Exploring and explaining variation in phrase-final f0 movements in spontaneous Papuan Malay.

This study investigates the variation in phrase-final f0 movements found in dyadic unscripted conversations in Papuan Malay, an Eastern Indonesian language. This is done by a novel combination of exploratory and confirmatory classification techniques. In particular, this study investigates the linguistic factors that potentially drive f0 contour variation in phrase-final words produced in a naturalistic interactive dialogue task. To this end, a cluster analysis, manual labelling and random forest analysis are carried out to reveal the main sources of contour variation. These are: taking conversational interaction into account; turn transition, topic continuation, information structure (givenness and contrast), and context-independent properties of words such as word class, syllable structure, voicing and intrinsic f0. Results indicate that contour variation in Papuan Malay, in particular f0 direction and target level, is best explained by turn transitions between speakers, corroborating similar findings for related languages. The applied methods provide opportunities to further lower the threshold of incorporating intonation and prosody in the early stages of language documentation.

Auditory Processing of Intonational Rises and Falls in German: Rises Are Special in Attention Orienting.

This article investigates the processing of intonational rises and falls when presented unexpectedly in a stream of repetitive auditory stimuli. It examines the neurophysiological correlates (ERPs) of attention to these unexpected stimuli through the use of an oddball paradigm where sequences of repetitive stimuli are occasionally interspersed with a deviant stimulus, allowing for elicitation of an MMN. Whereas previous oddball studies on attention toward unexpected sounds involving pitch rises were conducted on nonlinguistic stimuli, the present study uses as stimuli lexical items in German with naturalistic intonation contours. Results indicate that rising intonation plays a special role in attention orienting at a pre-attentive processing stage, whereas contextual meaning (here a list of items) is essential for activating attentional resources at a conscious processing stage. This is reflected in the activation of distinct brain responses: Rising intonation evokes the largest MMN, whereas falling intonation elicits a less pronounced MMN followed by a P3 (reflecting a conscious processing stage). Subsequently, we also find a complex interplay between the phonological status (i.e., accent/head marking vs. boundary/edge marking) and the direction of pitch change in their contribution to attention orienting: Attention is not oriented necessarily toward a specific position in prosodic structure (head or edge). Rather, we find that the intonation contour itself and the appropriateness of the contour in the linguistic context are the primary cues to two core mechanisms of attention orienting, pre-attentive and conscious orientation respectively, whereas the phonological status of the pitch event plays only a supplementary role.

Neurophysiological explorations across the spectrum of psychosis, autism, and depression, during wakefulness and sleep: protocol of a prospective case-control transdiagnostic multimodal study (DEMETER).

BACKGROUND: Quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) analysis offers the opportunity to study high-level cognitive processes across psychiatric disorders. In particular, EEG microstates translate the temporal dynamics of neuronal networks throughout the brain. Their alteration may reflect transdiagnostic anomalies in neurophysiological functions that are impaired in mood, psychosis, and autism spectrum disorders, such as sensorimotor integration, speech, sleep, and sense of self. The main questions this study aims to answer are as follows: 1) Are EEG microstate anomalies associated with clinical and functional prognosis, both in resting conditions and during sleep, across psychiatric disorders? 2) Are EEG microstate anomalies associated with differences in sensorimotor integration, speech, sense of self, and sleep? 3) Can the dynamic of EEG microstates be modulated by a non-drug intervention such as light hypnosis? METHODS: This prospective cohort will include a population of adolescents and young adults, aged 15 to 30 years old, with ultra-high-risk of psychosis (UHR), first-episode psychosis (FEP), schizophrenia (SCZ), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and major depressive disorder (MDD), as well as healthy controls (CTRL) (N = 21 × 6), who will be assessed at baseline and after one year of follow-up. Participants will undergo deep phenotyping based on psychopathology, neuropsychological assessments, 64-channel EEG recordings, and biological sampling at the two timepoints. At baseline, the EEG recording will also be coupled to a sensorimotor task and a recording of the characteristics of their speech (prosody and turn-taking), a one-night polysomnography, a self-reference effect task in virtual reality (only in UHR, FEP, and CTRL). An interventional ancillary study will involve only healthy controls, in order to assess whether light hypnosis can modify the EEG microstate architecture in a direction opposite to what is seen in disease. DISCUSSION: This transdiagnostic longitudinal case-control study will provide a multimodal neurophysiological assessment of clinical dimensions (sensorimotor integration, speech, sleep, and sense of self) that are disrupted across mood, psychosis, and autism spectrum disorders. It will further test the relevance of EEG microstates as dimensional functional biomarkers. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT06045897.

Filled Pauses Produced by Autistic Adults Differ in Prosodic Realisation, but not Rate or Lexical Type.

We examined the use of filled pauses in conversations between homogeneous pairs of autistic and non-autistic adults. A corpus of semi-spontaneous speech was used to analyse the rate, lexical type (nasal "uhm" or non-nasal "uh"), and prosodic realisation (rising, level or falling) of filled pauses. We used Bayesian modelling for statistical analysis. We found an identical rate of filled pauses and an equivalent preference of "uhm" over "uh" across groups, but also a robust group-level difference regarding the intonational realisation of filled pauses: non-autistic controls produced a considerably higher proportion of filled pause tokens realised with the canonical level pitch contour than autistic speakers. Despite the fact that filled pauses are a frequent and impactful part of speech, previous work on their conversational use in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is limited. Our account is the first to analyse the intonational realisation of filled pauses in ASD and the first to investigate conversations between autistic adults in this context. Our results on rate and lexical type can help to contextualise previous research, while the novel findings on intonational realisation set the stage for future investigations.

Turn-timing in conversations between autistic adults: Typical short-gap transitions are preferred, but not achieved instantly.

The organisation of who speaks when in conversation is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of human communication. Research on a wide variety of groups of speakers has revealed a seemingly universal preference for between-speaker transitions consisting of very short silent gaps. Previous research on conversational turn-taking in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) consists of only a handful of studies, most of which are limited in scope and based on the non-spontaneous speech of children and adolescents. No previous studies have investigated dialogues between autistic adults. We analysed the conversational turn-taking behaviour of 28 adult native German speakers in two groups of dyads, in which both interlocutors either did or did not have a diagnosis of ASD. We found no clear difference in turn-timing between the ASD and the control group overall, with both groups showing the same preference for very short silent-gap transitions that has been described for many other groups of speakers in the past. We did, however, find a clear difference between groups specifically in the earliest stages of dialogue, where ASD dyads produced considerably longer silent gaps than controls. We discuss our findings in the context of the previous literature, the implications of diverging behaviour specifically in the early stages of conversation, and the general importance of studying the neglected aspect of interactions between autistic adults.

Conversational metrics, psychopathological dimensions and self-disturbances in patients with schizophrenia.

Difficulties in interpersonal communication, including conversational skill impairments, are core features of schizophrenia. However, very few studies have performed conversation analyses in a clinical population of schizophrenia patients. Here we investigate the conversational patterns of dialogues in schizophrenia patients to assess possible associations with symptom dimensions, subjective self-disturbances and social functioning. Thirty-five schizophrenia patients were administered the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Clinical Language Disorder Rating Scale (CLANG), the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication (TLC), the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience Scale (EASE), and the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS). Moreover, participants underwent a recorded semi-structured interview, to extract conversational variables. Conversational data were associated with negative symptoms and social functioning, but not with positive or disorganization symptoms. A significant positive correlation was found between "pause duration" and the EASE item "Spatialization of thought". The present study suggests an association between conversational patterns and negative symptom dimension of schizophrenia. Moreover, our findings evoke a relationship between the natural fluidity of conversation and of the natural unraveling of thoughts.

Prosodic Prominence - A Cross-Linguistic Perspective.

This paper is concerned with the contributions of signal-driven and expectation-driven mechanisms to a general understanding of the phenomenon of prosodic prominence from a cross-linguistic perspective. It serves as an introduction to the concept of prosodic prominence and discusses the eight papers in the Special Issue, which cover a genetically diverse range of languages. These include Djambarrpuyŋu (an Australian Pama-Nyungan language), Samoan (an Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian language), the Indo-European languages English (Germanic), French (Romance), and Russian (Slavic), Korean (Koreanic), Medumba (Bantu), and two Sino-Tibetan languages, Mandarin and Taiwanese Southern Min.

Speech Prosody as a Bridge Between Psychopathology and Linguistics: The Case of the Schizophrenia Spectrum.

Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders experience severe difficulties in interpersonal communication, as described by traditional psychopathology and current research on social cognition. From a linguistic perspective, pragmatic abilities are crucial for successful communication. Empirical studies have shown that these abilities are significantly impaired in this group of patients. Prosody, the tone of voice with which words and sentences are pronounced, is one of the most important carriers of pragmatic meaning and can serve a range of functions from linguistic to emotional ones. Most of the existing literature on prosody of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders focuses on the expression of emotion, generally showing significant impairments. By contrast, the use of non-emotional prosody in these patients is scarcely investigated. In this paper, we first present a linguistic model to classify prosodic functions. Second, we discuss existing studies on the use of non-emotional prosody in these patients, providing an overview of the state of the art. Third, we delineate possible future lines of research in this field, also taking into account some classical psychopathological assumptions, for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Attention allocation in a language with post-focal prominences.

Accentuation influences selective attention and the depth of semantic processing during online speech comprehension. We investigated the processing of semantically congruent and incongruent words in a language that presents cues to prosodic prominences in the region of the utterance occurring after the focussed information (the post-focal region). This language is Italian, in particular the variety spoken in Bari. In this variety, questions have a compressed, post-focal accent, whereas in statements there is a low-level pitch in this position. Using event-related potentials, we investigated the processing of congruent and incongruent target words with two prosodic realizations (focussed with accentuation, post-focal realization) and in two-sentence modalities (statement, question). Results indicate an N400 congruence effect that was modulated by position (focal, post-focal) and modality (statement, question): processing was deeper for questions in narrow focus than in post-focal position, while statements showed similar pronounced N400 effects across positions. The attenuated N400 difference for post-focal targets in questions was accompanied by a more enhanced late positivity when they were incongruent, indicating that attentional resources are allocated during updating of speech act information.

Intonation does aid serial recall after all.

A sequence of spoken digits is easier to recall if the digits are grouped into smaller chunks (e.g., through the insertion of pauses). It has been claimed that intonation does not facilitate recall over and above the effect achieved by pauses. This may be related to the fact that past research has used synthesized intonation contours. In this replication study, we show that intonation does provide benefits once more naturalistic intonation contours are used. This benefit is independent of response modality (spoken responses, keyboard responses, or handwritten responses in a grid). We furthermore show that intonation differentially affects specific positions within the sequence of digits. Crucially, our results suggest that researchers and clinicians need to pay attention to intonation when assessing working memory using spoken language.

The effects of thalamic and posterior subthalamic deep brain stimulation on speech in patients with essential tremor - A prospective, randomized, doubleblind crossover study.

OBJECTIVE: To prospectively evaluate the effect of PSA- and VIM DBS on speech in ET patients. METHODS: Leads were implanted bilaterally with contacts placed in both VIM and PSA. Thirteen patients were analyzed pre- and postoperatively. Preoperative speech of ET patients was compared to healthy controls. PSA- and VIM-DBS were evaluated in a randomized, double-blind crossover phase. RESULTS: At preoperative baseline, we found reduced intelligibility. Differences in acoustic and VAS data ('ability to speak') compared to controls were gradient. Articulation rate could be predicted by disease duration. Decreased articulation rate, spirantization and voicing were found for PSA- and VIM-DBS. Targets did not differ in terms of speech deterioration. CONCLUSION: Speech in ET patients without DBS can be impaired, dependent on patient's individual characteristics. Both PSA- and VIM-DBS affect speech in a comparable way. Thus, the PSA can be considered an alternative DBS target in ET without higher risk of dysarthria.

The dynamics of intonation: Categorical and continuous variation in an attractor-based model.

The framework of dynamical systems offers powerful tools to understand the relation between stability and variability in human cognition in general and in speech in particular. In the current paper, we propose a dynamical systems approach to the description of German nuclear pitch accents in focus marking to account for both the categorical as well as the continuous variation found in intonational data. We report on results from 27 native speakers and employ an attractor landscape to represent pitch accent types in terms of f0 measures in a continuous dimension. We demonstrate how the same system can account for both the categorical variation (relative stability of one prosodic category) as well as the continuous variation (detailed modifications within one prosodic category). The model is able to capture the qualitative aspects of focus marking such as falling vs. rising pitch accent types as well as the quantitative aspects such as less rising vs. more rising accents in one system by means of scaling a single parameter. Furthermore, speaker group specific strategies are analysed and modelled as differences in the scaling of this parameter. Thus, the model contributes to the ongoing debate about the relation between phonetics and phonology and the importance of variation in language and speech.

Word final schwa is driven by intonation-The case of Bari Italian.

In order to convey pragmatic functions, a speaker has to select an intonation contour (the tune) in addition to the words that are to be spoken (the text). The tune and text are assumed to be independent of each other, such that any one intonation contour can be produced on different phrases, regardless of the number and nature of the segments they are made up of. However, if the segmental string is too short, certain tunes-especially those with a rising component-call for adjustments to the text. In Italian, for instance, loan words such as "chat" can be produced with a word final schwa when this word occurs at the end of a question. This paper investigates this word final schwa in the Bari variety in a number of different intonation contours. Although its presence and duration is to some extent dependent on idiosyncratic properties of speakers and words, schwa is largely conditioned by intonation. Schwa cannot thus be considered a mere phonetic artefact, since it is relevant for phonology, in that it facilitates the production of communicatively relevant intonation contours.

The effects of Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation on speech dynamics in patients with Essential Tremor: An articulographic study.

Acoustic studies have revealed that patients with Essential Tremor treated with thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) may suffer from speech deterioration in terms of imprecise oral articulation and reduced voicing control. Based on the acoustic signal one cannot infer, however, whether this deterioration is due to a general slowing down of the speech motor system (e.g., a target undershoot of a desired articulatory goal resulting from being too slow) or disturbed coordination (e.g., a target undershoot caused by problems with the relative phasing of articulatory movements). To elucidate this issue further, we here investigated both acoustics and articulatory patterns of the labial and lingual system using Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) in twelve Essential Tremor patients treated with thalamic DBS and twelve age- and sex-matched controls. By comparing patients with activated (DBS-ON) and inactivated stimulation (DBS-OFF) with control speakers, we show that critical changes in speech dynamics occur on two levels: With inactivated stimulation (DBS-OFF), patients showed coordination problems of the labial and lingual system in terms of articulatory imprecision and slowness. These effects of articulatory discoordination worsened under activated stimulation, accompanied by an additional overall slowing down of the speech motor system. This leads to a poor performance of syllables on the acoustic surface, reflecting an aggravation either of pre-existing cerebellar deficits and/or the affection of the upper motor fibers of the internal capsule.

The Effect of Uni- and Bilateral Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation on Speech in Patients With Essential Tremor: Acoustics and Intelligibility.

BACKGROUND: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) is performed to suppress medically-resistant essential tremor (ET). However, stimulation induced dysarthria (SID) is a common side effect, limiting the extent to which tremor can be suppressed. To date, the exact pathogenesis of SID in VIM-DBS treated ET patients is unknown. OBJECTIVE: We investigate the effect of inactivated, uni- and bilateral VIM-DBS on speech production in patients with ET. We employ acoustic measures, tempo, and intelligibility ratings and patient's self-estimated speech to quantify SID, with a focus on comparing bilateral to unilateral stimulation effects and the effect of electrode position on speech. METHODS: Sixteen German ET patients participated in this study. Each patient was acoustically recorded with DBS-off, unilateral-right-hemispheric-DBS-on, unilateral-left-hemispheric-DBS-on, and bilateral-DBS-on during an oral diadochokinesis task and a read German standard text. To capture the extent of speech impairment, we measured syllable duration and intensity ratio during the DDK task. Naïve listeners rated speech tempo and speech intelligibility of the read text on a 5-point-scale. Patients had to rate their "ability to speak". RESULTS: We found an effect of bilateral compared to unilateral and inactivated stimulation on syllable durations and intensity ratio, as well as on external intelligibility ratings and patients' VAS scores. Additionally, VAS scores are associated with more laterally located active contacts. For speech ratings, we found an effect of syllable duration such that tempo and intelligibility was rated worse for speakers exhibiting greater syllable durations. CONCLUSION: Our data confirms that SID is more pronounced under bilateral compared to unilateral stimulation. Laterally located electrodes are associated with more severe SID according to patient's self-ratings. We can confirm the relation between diadochokinetic rate and SID in that listener's tempo and intelligibility ratings can be predicted by measured syllable durations from DDK tasks.

The role of tonal onglides in German nuclear pitch accents.

A perception experiment with native German listeners provided evidence for the relevance of the tonal onglide in nuclear accents--the pitch movement leading towards the target on the accented syllable. Listeners were able to distinguish between two pragmatic meanings of a short phrase (given/non-contrastive and new/contrastive) using the tonal onglide as the sole acoustic cue. On the basis of these findings, we argue that the onglide merits a phonological status in an intonation model of German and should not be regarded as merely phonetic detail.

Mood is linked to vowel type: the role of articulatory movements.

This study investigates the relation between vowel identity and emotional state. In Experiment 1, (pseudo)words were invented and articulated in a positive or negative mood condition. Subjects in a positive mood produced more words containing /i:/, a vowel involving the same muscle that is used in smiling--the zygomaticus major muscle (ZMM). Subjects in a negative mood produced more words containing /o:/, involving an antagonist of the ZMM--the orbicularis orbis muscle (OOM). We argue that the link between mood and vowel identity is related to orofacial muscle activity, which provides articulatory feedback to speakers on their emotional state. Experiment 2 tests this hypothesis more specifically. Participants rated the funniness of cartoons while repeatedly articulating either /i:/ (ZMM) or /o:/ (OOM). In line with our hypothesis, the cartoons were rated as funnier by subjects articulating /i:/ than by those articulating /o:/.

The effect of deep brain stimulation on the speech motor system.

PURPOSE: Chronic deep brain stimulation of the nucleus ventralis intermedius is an effective treatment for individuals with medication-resistant essential tremor. However, these individuals report that stimulation has a deleterious effect on their speech. The present study investigates one important factor leading to these effects: the coordination of oral and glottal articulation. METHOD: Sixteen native-speaking German adults with essential tremor, between 26 and 86 years old, with and without chronic deep brain stimulation of the nucleus ventralis intermedius and 12 healthy, age-matched subjects were recorded performing a fast syllable repetition task (/papapa/, /tatata/, /kakaka/). Syllable duration and voicing-to-syllable ratio as well as parameters related directly to consonant production, voicing during constriction, and frication during constriction were measured. RESULTS: Voicing during constriction was greater in subjects with essential tremor than in controls, indicating a perseveration of voicing into the voiceless consonant. Stimulation led to fewer voiceless intervals (voicing-to-syllable ratio), indicating a reduced degree of glottal abduction during the entire syllable cycle. Stimulation also induced incomplete oral closures (frication during constriction), indicating imprecise oral articulation. CONCLUSION: The detrimental effect of stimulation on the speech motor system can be quantified using acoustic measures at the subsyllabic level.

Masked auditory feedback affects speech motor learning of a plosive duration contrast.

Adult speakers have developed precise forward models of articulation for their native language and seem to rely less on auditory sensory feedback. However, for learning of the production of new speech sounds, auditory perception provides a corrective signal for motor control. We assessed adult German speakers' speech motor learning capacity in the absence of auditory feedback but with clear somatosensory information. Learners were presented with a nonnative singleton-geminate duration contrast of voiceless, unaspirated bilabial plosives /p/ vs. /pp/ which is present in Italian. We found that the lack of auditory feedback had no immediate effect but that deviating productions emerged during the course of learning. By the end of training, speakers with masked feedback produced strong lengthening of segments and showed more variation on their production than speakers with normal auditory feedback. Our findings indicate that auditory feedback is necessary for the learning of precise coordination of articulation even if somatosensory feedback is salient.

The role of prosody in the interpretation of structural ambiguities: a study of anticipatory eye movements.

An eye-tracking experiment examined whether prosodic cues can affect the interpretation of grammatical functions in the absence of clear morphological information. German listeners were presented with scenes depicting three potential referents while hearing temporarily ambiguous SVO and OVS sentences. While case marking on the first noun phrase (NP) was ambiguous, clear case marking on the second NP disambiguated sentences towards SVO or OVS. Listeners interpreted case-ambiguous NP1s more often as Subject, and thus expected an Object as upcoming argument, only when sentence beginnings carried an SVO-type intonation. This was revealed by more anticipatory eye movements to suitable Patients (Objects) than Agents (Subjects) in the visual scenes. No such preference was found when sentence beginnings had an OVS-type intonation. Prosodic cues were integrated rapidly enough to affect listeners' interpretation of grammatical function before disambiguating case information was available. We conclude that in addition to manipulating attachment ambiguities, prosody can influence the interpretation of constituent order ambiguities.