scholarly journals Biasing the perception of spoken words with tACS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Kösem ◽  
Hans Rutger Bosker ◽  
Ole Jensen ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
Lars Riecke
Keyword(s):  
Speech Processing ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Word Perception ◽  
Continuous Stream ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Neural Entrainment ◽  
Auditory Cortices ◽  
Speech Segments ◽  
The Impact

AbstractRecent neuroimaging evidence suggests that the frequency of entrained oscillations in auditory cortices influences the perceived duration of speech segments, impacting word perception (Kösem et al. 2018). We further tested the causal influence of neural entrainment frequency during speech processing, by manipulating entrainment with continuous transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at distinct oscillatory frequencies (3 Hz and 5.5 Hz) above the auditory cortices. Dutch participants listened to speech and were asked to report their percept of a target Dutch word, which contained a vowel with an ambiguous duration. Target words were presented either in isolation (first experiment) or at the end of spoken sentences (second experiment). We predicted that the frequency of the tACS current would influence neural entrainment and therewith how speech is perceptually sampled, leading to a perceptual over- or underestimation of the vowel duration. Experiment 1 revealed no significant result. In contrast, results from experiment 2 showed a significant effect of tACS frequency on target word perception. Faster tACS lead to more long-vowel word percepts, in line with previous findings suggesting that neural oscillations are instrumental in the temporal processing of speech. The different results from the two experiments suggest that the impact of tACS is dependent on the sensory context. tACS may have a stronger effect on spoken word perception when the words are presented in a continuous stream of speech as compared to when they are isolated, potentially because prior (stimulus-induced) entrainment of brain oscillations might be a prerequisite for tACS to be effective.

scholarly journals Biasing the Perception of Spoken Words with Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 1428-1437
Author(s):  
Anne Kösem ◽  
Hans Rutger Bosker ◽  
Ole Jensen ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
Lars Riecke
Keyword(s):  
Speech Processing ◽  
Alternating Current ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Word Perception ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Neural Entrainment ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Auditory Cortices ◽  
Speech Segments ◽  
The Impact

Recent neuroimaging evidence suggests that the frequency of entrained oscillations in auditory cortices influences the perceived duration of speech segments, impacting word perception [Kösem, A., Bosker, H. R., Takashima, A., Meyer, A., Jensen, O., & Hagoort, P. Neural entrainment determines the words we hear. Current Biology, 28, 2867–2875, 2018]. We further tested the causal influence of neural entrainment frequency during speech processing, by manipulating entrainment with continuous transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at distinct oscillatory frequencies (3 and 5.5 Hz) above the auditory cortices. Dutch participants listened to speech and were asked to report their percept of a target Dutch word, which contained a vowel with an ambiguous duration. Target words were presented either in isolation (first experiment) or at the end of spoken sentences (second experiment). We predicted that the tACS frequency would influence neural entrainment and therewith how speech is perceptually sampled, leading to a perceptual overestimation or underestimation of the vowel's duration. Whereas results from Experiment 1 did not confirm this prediction, results from Experiment 2 suggested a small effect of tACS frequency on target word perception: Faster tACS leads to more long-vowel word percepts, in line with the previous neuroimaging findings. Importantly, the difference in word perception induced by the different tACS frequencies was significantly larger in Experiment 1 versus Experiment 2, suggesting that the impact of tACS is dependent on the sensory context. tACS may have a stronger effect on spoken word perception when the words are presented in continuous speech as compared to when they are isolated, potentially because prior (stimulus-induced) entrainment of brain oscillations might be a prerequisite for tACS to be effective.

scholarly journals Perception of Rhythmic Speech Is Modulated by Focal Bilateral Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedikt Zoefel ◽  
Isobella Allard ◽  
Megha Anil ◽  
Matthew H. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Alternating Current ◽  
Stream Segregation ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Neural Entrainment ◽  
Actual Speech

Several recent studies have used transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to demonstrate a causal role of neural oscillatory activity in speech processing. In particular, it has been shown that the ability to understand speech in a multi-speaker scenario or background noise depends on the timing of speech presentation relative to simultaneously applied tACS. However, it is possible that tACS did not change actual speech perception but rather auditory stream segregation. In this study, we tested whether the phase relation between tACS and the rhythm of degraded words, presented in silence, modulates word report accuracy. We found strong evidence for a tACS-induced modulation of speech perception, but only if the stimulation was applied bilaterally using ring electrodes (not for unilateral left hemisphere stimulation with square electrodes). These results were only obtained when data were analyzed using a statistical approach that was identified as optimal in a previous simulation study. The effect was driven by a phasic disruption of word report scores. Our results suggest a causal role of neural entrainment for speech perception and emphasize the importance of optimizing stimulation protocols and statistical approaches for brain stimulation research.

scholarly journals Spoken word recognition by Latino children learning Spanish as their first language

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
NEREYDA HURTADO ◽  
VIRGINIA A. MARCHMAN ◽  
ANNE FERNALD
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
The Impact

Research on the development of efficiency in spoken language understanding has focused largely on middle-class children learning English. Here we extend this research to Spanish-learning children (n=49; M=2;0; range=1;3–3;1) living in the USA in Latino families from primarily low socioeconomic backgrounds. Children looked at pictures of familiar objects while listening to speech naming one of the objects. Analyses of eye movements revealed developmental increases in the efficiency of speech processing. Older children and children with larger vocabularies were more efficient at processing spoken language as it unfolds in real time, as previously documented with English learners. Children whose mothers had less education tended to be slower and less accurate than children of comparable age and vocabulary size whose mothers had more schooling, consistent with previous findings of slower rates of language learning in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. These results add to the cross-linguistic literature on the development of spoken word recognition and to the study of the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) factors on early language development.

Youth Experiences in Authoring Action: The Impact of an Arts-Based Youth Program on Youth Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 074355842110067
Author(s):  
Parissa J. Ballard ◽  
Grace Anderson ◽  
Danielle Parker Moore ◽  
Stephanie S. Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Youth Development ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Leadership Education ◽  
Summer Program ◽  
Youth Of Color ◽  
Media Arts ◽  
Program Leaders ◽  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
Film Making ◽  
The Impact

Authoring Action (A2) is a youth-focused, arts-based, afterschool and summer program. A2’s mission is “to transform the lives of youth and the world through the power of creative writing, spoken word, visual and media arts, film-making and leadership education that promotes positive systemic change.” Using in-depth interviews, this study aimed to understand how this arts-based program affects youth development. Participants in this study (N=36) were alums of Authoring Action (A2), interviewed when they were between the ages of 17-32. Over half identified as female (N=21). Most A2 participants were youth of color and participated in A2 between ages 13-17. Interview data were coded following several steps: generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and generating a report. Four themes describe the impacts of A2 for program participants: communication, cathartic and transformative experiences, connection, and critical consciousness. Programmatic features—getting paid to participate, shared group identity, and open access to program leaders and peers – were meaningful to youth participants. The mission and programmatic features of A2 support youth development; we discuss practices that may benefit other arts-based youth programs and the implications of such practices for youth development.

scholarly journals Measures of speech rhythm and the role of corpus-based word frequency: a multifactorial comparison of Spanish(-English) speakers

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Harris ◽  
Stefan Th. Gries
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
Multiple Metrics ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
The Impact

In this study, we address various measures that have been employed to distinguish between syllable and stress- timed languages. This study differs from all previous ones by (i) exploring and comparing multiple metrics within a quantitative and multifactorial perspective and by (ii) also documenting the impact of corpus-based word frequency. We begin with the basic distinctions of speech rhythms, dealing with the differences between syllable-timed languages and stress-timed languages and several methods that have been used to attempt to distinguish between the two. We then describe how these metrics were used in the current study comparing the speech rhythms of Mexican Spanish speakers and bilingual English/Spanish speakers (speakers born to Mexican parents in California). More specifically, we evaluate how well various metrics of vowel duration variability as well as the so far understudied factor of corpus-based frequency allow to classify speakers as monolingual or bilingual. A binary logistic regression identifies several main effects and interactions. Most importantly, our results call the utility of a particular rhythm metric, the PVI, into question and indicate that corpus data in the form of lemma frequencies interact with two metrics of durational variability, suggesting that durational variability metrics should ideally be studied in conjunction with corpus-based frequency data.

scholarly journals Neural Entrainment Meets Behavior: The Stability Index as a Neural Outcome Measure of Auditory-Motor Coupling

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Rosso ◽  
Marc Leman ◽  
Lousin Moumdjian
Keyword(s):  
Outcome Measure ◽  
Pathological Condition ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Behavioral Outcomes ◽  
Stability Index ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Neural Entrainment ◽  
Entrainment Effect ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Impact

Understanding rhythmic behavior in the context of coupled auditory and motor systems has been of interest to neurological rehabilitation, in particular, to facilitate walking. Recent work based on behavioral measures revealed an entrainment effect of auditory rhythms on motor rhythms. In this study, we propose a method to compute the neural component of such a process from an electroencephalographic (EEG) signal. A simple auditory-motor synchronization paradigm was used, where 28 healthy participants were instructed to synchronize their finger-tapping with a metronome. The computation of the neural outcome measure was carried out in two blocks. In the first block, we used Generalized Eigendecomposition (GED) to reduce the data dimensionality to the component which maximally entrained to the metronome frequency. The scalp topography pointed at brain activity over contralateral sensorimotor regions. In the second block, we computed instantaneous frequency from the analytic signal of the extracted component. This returned a time-varying measure of frequency fluctuations, whose standard deviation provided our “stability index” as a neural outcome measure of auditory-motor coupling. Finally, the proposed neural measure was validated by conducting a correlation analysis with a set of behavioral outcomes from the synchronization task: resultant vector length, relative phase angle, mean asynchrony, and tempo matching. Significant moderate negative correlations were found with the first three measures, suggesting that the stability index provided a quantifiable neural outcome measure of entrainment, with selectivity towards phase-correction mechanisms. We address further adoption of the proposed approach, especially with populations where sensorimotor abilities are compromised by an underlying pathological condition. The impact of using stability index can potentially be used as an outcome measure to assess rehabilitation protocols, and possibly provide further insight into neuropathological models of auditory-motor coupling.

scholarly journals An Acoustic Investigation of Pakistani and American English Vowels

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Abdul Malik Abbasi ◽  
Mansoor Ahmed Channa ◽  
Stephen John ◽  
Masood Akhter Memon ◽  
Rabia Anwar
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Physical Properties ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
American English ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Acoustic Measurements ◽  
Computer Laboratory ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
English Vowels

Acoustic analysis tests the hypothesis that the physical properties of Pakistani English (PaKE) vowels differ in terms of acoustic measurements of Native American English speakers. The present paper aims to document the physical behavior of English vowels produced by PaKE learners. The major goal of this paper is to measure the production of sound frequencies coupled with vowel duration. The primary aim of this paper is to explore the different frequencies and duration of the vowels involved in articulation of PaKE. English vowels selected for this purpose are: /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/ and /ə/. Total ten samplings were obtained from the department of computer science at Sindh Madressatul Islam University, Karachi. The study was based on the analysis of 500 (10×5×10=500) voice samples. Five vowel minimal pairs were selected and written in a carrier phrase [I say CVC now]. Ten speakers (5 male & five female) recorded their 500 voice samples using Praat speech processing tool and a high-quality microphone on laptop in a computer laboratory with no background sound. Three parameters were considered for the analysis of PaKE vowels i.e., duration of five vowels, fundamental frequency (F1 and F2). It was hypothesized that the properties of PaKE vowels are different from that of English native speakers. The hypothesis was accepted since the acoustic measurements of PaKE and English Native American speakers’ physical properties of sounds were discovered different.

scholarly journals Probing the Link Between Perception and Oscillations: Lessons from Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuranny Cabral-Calderin ◽  
Melanie Wilke
Keyword(s):  
Time Windows ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Alternating Current ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Brain Oscillations ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Close Time ◽  
Auditory Cortices

Brain oscillations are regarded as important for perception as they open and close time windows for neural spiking to enable the effective communication within and across brain regions. In the past, studies on perception primarily relied on the use of electrophysiological techniques for probing a correlative link between brain oscillations and perception. The emergence of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) provides the possibility to study the causal contribution of specific oscillatory frequencies to perception. Here, we review the studies on visual, auditory, and somatosensory perception that employed tACS to probe the causality of brain oscillations for perception. The current literature is consistent with a causal role of alpha and gamma oscillations in parieto-occipital regions for visual perception and theta and gamma oscillations in auditory cortices for auditory perception. In addition, the sensory gating by alpha oscillations applies not only to the visual but also to the somatosensory domain. We conclude that albeit more refined perceptual paradigms and individualized stimulation practices remain to be systematically adopted, tACS is a promising tool for establishing a causal link between neural oscillations and perception.

Vowel learning in diglossic settings: Evidence from Arabic-Greek learners

2020 ◽  
pp. 136700692094539
Author(s):  
Georgios P Georgiou ◽  
Charalambos Themistocleous
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Variety Versus ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Egyptian Arabic ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
The Impact

Aim and questions: Second language learners are often acquiring a second language (L2) in multilingual and bidialectal sociolinguistic environments. The competing pronunciations can be challenging to language learners. This study aims to determine the effects of language variety—standard variety versus local variety—on L2 vowel learning. Methodology: Vowel productions from 55 speakers were analyzed in the study; 10 speakers of Egyptian Arabic were recorded in a reading task producing Greek vowels and their vowel productions were compared to L1 vowel productions produced by 20 Standard Modern Greek and 25 Cypriot Greek speakers from a study by Themistocleous. Data and analysis: We conducted linear mixed effects models and tested the effects of language variety, vowel, and stress on the first and second formant frequency and on vowel duration. Findings: Egyptian Arabic speakers merge the middle Greek vowels /e/ and /o/ and the high /i/ and /u/ vowels. Also, they did not differentiate phonetically between L2 stressed and unstressed vowels. These findings are arguably an effect of the L1 vowel structure on L2 vowels. The two varieties exercised competing effects on learners’ vowel productions, which suggests that both varieties are influencing vowel learning. Originality: There has been substantial research on L2 vowel learning in monolingual environments but not in diglossic environments; this study fills this gap by offering evidence about vowel learning in diglossic environments. Implications: In modern societies, communication takes place in multilingual environments. The findings highlight the impact of diglossia on L2 vowel learning and, ultimately, they demonstrate the importance of sociolinguistic factors on L2 learning.

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