Intonation processing in congenital amusia: discrimination, identification and imitation.

This study investigated whether congenital amusia, a neuro-developmental disorder of musical perception, also has implications for speech intonation processing. In total, 16 British amusics and 16 matched controls completed five intonation perception tasks and two pitch threshold tasks. Compared with controls, amusics showed impaired performance on discrimination, identification and imitation of statements and questions that were characterized primarily by pitch direction differences in the final word. This intonation-processing deficit in amusia was largely associated with a psychophysical pitch direction discrimination deficit. These findings suggest that amusia impacts upon one's language abilities in subtle ways, and support previous evidence that pitch processing in language and music involves shared mechanisms.

Aspects of voice irregularity measurement in connected speech.

Applications of the use of connected speech material for the objective assessment of two primary physical aspects of voice quality are described and discussed. Simple auditory perceptual criteria are employed to guide the choice of analysis parameters for the physical correlate of pitch, and their utility is investigated by the measurement of the characteristics of particular examples of the normal-speaking voice. This approach is extended to the measurement of vocal fold contact phase control in connected speech and both techniques are applied to pathological voice data.

Hearing and phonetic criteria in voice measurement: clinical applications.

Quantitative clinical voice analysis is discussed with special reference to four factors: 1) measurement criteria that are based on well established auditory parameters; 2) voice material that is modelled on the connected speech of ordinary spoken communication rather than sustained vowels; 3) direct monitoring so as to provide both acoustic and vocal fold contact signals; and 4) phonetic structural similarities across what are ordinarily regarded as highly dissimilar languages. These factors have motivated the development and clinical application of physical analyses that provide measurements related both to vocal fold function and to the perceptual attributes of pitch, loudness, and an important aspect of voice quality.

Discussant response to 'Mirroring the voice from Garcia to the present day: some insights into singing voice registers'.

PEVOC6 took as its theme 'Mirroring the Voice' to mark the occasion, 150 years before, of Manuel Garcia's publication in London of his work on the singing voice using what is now called, following him, a laryngoscope. This also was the special theme of the final plenary session contribution to the Conference by Nathalie Henrich--but with particular reference to singing voice registers. Her paper and conference presentation have two complementary parts. The first gives an overview of the development of the ideas that have their roots in Garcia's work; the second concentrates on modern developments and attempts to provide an acceptable path to the working definition of the concept of register and to give a basis for the taxonomic description of register types.

A note on voice timing and the evolution of connected speech.

Voice is a dominant component of everyday speech in all languages. The possibility is examined that its use may have evolved so that its timing in connected speech is ideal from the point of view of information theory-with voicing taking up 50% of the total speaking time. Initial measurements have been made of voice timing proportions using Laryngograph (EGG) signals as the basis of timing analyses. The results of these analyses for data from two groups of speakers are reported: single native speakers of each of 8 different languages; and 56 speakers of British English. The average 51% and 52% voice timing proportions that were found closely approximate the ideal of 50%. Implications of this finding for voice evolution are briefly discussed.

Prospects for Speech Pattern Element Aids.

A brief discussion is given of new hearing aids which are based on the use of speech pattern elements. Their operation essentially involves the reduction of the complex acoustic structure of the original speech signal into simpler sets of perceptually clear components which are then encoded for maximally relevant presentation to the listener. This approach has four primary features which may contribute crucially to future advances. First, by providing for external analysis, reduced or even non-existent ability in the impaired ear can be palliated. Second, by the selection of appropriate elements of the original speech signal, the stimulation can be tailored so that it matches the residual auditory ability-psychophysical and cognitive-of the deaf person. Third, the speech, language, and also environmental needs of the individual adult or developing child can be met in structured ways. Fourth, the use of selective pattern sensitive analysis methods makes it possible in practice to provide a degree of in-built immunity to domestic and working acoustic environments.

Psychoacoustic Aspects of Speech Pattern Coding for the Deaf.

The SiVo aid, which provides a sinusoidal signal indicating voice fundamental frequency and voicing information, was compared as an aid to lipreading to a conventional hearing aid having extended low-frequency output. Speech perceptual measures of consonant confusions in lipreading and the identification of a simple intonation contrast were collected from a group of 8 profoundly deaf adults. Audiometric and psychoacoustic measures were also collected. In the intonation task, 6 of the 7 patients tested performed better with the SiVo aid and the seventh scored perfectly with both aids. Four patients (out of 8) preferred to use the SiVo aid rather than the conventional aid, and 2 of these showed a significant advantage with the SiVo aid in the aided lipreading of consonants. The remaining 4 patients preferred the conventional aid, although none of these patients showed a significant advantage with the conventional aid in the lipreading of consonants. The 4 patients who preferred the SiVo aid over the conventional aid had very profound hearing loss and minimal dynamic range at 500 Hz and above, and those receiving the greatest benefit showed no measurable frequency selectivity. In the 2 patients who preferred the SiVo aid, yet showed no significant advantage for the SiVo aid in consonant lipreading, consonant confusions were also measured for aided lipreading, using a prototype aid providing both voice fundamental frequency and voiceless excitation patterns. Both patients showed additional and significant benefit from inclusion of the voiceless pattern element.