Cutaneous vibration enhances the Lombard Effect

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
pp. 2434-2435
Author(s):  
François-Xavier Brajot ◽  
Vincent L. Gracco
Keyword(s):  
Lombard Effect ◽  
Cutaneous Vibration

scholarly journals Effect of Mouth Mask and Face Shield on Speech Spectrum in Slovak Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4829
Author(s):  
Vojtech Chmelík ◽  
Daniel Urbán ◽  
Lukáš Zelem ◽  
Monika Rychtáriková
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Suprasternal Notch ◽  
Lombard Effect ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Female Speech ◽  
The Face ◽  
Frequency Components ◽  
Acoustic Filtering ◽  
Filtering Effect

In this paper, with the aim of assessing the deterioration of speech intelligibility caused by a speaker wearing a mask, different face masks (surgical masks, FFP2 mask, homemade textile-based protection and two kinds of plastic shields) are compared in terms of their acoustic filtering effect, measured by placing the mask on an artificial head/mouth simulator. For investigating the additional effects on the speaker’s vocal output, speech was also recorded while people were reading a text when wearing a mask, and without a mask. In order to discriminate between effects of acoustic filtering by the mask and mask-induced effects of vocal output changes, the latter was monitored by measuring vibrations at the suprasternal notch, using an attached accelerometer. It was found that when wearing a mask, people tend to slightly increase their voice level, while when wearing plastic face shield, they reduce their vocal power. Unlike the Lombard effect, no significant change was found in the spectral content. All face mask and face shields attenuate frequencies above 1–2 kHz. In addition, plastic shields also increase frequency components to around 800 Hz, due to resonances occurring between the face and the shield. Finally, special attention was given to the Slavic languages, in particular Slovak, which contain a large variety of sibilants. Male and female speech, as well as texts with and without sibilants, was compared.

scholarly journals Speakers exhibit a multimodal Lombard effect in noise

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Trujillo ◽  
Asli Özyürek ◽  
Judith Holler ◽  
Linda Drijvers
Keyword(s):  
Motion Capture ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Visual Channel ◽  
Lombard Effect ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
Acoustic Modulation ◽  
Action Verbs

AbstractIn everyday conversation, we are often challenged with communicating in non-ideal settings, such as in noise. Increased speech intensity and larger mouth movements are used to overcome noise in constrained settings (the Lombard effect). How we adapt to noise in face-to-face interaction, the natural environment of human language use, where manual gestures are ubiquitous, is currently unknown. We asked Dutch adults to wear headphones with varying levels of multi-talker babble while attempting to communicate action verbs to one another. Using quantitative motion capture and acoustic analyses, we found that (1) noise is associated with increased speech intensity and enhanced gesture kinematics and mouth movements, and (2) acoustic modulation only occurs when gestures are not present, while kinematic modulation occurs regardless of co-occurring speech. Thus, in face-to-face encounters the Lombard effect is not constrained to speech but is a multimodal phenomenon where the visual channel carries most of the communicative burden.

scholarly journals Vocal plasticity in a reptile

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1855) ◽  
pp. 20170451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Brumm ◽  
Sue Anne Zollinger
Keyword(s):  
Signal Detection ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
High Amplitude ◽  
Vocal Plasticity ◽  
Lombard Effect ◽  
Gekko Gecko ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Signalling Systems

Sophisticated vocal communication systems of birds and mammals, including human speech, are characterized by a high degree of plasticity in which signals are individually adjusted in response to changes in the environment. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first evidence for vocal plasticity in a reptile. Like birds and mammals, tokay geckos ( Gekko gecko ) increased the duration of brief call notes in the presence of broadcast noise compared to quiet conditions, a behaviour that facilitates signal detection by receivers. By contrast, they did not adjust the amplitudes of their call syllables in noise (the Lombard effect), which is in line with the hypothesis that the Lombard effect has evolved independently in birds and mammals. However, the geckos used a different strategy to increase signal-to-noise ratios: instead of increasing the amplitude of a given call type when exposed to noise, the subjects produced more high-amplitude syllable types from their repertoire. Our findings demonstrate that reptile vocalizations are much more flexible than previously thought, including elaborate vocal plasticity that is also important for the complex signalling systems of birds and mammals. We suggest that signal detection constraints are one of the major forces driving the evolution of animal communication systems across different taxa.

scholarly journals The Lombard effect emerges early in young bats: implications for the development of audio-vocal integration

2016 ◽  
Vol 220 (6) ◽  
pp. 1032-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinhong Luo ◽  
Andrea Lingner ◽  
Uwe Firzlaff ◽  
Lutz Wiegrebe
Keyword(s):  
Lombard Effect

The Lombard Effect: From Acoustics to Neural Mechanisms

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 938-949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinhong Luo ◽  
Steffen R. Hage ◽  
Cynthia F. Moss
Keyword(s):  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Lombard Effect

scholarly journals Echolocating bats exhibit differential amplitude compensation for noise interference at a sub-call level

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (19) ◽  
pp. jeb225284
Author(s):  
Manman Lu ◽  
Guimin Zhang ◽  
Jinhong Luo
Keyword(s):  
Functional Role ◽  
Ambient Noise ◽  
Production Control ◽  
Constant Frequency ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Lombard Effect ◽  
Echolocation Calls ◽  
Noise Interference ◽  
Sound Communication ◽  
Amplitude Compensation

ABSTRACTFlexible vocal production control enables sound communication in both favorable and unfavorable conditions. The Lombard effect, which describes a rise in call amplitude with increasing ambient noise, is a widely exploited strategy by vertebrates to cope with interfering noise. In humans, the Lombard effect influences the lexical stress through differential amplitude modulation at a sub-call syllable level, which so far has not been documented in animals. Here, we bridge this knowledge gap with two species of Hipposideros bats, which produce echolocation calls consisting of two functionally well-defined units: the constant-frequency (CF) and frequency-modulated (FM) components. We show that ambient noise induced a strong, but differential, Lombard effect in the CF and FM components of the echolocation calls. We further report that the differential amplitude compensation occurred only in the spectrally overlapping noise conditions, suggesting a functional role in releasing masking. Lastly, we show that both species of bats exhibited a robust Lombard effect in the spectrally non-overlapping noise conditions, which contrasts sharply with the existing evidence. Our data highlight echolocating bats as a potential mammalian model for understanding vocal production control.

Functional maturation of tactile sensory fibers in the kitten

1984 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Ferrington ◽  
M. O. Hora ◽  
M. J. Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Postnatal Period ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Functional Changes ◽  
Functional Maturation ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Adult Cats ◽  
Skin Indentation ◽  
Sensory Fibers ◽  
Cutaneous Vibration

The maturation of tactile coding capacities was investigated in sensory fibers supplying the forelimb footpads in anesthetized kittens. Fibers were isolated by microdissection from the median or ulnar nerves of neonatal kittens (1st to 5th postnatal day) and kittens in the age categories 10-15, 25-30, 55-63, and 83-90 days. The use of quantitative, reproducible tactile stimuli, in particular, cutaneous vibration, and objective analytical procedures enabled response parameters to be quantified and compared at different ages with those of adult fibers. While three classes of myelinated tactile sensory fibers are associated with the footpads in adult cats, one of them slowly adapting (SA) and two, the rapidly adapting (RA) and pacinian corpuscle (PC) classes, showing pure dynamic sensitivity, this breakdown into three classes is not apparent until 10-15 days after birth. In all age groups, the SA fibers displayed responses that were graded depending on the magnitude of the skin indentation. However, in younger kittens (less than 25-30 days) plateau levels of response were sometimes attained over a narrow range (0.5 mm) of indentation. From 10-15 days, when RA fibers are identifiable, their sensitivity, as measured by absolute and 1:1 thresholds to cutaneous vibration, was independent of age at low vibration frequencies, less than or equal to 80 Hz. However, at high frequencies, e.g., 200 Hz, their thresholds appeared to decrease during the 1st postnatal month with a resulting expansion in their bandwidth of vibratory sensitivity. At their best frequency, around 30 Hz, RA fibers appear mature by 10-15 days in their capacity for encoding vibratory frequency information. The PC class of tactile afferents displayed the most striking functional changes with age. Their vibratory bandwidths, at 50-micron amplitude, expand from an upper limit of about 200-300 Hz in the neonate to mature values of about 800-1,000 Hz over a 2-mo postnatal period.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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