Exploring the role of prosody in passage reading of experienced and early readers

Previous research has consistently demonstrated that individual differences in prosodic competence (i.e., an individual’s sensitivity to and awareness of prosodic cues) are positively associated with reading comprehension (e.g., Chung & Bidelman, 2021; Holliman, Williams, et al., 2014; Lochrin et al., 2015; Veenendaal et al., 2014). It is less clear, however, whether this relationship between prosodic competence and reading comprehension is simply due to the role of prosody in the many lower level skills involved in efficient word reading, or, whether well-developed prosodic competence facilitates reading comprehension at a higher level. Accordingly, one of the hypotheses proposed in this thesis is that prosodic competence facilitates reading comprehension at the passage level by allowing for prosodic passage reading (i.e., the ability to read a passage with appropriate prosody). This thesis describes three empirical studies designed to examine the concurrent relationships between prosodic competence, prosodic passage reading, and reading comprehension in two samples of participants: experienced readers (adults) and early readers (children ages 7- to 11-years-old). Specifically, analyses were used to investigate (a) whether performance on prosodic competence tasks explained unique variance in passage reading (prosodic reading and comprehension) after accounting for word-level reading skills (e.g., vocabulary, segmental PA, and single word reading), (b) whether prosodic passage reading ability explained unique variance in reading comprehension, after accounting for word-level reading skills, and (c) whether prosodic passage reading ability explained the contribution of prosodic competence to reading comprehension. Results demonstrated that prosodic competence did not account for additional variance in reading comprehension, after controlling for word-level reading skills in either sample of readers. Consequently, there was no evidence that prosodic passage reading mediated the relationship between prosodic competence and reading comprehension. However, results did reveal that the role of prosody in relation to passage reading was markedly different between experienced and early readers. To illustrate, prosodic competence accounted for unique variance in prosodic passage reading (after accounting for all word-level reading skills), but exclusively in the samples of experienced readers — suggesting that prosodic competence likely facilitates prosodic passage reading, but only after a certain level of reading efficiency has been achieved. On the other hand, prosodic passage reading accounted for unique variance in reading comprehension (after accounting for all word-level reading skills), exclusively in the sample of early readers — suggesting that prosodic passage reading likely acts as a comprehension tool, but only during reading development. Accordingly, I argue that prosody should be integrated into future frameworks of reading comprehension, but that a developmental approach, which considers the changing role of prosody, is necessary. I also maintain that these results support the incorporation of prosodic passage reading in early literacy curricula

Auditory processing in patients with structural lesions of the brain.

This thesis investigated structure versus function in the central auditory nervous system (CANS) by using the lesion study approach and by utilising a validated clinical test battery for the assessment of auditory processing as well as self- or parent report measures. The central auditory test results were correlated with the macroscopical appearance of the CANS on brain MRI and with patient reported hearing difficulties. The two regions of interest for this study were the insula (first group of studies) and the interhemispheric pathway, comprised by the corpus callosum and the anterior commissure (second group of studies). First group of studies: Patients with a history of ischemic or haemorrhagic cerebral stroke of the CANS were identified by their scans. Exclusion criteria were significant psychiatric or expressive language disorders. Second group of studies: Adults and children with congenital aniridia and abnormality of the interhemispheric pathway due to a PAX6 mutation were recruited. The assessment included questionnaire of auditory capabilities, baseline audiometry (pure tone audiometry, tympanometry and otoacoustic emissions) and central auditory tests (speech and non-speech). The brain MRIs of these patients were visually inspected (1st and 2nd group of studies). The corpus callosum area was measured in the children participants of the 2nd group of studies

Hallucination Proneness and Musical Aptitude: Functional and Microstructural Underpinnings

The current thesis aimed to explore links between hallucination proneness and musical aptitude utilising a variety of brain imaging methodologies to characterise associated functional and microstructural individual variabilities. A further aim was to investigate whether a short duration of musical training could be used to modulate functional activity and microstructure in regions associated with hallucinatory experiences. It was hypothesised that hallucination proneness and musical aptitude would be negatively associated with each other and inversely related to underlying functional activity and microstructure within a shared network of brain regions. Moreover, it was hypothesised that musical training would lead to changes in functional activity and microstructure within this shared network of regions. Measures of musical aptitude and hallucination proneness were assessed in conjunction with diffusion imaging models which enabled the characterisation of the microstructural features of the corpus callosum. Results revealed an inverse relationship between musical aptitude and hallucination proneness, with a mediating effect of musical aptitude on hallucination proneness through the microstructure of the corpus callosum. The use of a multi-shell biophysical model, based on neurite orientation dispersion density imaging, further revealed that the relationship between hallucination proneness and musical aptitude was primarily due to callosal neurite orientation dispersion rather than neurite density. With the addition of functional connectivity MRI the degree of callosal neurite orientation dispersion also shown to impact on the functional connectivity during a musical categorisation task, such that higher neurite alignment was associated with increased ROI- ROI fronto-temporal functional connectivity. Hallucination proneness was shown to be negatively associated with performance on a speech perception task and functional connectivity between the left IFG and the superior temporal gyrus (STG) (bilaterally) during task completion. Dendritic complexity within the STG grey matter was also found to be negatively associated with individual variability in propensity to hallucinate. Investigations of the effects of exposure to a short musical training session (learning to tap polyrhythms for one hour) provided evidence of an increase in ROI-ROI function within a bilateral network of fronto-temporal regions following training. Moreover, using three distinct but complimentary diffusion imaging models, polyrhythm training was shown to facilitate a decrease in extra-axonal space diffusion in the central portions of the CC which correlated with performance gains on the polyrhythm discrimination task. The overall results of this thesis therefore support the hypothesis that musical aptitude and hallucination proneness are linked and associated with the underlying microstructure of the CC. Moreover, musical aptitude was shown to be positively associated with task based functional fronto-temporal connectivity whereas hallucination proneness was shown to be negatively associated. Hallucination proneness was further shown to be related to microstructure of the STG with orientation dispersion deemed the most sensitive metric for assessing this relationship. Importantly, results offer evidence that musical training may offer a novel approach for improving fronto-temporal functional connectivity and the microstructure of the corpus callosum, providing an initial foundation for investigation of future novel interventions for hallucinatory experiences

Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy. This edition celebrates twenty years of uninterrupted and succesfully research in the field of voice analysis

Pragmatics & Language Learning, Volume 12

Pragmatics & Language Learning Volume 12 examines the organization of second language and multilingual speakers’ talk and pragmatic knowledge across a range of naturalistic and experimental activities. Based on data collected on Danish, English, Hawaiʻi Creole, Indonesian, and Japanese as target languages, the contributions explore the nexus of pragmatic knowledge, interaction, and L2 learning outside and inside of educational settings. Pragmatics & Language Learning (“PLL”), a refereed series sponsored by the National Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Hawaiʻi, publishes selected papers from the biennial Conference on International Pragmatics & Language Learning under the editorship of the conference hosts and the series editor, Gabriele Kasper