EFFICACY OF VOCABULARY BOMBARDMENT IN A CLIENT WITH BROCA'S APHASIA - A SINGLE CASE STUDY.

Vocabulary Bombardment is an evidence based therapy procedure, in which the client is made to listen to amplified target words only through auditory modality. A standardized set of words are provided in a repeated and intensified manner for a period of time. Individuals with Broca’s aphasia have naming difficulties with limited vocabulary, therefore the aim of this study focuses on effect of intense vocabulary bombardment on word retrieval through auditory mode for a client with aphasia. A case study was done on an individual with Broca’s aphasia. Method includes a material, which had tasks to recollect words. The test had 12 sub-tests under it, with each sub-test pertaining to a specific category. The client was provided with intervention with this material for a period of 4 weeks and the word retrieval ability was checked. Significant improvement was obtained following the intervention with vocabulary bombardment.

Visual speech fills in both discrimination and identification of non-intact auditory speech in children

To communicate, children must discriminate and identify speech sounds. Because visual speech plays an important role in this process, we explored how visual speech influences phoneme discrimination and identification by children. Critical items had intact visual speech (e.g.bæz) coupled to non-intact (excised onsets) auditory speech (signified by /–b/æz). Children discriminated syllable pairs that differed in intactness (i.e. bæz:/–b/æz) and identified non-intact nonwords (/–b/æz). We predicted that visual speech would cause children to perceive the non-intact onsets as intact, resulting in moresameresponses for discrimination and more intact (i.e.bæz) responses for identification in the audiovisual than auditory mode. Visual speech for the easy-to-speechread /b/ but not for the difficult-to-speechread /g/ boosted discrimination and identification (about 35–45%) in children from four to fourteen years. The influence of visual speech on discrimination was uniquely associated with the influence of visual speech on identification and receptive vocabulary skills.

Investigating Algerian EFL Students’ Learning-Style and Brain-Dominance Profiles

Learning styles and brain-dominance preferences continue to attract, today, the attention of both researchers and practitioners in the field of education. Learners are different from each other and this difference matters in learner-centred instruction. This work is an attempt to identify the students’ learning-style and brain-dominance profiles at the Department of English, Larbi Ben M’hidi University, Oum el Bouaghi, Algeria. Seventy two Master Two-level students took part in this study. The Barsch Learning-Style Inventory and the Brain-Dominance Inventory were used as data collection tools. The results show that most of the participants have a visual mode of learning, whether predominantly or in combination with the auditory mode. In addition, the majority of the students are found to have a slight preference either to the left- or the right-brain hemisphere. The paper eventually discusses ways to enable teachers to tailor classroom instructional strategies to students’ learning preferences, and hence capitalize on their learning strengths.

Mode of Presentation Affects Infants’ Preferential Attention to Singing and Speech

Almost from birth, infants prefer to attend to human vocalizations associated with speech over many other sounds. However, studies that have focused on infants’ differential attention to speech and singing have failed to show a speech listening bias. The purpose of the study was to investigate infants’ preferential attention to singing and speech presented in audiovisual and auditory mode. Using an infant-controlled preference procedure, 11-month-olds were presented with audiovisual stimuli depicting a woman singing or reciting a song (Experiment 1, audiovisual condition). The results showed that infants attended significantly longer to singing than to speech. In Experiment 2 (visual condition), infants watched the same videos presented with no sound and in Experiment 3 (auditory condition), they listened to the singing and speech stimuli in English and a foreign language. No differences in length of attention to singing and speech were found in either experiment. The results of the study reconcile the seemingly contradicting findings of previous investigations and show that mode of presentation affects infants’ preferential attention to speech and singing. The facilitating effects of facial cues on infants’ processing of speech and singing are discussed.

Auditory brainstem implants in neurofibromatosis Type 2: is open speech perception feasible?

Object Patients with bilateral auditory nerve destruction may perceive some auditory input with auditory brainstem implants (ABIs). Despite technological developments and trials in new stimulation sites, hearing is very variable and of limited quality. The goal of this study was to identify advantageous and critical factors that influence the quality of auditory function, especially speech perception. Methods The authors conducted a prospective study on ABI operations performed with the aid of multimodality neuromonitoring between 2005 and 2009 in 18 patients with neurofibromatosis Type 2. Outcome was evaluated by testing word recognition (monotrochee-polysyllabic word test at auditory-only mode [MTPa]) and open speech perception (Hochmair-Schulz-Moser [HSM] sentence test), both in pure auditory mode. The primary outcome was the HSM score at 24 months. The predictive meaning of general clinical data, tumor volume, number of active electrodes, duration of deafness, and early hearing data was examined. Results In 16 successful ABI activations the average score for MTPa was 89% (SD 13%), and for HSM it was 41% (SD 32%) at 24 months. There were 2 nonresponders, 1 after radiosurgery and the other in an anatomical variant. Direct facial nerve reconstruction during the same surgery was followed by successful nerve recovery in 2 patients, with a simultaneous very good HSM result. Patients' age, tumor extension, and tumor volume were not negative predictors. There was an inverse relationship between HSM scores and deafness duration; 50% or higher HSM scores were found only in patients with ipsilateral deafness duration up to 24 months. The higher the deafness sum of both sides, the less likely that any HSM score will be achieved (p = 0.034). In patients with total deafness duration of less than 240 months, higher numbers of active electrodes were significantly associated with better outcomes. The strongest cross-correlation was identified between early MTPa score at 3 months and 24-month HSM outcome. Conclusions This study documents that open-set speech recognition in pure auditory mode is feasible in patients with ABIs. Large tumor volumes do not prevent good outcome. Positive preconditions are short ipsilateral and short bilateral deafness periods and high number of auditory electrodes. Early ability in pure auditory word recognition tests indicates long-term capability of open speech perception.

The Effects of Sensory Modality and Information Priority on In-Vehicle Signing and Information Systems

During this study, subjects drove an interactive driving simulator and were presented road sign information from a visual dash-mounted LCD display or from digitized auditory voice. Information priority was also manipulated in that subjects received all sign information typically present in the roadway environment, or only “filtered” high priority regulatory and notification information. The effects of display type and filtering on information recall, driver performance, and driver preferences were measured. The results indicate that presenting information in an auditory mode results in a higher level of road sign information recall, but also decreases the subjects' driving performance when compared to a visual display. Subjects were also able to recall more road sign information and drove at a higher level of performance during the filtered conditions. Subjects rated auditory information as more distracting than visual information.

Review of Auditory Subliminal Psychodynamic Activation Experiments

Subliminal psychodynamic activation experiments using auditory stimuli have yielded only a modicum of support for the contention that such activation produces predictable behavioral changes. Problems in many auditory subliminal psychodynamic activation experiments indicate that those predictions have not been tested adequately. The auditory mode of presentation, however, has several methodological advantages over the visual one, the method used in the vast majority of subliminal psychodynamic activation experiments. Consequently, it should be considered in subsequent research in this area.

Experiments On the Relationship Between the Hen and Chick (Gallus Gallus): the Role of the Auditory Mode in Recognition and the Effects of Maternal Separation

In a series of 6 experimental studies, the means by which a chick recognises its mother, and the reversibility of filial attachments were examined using bantam hens and their chicks. In a simultaneous discrimination test it was determined that the chick could discriminate between own and alien hens by means of the hens' cluck vocalizations, on the 4th and 8th days post hatching, (Experiment 1). The chicks could make this discrimination more efficiently when live hens were presented (Experiment 2). On separating the hen and chicks for 4 h on the 4th day, the chicks could no longer discriminate between own and an alien live hen (Experiment 3) while they would accept an alien hen, (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that maternal-filial bonds may be reversed with little difficulty. Thus Experiment 5 was designed to examine the stability of these later maternal filial bonds. Chicks spent the first 3 days post hatching, with the hen who incubated the eggs. Then they spent 3 days with an alien hen, after which 3 days isolation followed. It was found that chicks could discriminate in favour of their own hen after the first period of exposure, and in favour of the alien hen after the second period of exposure. Following 3 days isolation they showed no preference for either hen. Experiment 6 was essentially a replication of Experiment 5, but included a control for familiarity. Only one test took place after the 3 days isolation. The chicks were presented with the 1st 2nd and an unfamiliar alien hen. The chicks did not discriminate in favour of any particular hen. It is concluded that after 4 h or 3 days isolation, the chicks did not discriminate between the hens presented, yet they remained responsive to hens.

Contrasting neuronal activity in supplementary and precentral motor cortex of monkeys. I. Responses to instructions determining motor responses to forthcoming signals of different modalities

The present report contrasts neuronal activity in two motor cortical fields after instructions that determine which of two sensory signals will trigger a movement and which will not. The goal of the study was to determine possible differential roles of the two cortical fields in the process of preparing to move in response to one external cue and to ignore another. Single-cell recordings were made from the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the precentral motor area (PCM) of monkeys trained to perform key-press movements in two different modes. In the auditory mode, an instruction signal warned the animal to prepare to start the movement promptly in response to a forthcoming 1,000-Hz tone burst (trigger signal), but to remain motionless if the signal was vibrotactile (nontrigger signal). In the tactile mode, the trigger and nontrigger signals were reversed: a different instruction signal warned the animal to prepare to perform the key-press movement in response to the vibrotactile cue, but to withhold it in response to the 1,000-Hz tone. The instruction signals were auditory tones of 300 Hz for the auditory mode and 100 Hz for the tactile mode. Out of 259 task-related SMA neurons, 128 (49%) responded to instructions. Three types of instruction responses were observed: 1) 95 neurons showed continuous instruction-induced activity changes lasting until the occurrence of the movement-triggering signal, regardless of whether an intervening nontrigger signal occurred. 2) 24 neurons showed increased activity until the occurrence of the nontriggering signal, after which the activity subsided. When there was no nontrigger signal, the activity increased during a period when the nontrigger signal might have been given. 3) Nine neurons responded with a transient, short-latency discharge after the instruction. The responses of SMA neurons to two instructions were often different. Forty-four SMA neurons exhibited a selective response to only one of the two instructions. In 43 neurons the response was differential, with the magnitude of activity increase or decrease being at least three times greater after one instruction than the other. In the remaining 41 neurons the response was nondifferential. Out of 112 task-related PCM neurons, 25 (22%) responded to the instructions. In the majority of them (21 neurons), the instruction response was nondifferential.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)