Evaluating Speaker-Listener Cognitive Effort in Speech Communication Through Brain-to-Brain Synchrony: A Pilot Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Investigation.

PURPOSE: We explore a new approach to the study of cognitive effort involved in listening to speech by measuring the brain activity in a listener in relation to the brain activity in a speaker. We hypothesize that the strength of this brain-to-brain synchrony (coupling) reflects the magnitude of cognitive effort involved in verbal communication and includes both listening effort and speaking effort. We investigate whether interbrain synchrony is greater in native-to-native versus native-to-nonnative communication using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). METHOD: Two speakers participated, a native speaker of American English and a native speaker of Korean who spoke English as a second language. Each speaker was fitted with the fNIRS cap and told short stories. The native English speaker provided the English narratives, and the Korean speaker provided both the nonnative (accented) English and Korean narratives. In separate sessions, fNIRS data were obtained from seven English monolingual participants ages 20-24 years who listened to each speaker's stories. After listening to each story in native and nonnative English, they retold the content, and their transcripts and audio recordings were analyzed for comprehension and discourse fluency, measured in the number of hesitations and articulation rate. No story retellings were obtained for narratives in Korean (an incomprehensible language for English listeners). Utilizing fNIRS technique termed sequential scanning, we quantified the brain-to-brain synchronization in each speaker-listener dyad. RESULTS: For native-to-native dyads, multiple brain regions associated with various linguistic and executive functions were activated. There was a weaker coupling for native-to-nonnative dyads, and only the brain regions associated with higher order cognitive processes and functions were synchronized. All listeners understood the content of all stories, but they hesitated significantly more when retelling stories told in accented English. The nonnative speaker hesitated significantly more often than the native speaker and had a significantly slower articulation rate. There was no brain-to-brain coupling during listening to Korean, indicating a break in communication when listeners failed to comprehend the speaker. CONCLUSIONS: We found that effortful speech processing decreased interbrain synchrony and delayed comprehension processes. The obtained brain-based and behavioral patterns are consistent with our proposal that cognitive effort in verbal communication pertains to both the listener and the speaker and that brain-to-brain synchrony can be an indicator of differences in their cumulative communicative effort. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25452142.

Introduction to the special issue on perception and production of sounds in the high-frequency range of human speecha).

The frequency range audible to humans can extend from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but only a portion of this range-the lower end up to 8 kHz-has been systematically explored because extended high-frequency (EHF) information above this low range has been considered unnecessary for speech comprehension. This special issue presents a collection of research studies exploring the presence of EHF information in the acoustic signal and its perceptual utility. The papers address the role of EHF hearing in auditory perception, the impact of EHF hearing loss on speech perception in specific populations and occupational settings, the importance of EHF in speech recognition and in providing speaker-related information, the utility of acoustic EHF energy in fricative sounds, and ultrasonic vocalizations in mice in relation to human hearing. Collectively, the research findings offer new insights and converge in showing that not only is EHF energy present in the speech spectrum, but listeners can utilize EHF cues in speech processing and recognition, and EHF hearing loss has detrimental effects on perception of speech and non-speech sounds. Together, this collection challenges the conventional notion that EHF information has minimal functional significance.

Dialect and gender perception in relation to the intelligibility of low-pass and high-pass filtered spontaneous speecha).

Most cues to speech intelligibility are within a narrow frequency range, with its upper limit not exceeding 4 kHz. It is still unclear whether speaker-related (indexical) information is available past this limit or how speaker characteristics are distributed at frequencies within and outside the intelligibility range. Using low-pass and high-pass filtering, we examined the perceptual salience of dialect and gender cues in both intelligible and unintelligible speech. Setting the upper frequency limit at 11 kHz, spontaneously produced unique utterances (n = 400) from 40 speakers were high-pass filtered with frequency cutoffs from 0.7 to 5.56 kHz and presented to listeners for dialect and gender identification and intelligibility evaluation. The same material and experimental procedures were used to probe perception of low-pass filtered and unmodified speech with cutoffs from 0.5 to 1.1 kHz. Applying statistical signal detection theory analyses, we found that cues to gender were well preserved at low and high frequencies and did not depend on intelligibility, and the redundancy of gender cues at higher frequencies reduced response bias. Cues to dialect were relatively strong at low and high frequencies; however, most were in intelligible speech, modulated by a differential intelligibility advantage of male and female speakers at low and high frequencies.

Variability in within-category implementation of stop consonant voicing in American English-speaking children.

The development of stop consonant voicing in English-speaking children has been documented as a progressive mastery of phonological contrast, but implementation of voicing within one voicing category has not been systematically examined. This study provides a comprehensive account of structured variability in phonetic realization of /b/ in running speech by 8-12-year-old American children (n = 48) when compared to adults (n = 36). The stop always occurred word-initially, was followed by either a voiced or voiceless coda, and its position varied in a sentence, which created systematic conditions to examine acoustic variability in closure duration (CD) and voicing during the closure (VDC) stemming from phonetic context and prosodic prominence. Children demonstrated command of long-distance anticipatory coarticulation, providing evidence that information about coda voicing is distributed over an entire monosyllabic word and is available in the onset stop. They also manifested covariation of cues to stop voicing and command of prosodic variation, despite greater random variability, greater CD, reduced VDC, and exaggerated execution of sentential focus when compared to adults. Controlling for regional variation, dialect was a significant predictor for adults but not for children, who no longer adhered to the marked local variants in their implementation of stop voicing.

Assessment of Trauma Symptoms in Toddlers and Preschoolers Living in Poverty.

A first-line screening instrument, the Preschool Inventory of Trauma Symptoms (PITS), was developed to assess trauma symptoms with a diverse sample of 150 toddlers and preschoolers (M = 2.49 years; SD = 1.12). Items reflected the current trauma literature, assessment measures, and diagnostic criteria for very young children. A principal component analysis produced a 34-item, four-factor model: Arousal and Hyper-Reactivity, Fearful Attachment, Intrusion and Re-Experiencing, and Avoidance and Negative Cognition and Mood. One validity scale, Response Style, was also developed. All scales significantly correlated (r = .45 to .81; p < .01) with preestablished trauma measures and demonstrated adequate internal consistency (α = .68 - .87). A receiver operating characteristics curve analysis identified a cut-score with good discrimination ability (.88), sensitivity (.81), and specificity (.81). In a preliminary pilot study, PITS also was found to be sensitive to trauma symptom change following participation in an evidence-based trauma informed treatment program. A copy of the PITS is included in the Appendix for free use by qualified professionals.

The old, the new, and the in-between: Preadolescents' use of stylistic variation in speech in projecting their own identity in a culturally changing environment.

Cultural learning begins early, with infants' and young children's initial imitations of group-specific local behaviors. Comparatively little is known about cultural development in older children, whose more advanced socio-cognitive skills can moderate their decisions about adherence to the established cultural conventions and acceptance of new norms. Focusing on the acquisition of a regional dialect, the current study was conducted in a small community in western North Carolina, whose rich Appalachian heritage grew from distinctive cultural and living traditions. The region has gradually opened up to outside influences and the local culture is now shifting toward mainstream American socio-cultural norms. The study sought to determine how preadolescents positioned themselves in this socio-culturally changing environment. Using detailed acoustic analysis to measure stylistic variation in speech in 9-12-year-olds and perceptual ratings to verify its salience, we examined the pronunciation of the vowel /ai/ to test children's adherence to the old Appalachian identity marker (the monophthong) and their acceptance of the modern American society (the diphthong). As an innovation, children created an intermediate phonetic variant that reduced the pronunciation differences between the old and modern patterns. Demonstrating the ability to adapt speech style to context, they increased the degree of diphthongization in this /ai/-variant in careful speech (reading), and reduced it in casual conversations. Girls' productions were more diphthongal than were boys' in reading but not in conversations. The new variant in children represents regional dialect levelling, and likely results from their accommodation to the changing environment, which promotes reduction of old marked forms.

Home-Based Parent Child Therapy for Young Traumatized Children Living In Poverty: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

A randomized control trial was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a home-based, parent-and-child therapy program specifically developed for toddlers and preschoolers living in poverty with trauma symptoms. Sixty-four children 5-years of age and younger were referred to a community-based clinic for behavior problems and emotional difficulties. All children had experienced one or more potentially traumatic events and met the DSM-5's criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children Six Years of Age and Younger. All families received government assistance indicating that their income met the federal definition for poverty. Participants were randomly assigned to either immediate treatment or wait list control groups. Significant between-group differences on all post-treatment measures were found. After the waitlist group completed treatment, significant improvements for both groups were found on all measures at six-weeks follow-up. Outcomes included reductions in challenging behaviors and emotional symptoms of trauma, improved caregiver-child relationships, and increased caregiver adherence to treatment strategies. This study offers support for early intervention of children with trauma symptoms and identifies the clinical challenges and advantages of providing therapy services in a home setting for very young children in poverty.

Adolescent Summaries of Narrative and Expository Discourse: Differences and Predictors.

Purpose: Summarizing expository passages is a critical academic skill that is understudied in language research. The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of verbal summaries produced by adolescents for 3 different discourse types and to determine whether a composite measure of cognitive skill or a test of expressive syntax predicted their performance. Method: Fifty adolescents listened to, and then verbally summarized, 1 narrative and 2 expository lectures (compare-contrast and cause-effect). They also participated in testing that targeted expressive syntax and 5 cognitive subdomains. Results: Summary quality scores were significantly different across discourse types, with a medium effect size. Analyses revealed significantly higher summary quality scores for cause-effect than compare-contrast summaries. Although the composite cognitive measure contributed significantly to the prediction of quality scores for both types of expository summaries, the expressive syntax score only contributed significantly to the quality scores for narrative summaries. Conclusions: These results support previous research indicating that type of expository discourse may impact student performance. These results also show, for the first time, that cognition may play a predictive role in determining summary quality for expository but not narrative passages in this population. In addition, despite the more complex syntax commonly associated with exposition versus narratives, an expressive syntax score was only predictive of performance on narrative summaries. These findings provide new information, questions, and directions for future research for those who study academic discourse and for professionals who must identify and manage the problems of students struggling with different types of academic discourse. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6167879.

Exploring Summarization Differences for Two Types of Expository Discourse in Adolescents With Traumatic Brain Injury.

Purpose: Annually, nearly 700,000 U.S. children and adolescents experience a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Many of them struggle academically, despite failing to qualify for special education services because their cognitive communication impairments are subtle. Method: In this exploratory study, five adolescents with TBI provided verbal summaries of two expository lectures (compare-contrast, cause-effect) and participated in cognitive and expressive syntax testing. Their performance on these tasks was compared descriptively to that of 50 adolescents with typical development. Results: For adolescents with TBI, mean summary quality scores for both exposition types were at least 1 SD lower than those of adolescents with typical development and notably 2 SDs below for the cause-effect passage. The adolescents with TBI who had below-average cognitive scores showed better performance on compare-contrast summaries compared to cause-effect, whereas the majority of adolescents with typical development showed the opposite tendency. Conclusions: These results provide preliminary evidence that students with TBI, particularly those with cognitive deficits, may struggle with expository discourse despite acceptable performance on a measure of expressive syntax. This study also indicates that researchers should explore how students with TBI perform on academically relevant discourse tasks in order to inform future assessment and intervention efforts. Supplemental Materials: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5572786.

Predicting Treatment Success in Child and Parent Therapy Among Families in Poverty.

Behavior problems are prevalent in young children and those living in poverty are at increased risk for stable, high-intensity behavioral problems. Research has demonstrated that participation in child and parent therapy (CPT) programs significantly reduces problematic child behaviors while increasing positive behaviors. However, CPT programs, particularly those implemented with low-income populations, frequently report high rates of attrition (over 50%). Parental attributional style has shown some promise as a contributing factor to treatment attendance and termination in previous research. The authors examined if parental attributional style could predict treatment success in a CPT program, specifically targeting low-income urban children with behavior problems. A hierarchical logistic regression was used with a sample of 425 families to assess if parent- and child-referent attributions variables predicted treatment success over and above demographic variables and symptom severity. Parent-referent attributions, child-referent attributions, and child symptom severity were found to be significant predictors of treatment success. Results indicated that caregivers who viewed themselves as a contributing factor for their child's behavior problems were significantly more likely to demonstrate treatment success. Alternatively, caregivers who viewed their child as more responsible for their own behavior problems were less likely to demonstrate treatment success. Additionally, more severe behavior problems were also predictive of treatment success. Clinical and research implications of these results are discussed.

Acoustic properties of vowel production in prelingually deafened Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants.

The present study examined the acoustic features of vowel production in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs). The subjects included 14 native Mandarin-speaking, prelingually deafened children with CIs (2.9-8.3 yr old) and 60 age-matched, normal-hearing (NH) children (3.1-9.0 years old). Each subject produced a list of monosyllables containing seven Mandarin vowels: [i, a, u, y, ɤ, ʅ, ɿ]. Midpoint F1 and F2 of each vowel token were extracted and normalized to eliminate the effects of different vocal tract sizes. Results showed that the CI children produced significantly longer vowels and less compact vowel categories than the NH children did. The CI children's acoustic vowel space was reduced due to a retracted production of the vowel [i]. The vowel space area showed a strong negative correlation with age at implantation (r = -0.80). The analysis of acoustic distance showed that the CI children produced corner vowels [a, u] similarly to the NH children, but other vowels (e.g., [ʅ, ɿ]) differently from the NH children, which suggests that CI children generally follow a similar developmental path of vowel acquisition as NH children. These findings highlight the importance of early implantation and have implications in clinical aural habilitation in young children with CIs.

Vowel development in an emergent Mandarin-English bilingual child: a longitudinal study.

This longitudinal case study documents the emergence of bilingualism in a young monolingual Mandarin boy on the basis of an acoustic analysis of his vowel productions recorded via a picture-naming task over 20 months following his enrollment in an all-English (L2) preschool at the age of 3;7. The study examined (1) his initial L2 vowel space, (2) the process of L1-L2 separation, and (3) his L1 vowel system in relation to L2. The child initially utilized his L1 base in building the L2 vowel system. The L1-L2 separation started from a drastic restructuring of his working vowel space to create maximal contrast between the two languages. Meanwhile, L1 developmental processes and influence of L2 on L1 were also in effect. The developmental profile of this child uncovered strategies sequential bilingual children may use to restructure their phonetic space and construct a new system of contrasts in L2.

Incidence of behavior problems in toddlers and preschool children from families living in poverty.

Few studies have examined the incidence of behavior problems in toddlers and preschool children from families living in poverty. The available research suggests behavior problems occur at higher rates in children living in poverty and may have long-term negative outcomes if not identified and properly treated. This study included an ethnically representative sample of 357 children, five years of age and younger, from a diverse, low-income, urban area. All families' incomes met the federal threshold for living in poverty. Behavior problems were assessed by parent report through a questionnaire specifically designed for low-income families. Boys and younger children were reported as demonstrating a higher rate of externalizing behaviors than girls and older children. The overall rate of children scoring at least one standard deviation above the sample's mean for challenging behaviors was 17.4% and was not related to the child's gender, age or ethnicity. This study also sampled children's positive behaviors, which is unique in studies of behavior problems. Gender and age were not related to the frequency of reported positive behaviors. Ethnicity did influence scores on the positive scale. African American children appeared to present their parents more difficulty on items reflecting cooperative behaviors than Caucasian or Latino children. The implications of the study are discussed based on the recognized need for universal screening of behavior problems in young children and the small number professional training programs targeting the identification and treatment of early childhood behavior problems, despite the availability of evidence-based treatment programs tailored to young children in low-income families.

Perception of English vowels by bilingual Chinese-English and corresponding monolingual listeners.

This study compares the underlying perceptual structure of vowel perception in monolingual Chinese, monolingual English and bilingual Chinese-English listeners. Of particular interest is how listeners' spatial organization of vowels is affected either by their L1 or their experience with L2. Thirteen English vowels, /i, I, e, epsilon, ae, u, omega, o, (see symbol), alpha, (see symbol)I, alphaI, alphaomega/, embedded in /hVd/ syllable produced by an Ohio male speaker were presented in pairs to three groups of listeners. Each listener rated 312 vowel pairs on a nine-point dissimilarity scale. The responses from each group were analyzed using a multidimensional scaling program (ALSCAL). Results demonstrated that all three groups of listeners used high/low and front/back distinctions as the two most important dimensions to perceive English vowels. However, the vowels were distributed in clusters in the perceptual space of Chinese monolinguals, while they were appropriately separated and located in that of bilinguals and English monolinguals. Besides the two common perceptual dimensions, each group of listeners utilized a different third dimension to perceive these English vowels. English monolinguals used high-front offset. Bilinguals used a dimension mainly correlated to the distinction of monophthong/diphthong. Chinese monolinguals separated two high vowels, /i/ and /u/, from the rest of vowels in the third dimension. The difference between English monolinguals and Chinese monolinguals evidenced the effect of listeners' native language on the vowel perception. The difference between Chinese monolinguals and bilingual listeners as well as the approximation of bilingual listeners' perceptual space to that of English monolinguals demonstrated the effect of L2 experience on listeners' perception of L2 vowels.

Agrammatism in Jordanian-Arabic speakers.

The studies of agrammatism show that not all morpho-syntactic elements are impaired to the same degree and that some of this variation may be due to language-specific differences. This study investigated the production of morpho-syntactic elements in 15 Jordanian-Arabic (JA) speaking individuals with agrammatism and 15 age-matched neurologically healthy individuals. Two experiments were conducted to examine the production of complementizer, tense, agreement and negation morphology in JA. The results indicated that the speakers of JA with agrammatism had marked dissociations in producing specific morpho-syntactic elements. The observed impairment patterns overlapped, in many respects, with those observed in other linguistic groups. The findings are discussed with respect to current theories of agrammatism, including both morpho-syntactic and computational accounts.

Evaluation of a university-community partnership to provide home-based, mental health services for children from families living in poverty.

A university-community partnership is described that resulted in the development of community-based mental health services for young children from families living in poverty. The purpose of this pilot project was to implement an evidence-based treatment program in the homes of an at-risk population of children with significant emotional and behavior problems that were further complicated by developmental delays. Outcomes for 237 children who participated in the clinic's treatment program over a 2 year period are presented. Comparisons are included between treatment completers and non-completers and the issues of subject attrition, potential subject selection bias, and the generalizability of the results are addressed. The need for more professionals who are trained to address mental health issues in very young children who live in very challenging conditions are discussed.

The effects of concurrent cognitive load on phonological processing in adults who stutter.

PURPOSE: To determine whether phonological processing in adults who stutter (AWS) is disrupted by increased amounts of cognitive load in a concurrent attention-demanding task. METHOD: Nine AWS and 9 adults who do not stutter (AWNS) participated. Using a dual-task paradigm, the authors presented word pairs for rhyme judgments and, concurrently, letter strings for memory recall. The rhyme judgment task manipulated rhyming type (rhyming/nonrhyming) and orthographic representation (similar/dissimilar). The memory recall task varied stimulus complexity (no letters, 3 letters, 5 letters). Rhyme judgment accuracy and reaction time (RT) were used to assess phonological processing, and letter recall accuracy was used to measure memory recall. RESULTS: For rhyme judgments, AWS were as accurate as AWNS, and the increase in the cognitive load did not affect rhyme judgment accuracy of either group. Significant group differences were found in RTs (delays by AWS were 241 ms greater). RTs of AWS were also slower in the most demanding rhyme condition and varied with the complexity of the memory task. Accuracy of letter recall of AWS was comparatively worse in the most demanding 5-letter condition. CONCLUSION: Phonological and cognitive processing of AWS is more vulnerable to disruptions caused by increased amounts of cognitive load in concurrent attention-demanding tasks.

Behavior problems in young children from low-income families: The development of a new screening tool.

The purpose of this study was to construct a screening tool, the Early Childhood Behavior Screen (ECBS), to identify behavior problems and prosocial behaviors in very young children (1-5 years old) from low-income backgrounds. Field testing of the initial screening tool was conducted with a representative, diverse sample of 439 parents from a low-income, urban community. The final 20-item scale was written at a 3.9 grade reading level. Psychometric properties of the ECBS revealed that the items loaded on two factors, the Challenging Behavior factor and the Prosocial Behavior factor. Each factor demonstrated high levels of internal consistency (.87 and .92, respectively). The Challenging Behavior factor demonstrated adequate levels of concurrent validity (r = .75), sensitivity (r = .82), and specificity (r = .80) based on its relationship with the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (S.M. Eyberg & D. Pincus, 1999). The Prosocial Behavior factor is a clinically useful aspect of the ECBS, as it allows researchers and practitioners to identify the child's positive behaviors as part of a strength-based approach to treatment. The results suggested that the ECBS has potential as a brief screening tool that is useful in pediatric, psychological, and educational settings that serve low-income populations to aid in the identification of young children with challenging behaviors that may require intervention services.

Vowel change across three age groups of speakers in three regional varieties of American English.

This acoustic study examines sound (vowel) change in apparent time across three successive generations of 123 adult female speakers ranging in age from 20 to 65 years old, representing three regional varieties of American English, typical of western North Carolina, central Ohio and southeastern Wisconsin. A set of acoustic measures characterized the dynamic nature of formant trajectories, the amount of spectral change over the course of vowel duration and the position of the spectral centroid. The study found a set of systematic changes to /I, ε, æ/ including positional changes in the acoustic space (mostly lowering of the vowels) and significant variation in formant dynamics (increased monophthongization). This common sound change is evident in both emphatic (articulated clearly) and nonemphatic (casual) productions and occurs regardless of dialect-specific vowel dispersions in the vowel space. The cross-generational and cross-dialectal patterns of variation found here support an earlier report by Jacewicz, Fox, and Salmons (2011) which found this recent development in these three dialect regions in isolated citation-form words. While confirming the new North American Shift in different styles of production, the study underscores the importance of addressing the stress-related variation in vowel production in a careful and valid assessment of sound change.

Articulation rate across dialect, age, and gender.

The understanding of sociolinguistic variation is growing rapidly, but basic gaps still remain. Whether some languages or dialects are spoken faster or slower than others constitutes such a gap. Speech tempo is interconnected with social, physical and psychological markings of speech. This study examines regional variation in articulation rate and its manifestations across speaker age, gender and speaking situations (reading vs. free conversation). The results of an experimental investigation show that articulation rate differs significantly between two regional varieties of American English examined here. A group of Northern speakers (from Wisconsin) spoke significantly faster than a group of Southern speakers (from North Carolina). With regard to age and gender, young adults read faster than older adults in both regions; in free speech, only Northern young adults spoke faster than older adults. Effects of gender were smaller and less consistent; men generally spoke slightly faster than women. As the body of work on the sociophonetics of American English continues to grow in scope and depth, we argue that it is important to include fundamental phonetic information as part of our catalog of regional differences and patterns of change in American English.