-
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Dec 2023The purpose of this introduction is to provide an overview of the articles contained within this research forum of the . Each of these articles is based upon...
The purpose of this introduction is to provide an overview of the articles contained within this research forum of the . Each of these articles is based upon presentations from the 2022 ASHA Research Symposium.
Topics: Humans; Hearing; Language; Multilingualism; Speech; Speech-Language Pathology
PubMed: 38052066
DOI: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00661 -
International Journal of Language &... 2024
Topics: Humans; Language; Speech; Cognition
PubMed: 38149881
DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.13003 -
Journal of Fluency Disorders Sep 2023Using word- and nonword-reading passages in Kannada, which has a transparent orthography, we attempted to determine (a) whether orthographic differences between English...
PURPOSE
Using word- and nonword-reading passages in Kannada, which has a transparent orthography, we attempted to determine (a) whether orthographic differences between English and Kannada may explain the observed differences in stutter rates on nonwords, and (b) whether longer nonwords, like words, incur higher rates of stutters.
METHODS
Stutters are defined as sound or syllable repetitions, sound prolongations, broken words or nonwords (a pause within a word or nonword), abnormal pauses, and intrusive vowel-like sounds. Twenty-six persons, who stutter, read the word and nonword passages. The nonwords were created by changing the first syllable of each word; otherwise words and nonwords were equivalent in length and syllable structure. Stutters were counted from audio-recordings and statistically analyzed.
RESULTS
PWS stuttered on words in varying amounts and in significantly larger amounts on nonwords. Stutter frequency increased roughly in proportion to the increase in the length of phonological words (previously known) and nonwords (reported for the first time here).
CONCLUSION
The results cannot be attributed to the difficulty of pronouncing nonwords because Kannada orthography has a one-to-one relationship between the written and spoken forms of words. Speech production is a multi-stage process consisting of ideation, lemma selection, phonological word creation, and the articulatory planning and execution. Because nonwords lack meaning and clearly identifiable part of speech, it appears that stutters arise late in the speech production process at the phonological word formation and articulatory planning stages. Meaning, lexicality, and morphosyntax may not contribute significantly to the occurrence of stutters.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Stuttering; Reading; Phonetics; Speech Production Measurement; Speech
PubMed: 37544029
DOI: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2023.105996 -
Journal of Attention Disorders Oct 2023To examine the speech, language, and communication skills of school-age children with attention deficit and hyperactive disorder.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the speech, language, and communication skills of school-age children with attention deficit and hyperactive disorder.
METHOD
The sample of the study consists of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder ( = 47) participants who are combined type and attention-deficit-dominant type, and the control group ( = 40) typically developing participants. Turkish School Age Language Development Test, Turkish Articulation and Phonology Test, Working Memory Scale, and Predictive Cluttering Inventory were applied to all participants.
RESULTS
SPSS program was used in the analysis of the data. Mann Whitney and One Way ANOVA analyzes were performed to find the difference between the groups. As a result of the statistical analysis, a significant difference was found between the participants with typical development and those with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in terms of word count ( < .001). It was determined that participants with typical development outperformed participants with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in all tests. There was no difference in the two subtypes of the attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder group ( > .001).
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that language, speech, and working memory skills of children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder are lower than their peers with typical development. Speech and language skills and working memory must be taken into consideration in assessment and intervention children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder.
Topics: Humans; Child; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; Memory, Short-Term; Speech; Language Disorders; Language
PubMed: 37254477
DOI: 10.1177/10870547231177236 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Aug 2023Defined as the similarity of speech behaviors between interlocutors, speech entrainment plays an important role in successful adult conversations. According to...
PURPOSE
Defined as the similarity of speech behaviors between interlocutors, speech entrainment plays an important role in successful adult conversations. According to theoretical models of entrainment and research on motoric, cognitive, and social developmental milestones, the ability to entrain should develop throughout adolescence. However, little is known about the specific developmental trajectory or the role of speech entrainment in conversational outcomes of this age group. The purpose of this study is to characterize speech entrainment patterns in the conversations of neurotypical early adolescents.
METHOD
This study utilized a corpus of 96 task-based conversations between adolescents between the ages of 9 and 14 years and a comparison corpus of 32 task-based conversations between adults. For each conversational turn, two speech entrainment scores were calculated for 429 acoustic features across rhythmic, articulatory, and phonatory dimensions. Predictive modeling was used to evaluate the degree of entrainment and relationship between entrainment and two metrics of conversational success.
RESULTS
Speech entrainment increased throughout early adolescence but did not reach the level exhibited in conversations between adults. Additionally, speech entrainment was predictive of both conversational quality and conversational efficiency. Furthermore, models that included all acoustic features and both entrainment types performed better than models that only included individual acoustic feature sets or one type of entrainment.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that speech entrainment skills are largely developed during early adolescence with continued development possibly occurring across later adolescence. Additionally, results highlight the role of speech entrainment in successful conversation in this population, suggesting the import of continued exploration of this phenomenon in both neurotypical and neurodivergent adolescents. We also provide evidence of the value of using holistic measures that capture the multidimensionality of speech entrainment and provide a validated methodology for investigating entrainment across multiple acoustic features and entrainment types.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Adolescent; Child; Speech; Communication; Phonation; Speech Production Measurement; Acoustics
PubMed: 37071795
DOI: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00263 -
Journal of Clinical and Experimental... Apr 2024Semantic verbal fluency (SVF) is a widely used measure of frontal executive function and access to semantic memory. SVF scoring metrics include the number of unique... (Review)
Review
INTRODUCTION
Semantic verbal fluency (SVF) is a widely used measure of frontal executive function and access to semantic memory. SVF scoring metrics include the number of unique words generated, perseverations, intrusions, semantic cluster size and switching between clusters, and scores vary depending on the language the test is administered in. In this paper, we review the existing normative data for Turkish, the main metrics used for scoring SVF data in Turkish, and the most frequently used categories.
METHOD
We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed papers using Medline, EMBASE, PsycInfo, Web of Science, and two Turkish databases, TR-Dizin and Yok-Tez. Included papers contained data on the SVF performance of healthy adult native speakers of Turkish, and reported the categories used. Versions of the SVF that required participants to alternate categories were excluded. We extracted and tabulated demographics, descriptions of groups, metrics used, categories used, and sources of normative data. Studies were assessed for level of detail in reporting findings.
RESULTS
1400 studies were retrieved. After deduplication, abstract, full text screening, and merging of theses with their published versions, 121 studies were included. 114 studies used the semantic category "animal", followed by first names ( = 14, 12%). All studies reported word count. More complex measures were rare (perseverations: = 12, 10%, clustering and switching: = 5, 4%). Four of seven normative studies reported only word count, two also measured perseverations, and one reported category violations and perseverations. Two normative studies were published in English.
CONCLUSIONS
There is a lack of normative Turkish SVF data with more complex metrics, such as clustering and switching, and a lack of normative data published in English. Given the size of the Turkish diaspora, normative SVF data should include monolingual and bilingual speakers. Limitations include a restriction to key English and Turkish databases.
Topics: Humans; Semantics; Turkey; Neuropsychological Tests; Verbal Behavior; Reference Values; Adult; Female; Male; Executive Function
PubMed: 38904178
DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2024.2331827 -
Alzheimer's & Dementia : the Journal of... Nov 2023Adults with Down syndrome (DS) are at ultra-high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), characterized by poor episodic memory and semantic fluency in the...
INTRODUCTION
Adults with Down syndrome (DS) are at ultra-high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), characterized by poor episodic memory and semantic fluency in the preclinical phase in the general population. We explored semantic fluency performance in DS and its relationship to age, AD, and blood biomarkers.
METHODS
A total of 302 adults with DS at baseline and 87 at follow-up from the London Down Syndrome Consortium cohort completed neuropsychological assessments. Blood biomarkers were measured with the single molecule array technique in a subset of 94 participants.
RESULTS
Poorer verbal fluency performance was observed as age increases. Number of correct words declined in those with AD compared to those without over 2 years and was negatively correlated with neurofilament light (r = -0.37, P = .001) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (r = -0.31, P = .012).
DISCUSSION
Semantic fluency may be useful as an early indicator of cognitive decline and provide additional information on AD-related change, showing associations with biomarkers in DS.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Semantics; Alzheimer Disease; Down Syndrome; Verbal Behavior; Neuropsychological Tests; Memory Disorders; Biomarkers
PubMed: 37114906
DOI: 10.1002/alz.13097 -
Nature Nov 2023The power of human language and thought arises from systematic compositionality-the algebraic ability to understand and produce novel combinations from known components.... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
The power of human language and thought arises from systematic compositionality-the algebraic ability to understand and produce novel combinations from known components. Fodor and Pylyshyn famously argued that artificial neural networks lack this capacity and are therefore not viable models of the mind. Neural networks have advanced considerably in the years since, yet the systematicity challenge persists. Here we successfully address Fodor and Pylyshyn's challenge by providing evidence that neural networks can achieve human-like systematicity when optimized for their compositional skills. To do so, we introduce the meta-learning for compositionality (MLC) approach for guiding training through a dynamic stream of compositional tasks. To compare humans and machines, we conducted human behavioural experiments using an instruction learning paradigm. After considering seven different models, we found that, in contrast to perfectly systematic but rigid probabilistic symbolic models, and perfectly flexible but unsystematic neural networks, only MLC achieves both the systematicity and flexibility needed for human-like generalization. MLC also advances the compositional skills of machine learning systems in several systematic generalization benchmarks. Our results show how a standard neural network architecture, optimized for its compositional skills, can mimic human systematic generalization in a head-to-head comparison.
Topics: Humans; Language; Machine Learning; Neural Networks, Computer; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 37880371
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06668-3 -
Hearing Research Sep 2023The relative contributions of superior temporal vs. inferior frontal and parietal networks to recognition of speech in a background of competing speech remain unclear,...
The relative contributions of superior temporal vs. inferior frontal and parietal networks to recognition of speech in a background of competing speech remain unclear, although the contributions themselves are well established. Here, we use fMRI with spectrotemporal modulation transfer function (ST-MTF) modeling to examine the speech information represented in temporal vs. frontoparietal networks for two speech recognition tasks with and without a competing talker. Specifically, 31 listeners completed two versions of a three-alternative forced choice competing speech task: "Unison" and "Competing", in which a female (target) and a male (competing) talker uttered identical or different phrases, respectively. Spectrotemporal modulation filtering (i.e., acoustic distortion) was applied to the two-talker mixtures and ST-MTF models were generated to predict brain activation from differences in spectrotemporal-modulation distortion on each trial. Three cortical networks were identified based on differential patterns of ST-MTF predictions and the resultant ST-MTF weights across conditions (Unison, Competing): a bilateral superior temporal (S-T) network, a frontoparietal (F-P) network, and a network distributed across cortical midline regions and the angular gyrus (M-AG). The S-T network and the M-AG network responded primarily to spectrotemporal cues associated with speech intelligibility, regardless of condition, but the S-T network responded to a greater range of temporal modulations suggesting a more acoustically driven response. The F-P network responded to the absence of intelligibility-related cues in both conditions, but also to the absence (presence) of target-talker (competing-talker) vocal pitch in the Competing condition, suggesting a generalized response to signal degradation. Task performance was best predicted by activation in the S-T and F-P networks, but in opposite directions (S-T: more activation = better performance; F-P: vice versa). Moreover, S-T network predictions were entirely ST-MTF mediated while F-P network predictions were ST-MTF mediated only in the Unison condition, suggesting an influence from non-acoustic sources (e.g., informational masking) in the Competing condition. Activation in the M-AG network was weakly positively correlated with performance and this relation was entirely superseded by those in the S-T and F-P networks. Regarding contributions to speech recognition, we conclude: (a) superior temporal regions play a bottom-up, perceptual role that is not qualitatively dependent on the presence of competing speech; (b) frontoparietal regions play a top-down role that is modulated by competing speech and scales with listening effort; and (c) performance ultimately relies on dynamic interactions between these networks, with ancillary contributions from networks not involved in speech processing per se (e.g., the M-AG network).
Topics: Male; Humans; Female; Speech; Speech Perception; Cognition; Cues; Acoustics; Speech Intelligibility; Perceptual Masking
PubMed: 37531847
DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108856 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Nov 2023With the development of continuous speech recognition technology, users have put forward higher requirements in terms of speech recognition accuracy. Low-resource speech... (Review)
Review
With the development of continuous speech recognition technology, users have put forward higher requirements in terms of speech recognition accuracy. Low-resource speech recognition, as a typical speech recognition technology under restricted conditions, has become a research hotspot nowadays because of its low recognition rate and great application value. Under the premise of low-resource speech recognition technology, this paper reviews the research status of feature extraction and acoustic models, and conducts research on resource expansion. Especially in terms of the technical challenges faced by this technology, solutions are proposed, and future research directions are prospected.
Topics: Speech Perception; Speech; Technology
PubMed: 38005483
DOI: 10.3390/s23229096