Articles tagged with Speech
A study from the University of Utah finds that older Americans with hearing loss have more trouble understanding British accents when there is background noise. The study also explores how transgender women can adopt a clearer speaking style to sound more feminine and how fast-talking affects speech intelligibility.
Scientists at UCLA's Voice Center for Medicine and the Arts studied Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Carly Fiorina's speech patterns across various settings. They discovered that despite differing messages, the politicians employed similar voice modulation strategies to convey charisma.
Researchers at NYU Tandon School of Engineering have developed a novel noise reduction technology called SEDA, which tunes out ambient talkers and tunes in on the person the wearer wants to listen to. This algorithmic approach can improve speech clarity for those with hearing loss and has potential applications beyond cochlear implants.
A recent study by the University of Washington's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences found that 9-month-old babies who participated in music play sessions showed improved brain responses to music and new speech sounds. This suggests that early musical experiences can have a lasting impact on cognitive skills such as pattern percept...
Researchers created mice with a mutation associated with human stuttering and found they vocalized in an abnormal pattern reminiscent of the disorder. The animal model may help scientists understand the molecular and neurological basis of stuttering and develop treatments.
Researchers found that robot avatars using multi-modal communication, combining speech and iconic hand gestures, are as easily understood as human actors. The study demonstrated that avatars can convey their message more effectively when using gestures with speech.
Research reveals that bilingual babies exhibit stronger brain responses to speech sounds compared to monolingual peers. Bilingualism is shown to shape cognitive development and improve executive function skills, with babies displaying sensitivity to both languages from 11 months of age.
Research reveals anticipated rejection due to weight stigma negatively impacts heavier women's emotional well-being. Participants who expected rejection experienced lower self-esteem, increased feelings of shame and embarrassment, and greater stress.
A study examines a lawsuit by Amarin Pharmaceutical that challenged the FDA's ban on promoting off-label uses of its product. The authors argue that such statements should be required to assert scientific facts beyond mere logical truth to regulate commercial speech about pharmaceuticals. They advocate for informative content based on ...
A BMJ investigation reveals Jeremy Hunt's public use of seven-day NHS data without clear attribution, potentially breaching the ministerial code. The authors' findings were shared with colleagues before publication, but not in a way that influenced the editorial process.
Researchers have developed a cooling technique that protects the brain's speech centers during surgery and identifies specific areas responsible for word formation and speech timing. The study used focal cooling to map brain functions, including speech ability, and found distinct roles for specific brain regions in forming words.
Conservatives tend to use nouns instead of adjectives to describe things, preferring clarity and predictability. This linguistic preference is linked to the values associated with conservatism, such as stability and tradition.
Research found that damage to brain connections can impact aphasia severity, with some patients having more severe symptoms despite similar stroke volumes. Investigators used MRI imaging to map neural connections and identified patterns associated with language difficulties.
Researchers found that the adult brain's natural plasticity can compensate for a near-complete loss of auditory nerve fibers, restoring sensitivity to faint sounds but not complex sounds like speech. The brain's 'amplifier' at higher stages of processing acts as an amplifier, increasing sound detection abilities within normal limits.
Researchers use virtual reality to investigate how people adapt their speech in conversation, finding that language behavior is identical to dialogue with a human partner.
A new study by University of Houston researchers found that including religion in campaign speeches can increase a candidate's perceived trustworthiness and favorability. The study revealed that atheists face significant challenges in winning public office due to societal biases against non-believers.
Researchers discovered four linguistic factors indicative of dementia: semantic impairment, acoustic impairment, syntactic impairment, and information impairment. The automated technology provides an objective diagnostic rating for dementia, surpassing the current initial assessment tool used by healthcare professionals.
Dr Erica Gold's £360,000 project defines the West Yorkshire accent to assist forensic speech comparison in criminal cases. The study aims to address the scarcity of population data and variability in speech across different speaker groups.
A study by University of Texas at Dallas researchers shows that watching 3-D images of tongue movements can help individuals learn speech sounds. The findings could be especially helpful for stroke patients seeking to improve their speech articulation.
Researchers found that infants can identify and link new sounds to meaning, indicating a social capacity for recognizing and learning from novel communicative signals. This ability broadens our understanding of infants' coordination of social, language, and cognitive development.
Researchers at NYU have identified brain rhythms that help process music, revealing a role for cortical oscillations in detecting musical sequences. Musicians show enhanced oscillatory mechanisms and better pitch detection accuracy.
A Washington State University researcher is building a comprehensive family audio database with funding from the National Science Foundation. The database will combine recordings of children's communications with their parents and siblings, enabling researchers to study family communication dynamics and disorders in greater detail.
New research from Queen's University found that a strong relationship with a loved one can help manage stress in difficult situations. Physical closeness allows individuals to share the emotional burden more efficiently, regardless of their reported level of closeness.
Infants at 4 months old can associate words with objects, suggesting early knowledge of language's relation to the world. This ability is crucial for language acquisition and learning about surroundings.
A study by NC State University researchers found that rural Appalachian students who speak a stigmatized dialect may feel like they're at a disadvantage in the classroom. They reported being met with snickers or feeling singled out, which led to hesitation in speaking up and trying to change their way of talking.
A unique study found that testosterone therapy induces structural changes in areas of the brain involved in verbal fluency in female-to-male transsexuals. This may suggest that sex hormones play a substantial role in shaping human brain structure, beyond early developmental phases.
A multicenter study found that hybrid cochlear implant devices led to significant improvements in hearing and speech recognition among individuals with severely damaged high-frequency hearing. The study showed that 45 participants experienced overall improvement in their hearing and speech recognition, with some achieving profound gains.
A pilot study by researchers at ISTAR found that video self-modelling (VSM) helps reduce stuttering frequency in adults who experienced relapse after therapy. Participants watched videos of themselves speaking fluently, with improved results for those viewing their videos regularly.
A recent CDC report challenges the notion that Black fathers are more absent in their children's lives than White fathers. Researchers found that messages of individual blame for Black Americans perpetuate structural racial inequalities and reinforce the idea that Blacks are ultimately responsible for their own disadvantage.
A study led by Duke University researchers found that parrots have distinct brain regions, called 'shells,' that are involved in vocal learning and may contribute to their ability to imitate human speech. The study also suggests that the shells may be responsible for the species' exceptional vocal mimicry abilities.
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that playing natural sounds in offices boosts worker moods and improves cognitive abilities. The study tested three different sound stimuli: typical office noises with a conventional masking signal, an office soundscape with a 'natural' masker, and an office soundscape with no masker.
Researchers found that people who share views align more closely in their speech patterns, even unconsciously. Those who compromise in conflict situations also show greater linguistic alignment with the speaker.
Researchers at Michigan State University found that children who stutter have difficulty perceiving a beat in music-like rhythms, which may account for their halting speech patterns. This study has implications for treating stuttering and suggests that improving beat perception in children could lead to improved fluency in speech.
Researchers found that native English speakers had difficulty recalling words spoken in a Korean accent, suggesting that understanding foreign accents may reduce information processing capacity. The study's results have implications for communication strategies in settings like schools and hospitals.
Scientists at Duke University have discovered a brain region that integrates the timing of speech, a crucial element of spoken language. The superior temporal sulcus (STS) became active during speech quilts with longer segments, suggesting it plays a key role in processing speech rhythms.
Dr. Carlos Busso's groundbreaking research on audiovisual emotion recognition has been recognized with a 10-Year Technical Impact Award. The study demonstrated the benefits of using both speech and facial recognition modalities to improve emotion classification, with applications in medical, entertainment, and security fields.
Researchers Andrea Bowes and Albert Katz found that people are better able to infer the mental and emotional state of others after reading metaphors. This is because metaphors activate embodied social experiences, making it easier to understand others' emotions and mental states.
Researchers aim to enhance speech signals and classify background noise using powerful smartphone processors and machine learning algorithms. The project has the potential to create a wide collection of smartphone apps for use with hearing aid devices.
A new study found that older adults with musical training were 20% faster at identifying speech sounds than non-musicians. The research suggests that music instruction can enhance brain areas supporting speech recognition, even in old age. Music training may help counteract cognitive decline and improve auditory processing abilities.
Children who actively participated in music classes showed greater gains in speech processing and reading scores compared to less-involved peers. Music training improved neural benefits in the same areas of the brain traditionally weak in disadvantaged children.
Sheila E. Blumstein received the Silver Medal in Speech Communication from the Acoustical Society of America for her work on how acoustic signals are transformed into linguistic representations. She has made significant contributions to our understanding of speech processing and neural systems.
Researchers found dogs process human speech in left- and right-hemisphere biases, similar to humans. Dogs respond differently to familiar commands and intonation cues, suggesting they pay attention to both who and how we communicate.
Researchers have developed a new diagnostic technique using songbird courtship calls to safely map the human brain during complex neurosurgery. The technique, called focal intraoperative cooling, involves cooling specific regions of the brain while patients undergo surgery, reducing surgical risk for epilepsy and brain tumor patients.
Researchers found a correlation between depression and certain acoustic properties in patients' speech, including breathier tone and increased jitter and shimmer. A phone app could use this information to analyze patients' speech and provide feedback and support.
A study by Rosario Signorello found that speakers with a wide range of frequency variation in their voices are more likely to be perceived as dominant. The researchers also discovered that speakers with a low fundamental rate of vocal fold vibration are perceived as more dominant than those with high F0 frequencies.
A CU-Boulder study suggests that modern hearing aids can distort music due to advanced processing designed for speech. Researchers found that simpler hearing aids with minimal processing allowed users to enjoy music more, despite reduced sound quality.
A new study found that patients who experience a stroke in the hospital wait longer for treatment and are less likely to receive clot-busting drugs compared to those who have a stroke outside of the hospital. This delay can lead to longer hospital stays, disability, and worse outcomes.
A new study analyzing Saddam Hussein's private transcripts reveals a striking similarity between his public and private beliefs on international affairs. The researchers found that while public speeches were often straightforward, private discussions exhibited more complexity and nuanced views, particularly on the US, Iran, and Israel.
A study published in Ear and Hearing reveals that prolonged exposure to loud noise can lead to permanent damage of the hair cells in the ear. This damage affects the brain's recognition of speech sounds, potentially increasing difficulty in distinguishing them. The researchers used rats to simulate two types of noise trauma and found t...
Researchers developed a game that trained both mice and humans to enhance their ability to discriminate soft sounds in noisy backgrounds. Trained subjects showed improved speech processing skills, even in high levels of background noise.
A study by University of Miami researcher Casey Klofstad found that vocal fry is perceived negatively, particularly in labor market contexts, affecting women's hiring prospects. Women who use vocal fry are seen as less attractive, competent, educated, trustworthy, and ultimately less hirable than those with normal speech.
A new UT Dallas study explores how infants process degraded speech with cochlear implants, revealing they need more complete speech information to maximize communication outcomes. Infants can distinguish between familiar and new sounds, but require less distortion and more frequency information than older children and adults.
A study found that more than half of US women identified sudden weakness as a stroke warning sign, but fewer recognized other symptoms like difficulty speaking or vision loss. Hispanic women were less likely to know most stroke signs.
A recent study by the University of Manchester found that only 2.1% of adults with significant hearing problems use a hearing aid. The study revealed that approximately one in 10 middle-aged adults have substantial hearing difficulties, particularly those from working-class or ethnic minority backgrounds.
A study of oropharyngeal cancer patients reveals that radiation therapy can cause significant voice and speech problems. Limiting the radiation dose to the glottic larynx reduces these issues, suggesting a potential strategy for improving post-treatment quality of life.
A new study from the USC Marshall School of Business found that sharing feelings with someone having a similar emotional response to a threatening situation can help decrease stress. By discussing their emotions, individuals can experience reduced levels of stress-related hormones like cortisol.
A new study from the University of Texas at Austin found that parents who give their children similar-sounding names are more likely to mistakenly call them by another family member's or pet's name. The researchers discovered that physical and personality similarities between siblings also contribute to these errors.
The 88th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America will take place in Minneapolis, featuring cutting-edge research on various aspects of language. Researchers will present papers and posters on topics such as dialect features in social media, differences in Black and White American Sign Language, and changes in accent over time.
New research shows Valley Girl dialect, known for rising pitch at the ends of sentences, is expanding to other demographic groups, including males. The study identified distinct melodic vocal patterns distinguishing uptalk questions from statements, busting stereotypes about insecurity and non-intellectualism associated with the dialect.
Researchers at Ohio State University have developed a potential breakthrough in solving the 'cocktail party problem' by using neural networks to filter out background noise. The technology improves comprehension for the hearing-impaired, with scores increasing from 10% to 90%, and is being commercialized for license.