSF approach led to a higher fraction of re-scans (35% vs. 11%, p < 0.001), the fraction of aggregate scans that remained non-diagnostic after considering the initial and secondary scan was comparably low for the HPSF and NHPSF approach (0.78 vs. 0%, p = 0.18). Aggregate radiation exposure in the HPSF protocol was significantly lower (1.12 mSv (IQR: 0.73, 2.10) vs. 3.96 mSv (IQR: 2.23, 8.33) p < 0.001). Conclusions: In spite of a higher number of re-scans, a HPSF approach leads to a reduction in overall radiation exposure with diagnostic yields similar to a NHPSF approach.