Sharing Beyond Words: How Humans Communicate Through Sound via BrowZine

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Can't wait to read. Dr. Kraus does some of the best sound/auditory/cognition research in her Auditory Neuroscience Lab at Northwestern University

Sharing The Neural Correlates of Speech Motor Sequence Learning via BrowZine

The Neural Correlates of Speech Motor Sequence Learning
Segawa, Jennifer A.; Tourville, Jason A.; Beal, Deryk S.; Guenther, Frank H.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 27 Issue 4 – 2015: 819 - 831

10.1162/jocn_a_00737

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http://login.ezproxy.lib.umn.edu/login?url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn_a_00737

Non-University of Minnesota Users: (Full text may not be available)
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn_a_00737

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Background noise may disrupt speech perception via neural timing synchronization problems

Yet more research supporting the role of the brain clock in human behavior, this time (again) focusing on the importance of neural timing/temporal resolution being negatively influenced by background noise. Impaired auditory signal processing may disrupt speech perception in invidiauls with speech perception problems.

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The brain clock (mental timing) and clinical disorders

The human brain clock is intimately involved in wide array of human cognitive and motor behaviors.  At this blog a number of clincal disorders have been associated with some degree of disturbance or damage to brain mechanisms related to mental timing.  This informaiton is scattered across a variety of posts.  I decided to pull it all together (as of today's date) in this post.

Mental timing (brain clock) has been implicated via research reported at this blog in:

ADHD and attention

Autismhttp://www.brainclock.net/search/label/autism

Various speech and language disorders

• Aphasia
• Apraxia
• Speech and language

Tourette's syndrome

Cerbral palsy

Central auditory processing disorders (CAPD)

Reading disabilities/dyslexia (click here, here and here)

Various dopaminegeric-based disorders

• Huntington's 
• Schizophrenia
• Parkinson's

Gate disorders

Stroke related dysfunction

A more detailed reference list of timing-related dysfunctions/disorder (e.g., aging related disorders--Alzheimer's, dementia; ADHD, motor coordination/timing disorders--gait, stroke,swallowing;  speech and language disorders--aphasia/stroke/apraxia/speech; TBI) can be found in special white paper regarding the efficacy of various rhythm-based interventions.

Speech rhythm perception (Ga?) important for early reading

Holliman, A. J., Wood, C., & Sheehy, K. (2010). Does Speech Rhythm Sensitivity Predict Children's Reading Ability 1 Year Later? Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(2), 356-366.

There is a growing literature demonstrating that speech rhythm sensitivity is related to children's reading development, independent of phonological awareness. However, the precise nature of this relationship is less well understood, and further research is warranted to investigate whether speech rhythm sensitivity predicts the different components of reading over time. In this 1-year longitudinal study, 69 five- to 8-year-old English-speaking children completed a speech rhythm assessment at Time 1 along with other cognitive assessments and then completed a variety of reading assessments at Time 2 (1 year later). A series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for individual differences in age, vocabulary, and phonological awareness, speech rhythm sensitivity was able to predict unique variance in word reading and the phrasing component of the reading fluency measure 1 year later. The findings emphasize the contribution of speech rhythm sensitivity in children's reading development, and the authors argue that speech rhythm sensitivity should now be included in current models of children's reading development.

Speech rhythm was measured via the revised mispronounciations task:  As described in the article:

Speech rhythm sensitivity was measured using the revised mispronunciations task (Holliman et al., in press). Children heard a prerecorded word that was sounded through a speaker, where the stress of that word had been manipulated and reversed. For example, in the normal pronunciation of the word carrot [kær?t], the vowel in the first syllable is fully articulated and the vowel in the second syllable is reduced. However, in this task the stress was reversed so that the vowel in the first syllable became reduced and the vowel in the second syllable was fully articulated; carrot was pronounced as “c’rot” [k?'r?t]. To succeed in this task, children would need to be sensitive to the fact that the stress had been manipulated, and be
able to recover the correct stress, making a stress shift (Kitzen, 2001) to match the auditory input to a word stored in the lexicon, and then identify the corresponding target item from a choice of four pictures available.

If anyone would like a copy of the PDF article, in exchange for a brief guest blog post review of the article, contact the blogmaster @ iap@earthlink.net

Technorati Tags: Psychology, school psychology, special education, learning disabilities, reading disabilities, dyslexia, neuropsychology, speech and language, speech rhythm perception, rhythm perception, Ga, auditory processing, reading, IQs corner, educational psychology, intelligence, literacy

Research Briefs 5-31-10: Timing and speech comprehension

Dahan, D. (2010). The Time Course of Interpretation in Speech Comprehension. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 19(2), 121-126.

Abstract

Determining how language comprehension proceeds over time has been central to theories of human language use. Early research on the comprehension of speech in real time put special emphasis on the sequential property of speech, by assuming that the interpretation of what is said proceeds at the same rate that information in the speech signal reaches the senses. The picture that is emerging from recent work suggests a more complex process, one in which information from speech has an immediate influence while enabling later-arriving information to modulate initial hypotheses. “Right-context” effects, in which the later portion of a spoken stimulus can affect the interpretation of an earlier portion, are pervasive and can span several syllables or words. Thus, the interpretation of a segment of speech appears to result from the accumulation of information and integration of linguistic constraints over a larger temporal window than the duration of the speech segment itself. This helps explain how human listeners can understand language so efficiently, despite massive perceptual uncertainty in the speech signal.

Technorati Tags: Psychology, school psychology, educational psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, neurosciences, neurotechnology, neurology, brain, brain function, cognitive abilities, intelligence, IQ brain clock, brain timing, mental timekeeping, brain rhythms, rhythm perception, brain synchrony, brain synchronization, neural synchrony, neural synchronization, brain clock, speech, language

More on speech and the IQ brain clock

Yet another research article [Peter & Stoel-Gammon (2008). Central timing deficits in subtypes of primary speech disorders. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, March 2008; 22(3): 171–198] indicating the importance of mental timing and speech (click here for prior related posts), in this case CAS (childhood apraxia of speech). According to the journal authors, this subtype of speech disorder is somewhat controversial in clinical practice. It is defined as "a motor speech disorder that specifically interferes with motor planning and/or programming, resulting in moderate to severe deficits in speech intelligibility."

The authors conclude that "this study is consistent with the presence of a central timing deficit in children with speechdisorders, expressed across modalities (oral, hand) and across types of timing measures (greater rhythmic structure, small-scale durational accuracy), affecting children with fewer
apraxic characteristics to a lesser extent."

Caveat....this is small sample size study (11 clinical subjects and 11 matched controls) that needs replication in additional samples.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, education, neuropsychology, neuroscience, speech, language, apraxia, mental timing, brain clock, IQ Brain Clock, temporal processing

Fast ForWord, Ga, mental time-keeping...some musings

Recently there has been some NASP listserv chatter regarding the Fast ForWord neurotechnology intervention program (click here) for kids with language or reading disabilities.

I've still not reviewed the intervention articles, but instead, have tried to find time to read some of the theoretical/empirical foundational literature that serves as the basis for the intervention. In the process I stumbled upon a nice overview of the conceptual/theoretical/research literature as articulated by one of the authors of this intervention program. The article was published (2003) in the prestigious (and one of my favorite) journals--Current Directions in Psychological Science.

• Tallal, P. (2003). Language learning disabilities: Integrating research approaches. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12 (6), 206-211 (click to view).

Below are a few select quotes from the article:

• Why should the rate of auditory processing play such a critical role in normal as well as aberrant language development? One answer comes from an analysis of the acoustic properties of speech, which shows that the ability to track brief, rapidly successive frequency changes within the acoustic waveform of speech (known as formant transitions) is crucial for language development.
• Benasich and I (Benasich Tallal, 2002) have hypothesized that individual differences in rapid-auditory-processing thresholds, which can be observed in infancy, affect what each brain binds together as nearly simultaneous, and this significantly affects the grain analysis that will be represented for speech. Substantial behavioral and physiological evidence shows that many individuals with early oral-language impairments are impaired in processing brief, rapidly successive acoustic cues within the tens of milliseconds needed for optimal phoneme representation. Similarly, many people with reading impairments (dyslexia) are characterized by deficits that reflect a difficulty segmenting words into sharply represented, discrete phonemes. This skill is critical for learning letter-sound associations. has been hypothesized that the high incidence of co-occurrence developmental oral- and writtenlanguage impairments is the result of common phonological deficits for a review, see Habib, 2000).
• However, more recent research has challenged that perspective. Physiological studies have demonstrated that sensory neural maps can be significantly altered at the cellular level by intensive be-havioral training, even in adult animals. Of particular relevance to LLI are animal studies demonstrating that the capacity to segment rapidly successive auditory events can be sharpened by behavioral training based on Hebbian learning principles (Recanzone et al., 1993). On the basis of these studies, my colleagues and I (Merzenich et al., 1996; Tallal et al., 1996) hypothesized that it may be possible to improve the capacity of children with LLI to process the rapidly successive acoustic changes within ongoing speech. With the aid of computer technology, we developed a novel training approach (Fast For-Word®) disguised as a series of computer games. In a series of experiments, we studied the effectiveness of these games in improving the linguistic abilities of children with LLI. In one game, subjects indicate the temporal order of tones that are either rising or falling in pitch. The tones are designed to cover the range of frequencies and speeds that typify the acoustic frequency changes that occur in formant transitions in consonants. The computer program adaptively changes (increases or decreases) the duration of each tone and the rate at which one tone follows another based on each subject’s trial-by-trial performance, with the goal of increasing the ability to process more rapidly changing acoustic stimuli. In another approach, we use a computer algorithm to acoustically modify (amplify and temporally extend) the rapidly successive acoustic changes that occur within ongoing speech. This acoustically modified speech signal is used in a series of games to train language comprehension at all levels, from the phoneme to the whole sentence. As linguistic performance improves, the amount of acoustic modification adaptively decreases so that the stimuli become increasingly more like the stimuli that occur in normal speech.
• These results support the hypothesis that basic acoustic frequency and temporal (spectrotemporal) processing constraints play a significant role in LLI. Furthermore, they demonstrate that training using acoustically modified speech can ameliorate these processing constraints, as well as the effect they have on speech and language processing. Habib et al. (2002) obtained similar results in an independent study with French children with dyslexia.

• Click here to read more.....

I haven't had time to think this all through, but the focus on rapid temporal processing seems to have some parallels to the theoretical and intervention research related to my interest in the IQ Brain Clock--that is, mental or interval time-keeping. I sense some connections....I need to let things percolate in my cortex for a while. Comments by those who can make these connections quicker are appreciated.

Also, this research suggests that there are likely some yet specified narrow Ga (auditory processing) abilities that need to be investigated for possible inclusion in the CHC theory of cognitive abilities.

So many interesting articles to read...so little time

PS - I just recalled a related post at IQ's Corner re: rapid auditory gap detection.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neurotechnology, brain fitness, Ga, auditory processing, Fast ForWord, temporal, temporal processing, brain clock, mental time keeping, interval time keeping, special education, language disordres, dyslexia


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TANGO: Assistive Communication Technology

Thanks to Positive Technology Journal for the FYI post and link to an interesting article about "TANGO: The Next Generation of Assistive Communication Devices"

Technorati Tags: psychology, speech, language, ASHA, assistive communication, assistive technology, communication, neurtechnology, neuroprothesis

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Mental time keeping and human speech

Earlier today I made an FYI post (with link to article) dealing with the role of the timing function of the auditory brainstem in speech. This reminded me of an article in a recent special issue of Cognitive Brain Research that reviewed recent neuroscience research (lesion and neuroimaging) that investigated the role of timing in human speech.

• Schirmer, A (2004). Timing speech: a review of lesion and neuroimaging findings. Cognitive Brain Research, 21, 269–287 (click to view)

What I find particularly interesting is the spotlight (in this review article) on the basal ganglia, cerebullum and the left frontal cortex in speech-related timing behavior. Why?

Because the preponderance of mental interval time-keeping research consistently is pointing to the "master internal brain clock" being localized in the same general areas; particularly the basal ganglia, cerebullum, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the frontial-striatal loop (Buhusi & Meck; 2005; Janata & Grafton, 2003; Nobre & O’Reilly, 2004; Peretz & Zatorre, 2005). Schimer concludes that the "BG [basal ganglia] and the cerebellum might perform more general timing operations that feed into other cognitive processes such as the processes specific to speech." In other words, Shimer is arguing for a domain-general, brain-based, mental time-keeper that functions in synchrony with possible domain-specific cognitive mechanisms specific to speech behavior.

Abstract

• Time is a fundamental dimension of behavior and as such underlies the perception and production of speech. This paper reviews patient and neuroimaging studies that investigated brain structures that support temporal aspects of speech. The left-frontal cortex, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum represent structures that have been implicated repeatedly. A comparison with the structures involved in the timing of nonspeech events (e.g., tones, lights, finger movements) suggests both commonalities and differences: while the basal ganglia and the cerebellum contribute to the timing of speech and non-speech events, the contribution of left-frontal cortex seems to be specific to speech or rapidly changing acoustic information. Motivated by these commonalities and differences, this paper presents assumptions about the function of basal ganglia, cerebellum, and cortex in the timing of speech.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, neurology, speech, language, timing, mental time clock, master brain clock, metronome, interval timing, mental time keeping, pacemaker accumulator model, scalar timing theory, basal ganglia, cerebullum, frontal cortex, dorsolaterial prefrontal cortex, auditory brain stem

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Role of auditory brainstem timing in speech

Thanks to SCLin's neuroscience blog for the tip about an article in the Journal of Neuroscience that implicates the role of auditory brainstem timing and speech. (Click here to view article)

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, speech, language, intelligence, IQ, cognition, cognitive, brain clock, mental timing, interval timing, brainsteam, auditory brainstem, mental clock

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