Opposing and following responses in sensorimotor speech control : why responses go both ways

When talking, speakers continuously monitor and use the auditory feedback of their own voice to control and inform speech production processes. When speakers are provided with auditory feedback that is perturbed in real time, most of them compensate for this by opposing the feedback perturbation. But some speakers follow the perturbation. In the current study, we investigated whether the state of the speech production system at perturbation onset may determine what type of response (opposing or following) is given. The results suggest that whether a perturbation-related response is opposing or following depends on ongoing fluctuations of the production system: It initially responds by doing the opposite of what it was doing. This effect and the non-trivial proportion of following responses suggest that current production models are inadequate: They need to account for why responses to unexpected sensory feedback depend on the production-system’s state at the time of perturbation

De grafemische buffer : aspecten van een spellingstoornis

A spelling disorder that received much attention recently is the so-called graphemic buffer impairment. Caramazza et al. (1987) presented the first systematic case study of a patient with this disorder. Miceli & Capasso (2006) provide an extensive overview of the relevant literature. This article adds to the literature by describing a Dutch case, i.e. patient BM. We demonstrate how specific features of Dutch and Dutch orthography interact with the graphemic buffer impairment. In addition, we paid special attention to the influence of grapheme position on the patient’s spelling accuracy. For this we used, in contrast with most of the previous literature, the proportional accountability method described in Machtynger & Shallice (2009). We show that by using this method the underlying error distribution can be more optimally captured than with classical methods. The result of this analysis replicates two distributions that have been previously reported in the literature. Finally, attention will be paid to the role of phonology in the described disorder

De grafemische buffer : aspecten van een spellingstoornis

Ce riche volume de 373 pages rassemble les contributions pour un colloque qui fut organisé les 30 novembre et 1 décembre 2012 par le “Centro Studi Sigismondo Castromediano e Gino Rizzo” à Cavallino di Lecce. Le personnage historique de premier plan qui fait l’objet du volume est Sigismondo Castromediano (Cavallino 1811-1895), surnommé le « Bianco Duca », noble de la région des Pouilles, arrêté en 1848 pour activité patriotique au sein de la Giovine Italia, condamné à trente ans de bagne, puis..

Consistency influences altered auditory feedback processing

Previous research on the effect of perturbed auditory feedback in speech production has focused on two types of responses. In the short term, speakers generate compensatory motor commands in response to unexpected perturbations. In the longer term, speakers adapt feedforward motor programs in response to feedback perturbations, in order to avoid future errors. The current study investigated the relation between these two types of responses to altered auditory feedback. Specifically, it was hypothesized that consistency in previous feedback perturbations would influence whether speakers adapt their feedforward motor programs. In an altered auditory feedback paradigm, formant perturbations were applied either across all trials (the consistent condition) or only to some trials while the others remained unperturbed (the inconsistent condition). The results showed that speakers’ responses were affected by feedback consistency, with stronger speech changes in the consistent condition compared to the inconsistent condition. Current models of speech-motor control can explain this consistency effect. However, the data also suggest compensation and adaptation are distinct processes, which is not in line with all current models

Does passive sound attenuation affect responses to pitch-shifted auditory feedback?

The role of auditory feedback in vocal production has mainly been investigated by altered auditory feedback (AAF) in real time. In response, speakers compensate by shifting their speech output in the opposite direction. Current theory suggests this is caused by a mismatch between expected and observed feedback. A methodological issue is the difficulty to fully isolate the speaker’s hearing so that only AAF is presented to their ears. As a result, participants may be presented with two simultaneous signals. If this is true, an alternative explanation is that responses to AAF depend on the contrast between the manipulated and the non-manipulated feedback. This hypothesis was tested by varying the passive sound attenuation (PSA). Participants vocalized while auditory feed- back was unexpectedly pitch shifted. The feedback was played through three pairs of headphones with varying amounts of PSA. The participants’ responses were not affected by the different levels of PSA. This suggests that across all three headphones, PSA is either good enough to make the manipulated feedback dominant, or differences in PSA are too small to affect the contribution of non-manipulated feedback. Overall, the results suggest that it is important to realize that non-manipulated auditory feedback could affect responses to AAF

No intolerance of errors:The effect of intolerance of uncertainty on performance monitoring revisited

Errors have been conceptualized as internal forms of threat that can cause harm in unpredictable ways. An index of error processing is the error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential reflecting variability in the sensitivity to errors. Prior work has shown the relationship between psychopathology symptoms and the ERN is unclear, and may be moderated by intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a trait that captures how people react to unpredictability. IU includes two subfactors of prospective IU (active seeking of predictability) and inhibitory IU (behavioral paralysis). In the present study, 188 undergraduates performed an Eriksen flanker task designed to elicit the ERN, while brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). Participants completed the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, Short Form (IUS-12), and other measures of anxiety, depression and worry. Total IU explained 5 % of the variance in correct-response negativity (CRN), but was not associated with the ERN in our sample. In contrast to previous findings, the IU subfactors did not predict the ERN or post-error slowing (PES), nor did total IU and depression interact to predict the ERN. Exploratory analyses also showed that total IU did not moderate the relationship between trait anxiety and the ERN. Small samples may have previously exaggerated the links between self-reported IU and the ERN. As such, further high-powered replications are required to confirm if, and how, they are related

Data-Driven Regionalization of Decarbonized Energy Systems for Reflecting Their Changing Topologies in Planning and Optimization

The decarbonization of energy systems has led to a fundamental change in their topologysince generation is shifted to locations with favorable renewable conditions. In planning, this changeis reflected by applying optimization models to regions within a country to optimize the distributionof generation units and to evaluate the resulting impact on the grid topology. This paper proposesa globally applicable framework to find a suitable regionalization for energy system models witha data-driven approach. Based on a global, spatially resolved database of demand, generation,and renewable profiles, hierarchical clustering with fine-tuning is performed. This regionalizationapproach is applied by modeling the resulting regions in an optimization model including asynthesized grid. In an exemplary case study, South Africa’s energy system is examined. The resultsshow that the data-driven regionalization is beneficial compared to the common approach of usingpolitical regions. Furthermore, the results of a modeled 80% decarbonization until 2045 demonstratethat the integration of renewable energy sources fundamentally changes the role of regions withinSouth Africa’s energy system. Thereby, the electricity exchange between regions is also impacted,leading to a different grid topology. Using clustered regions improves the understanding and analysisof regional transformations in the decarbonization process

Identifying a sublingual triangle as the ideal site for assessment of sublingual microcirculation

The sublingual mucosa is a commonly used intraoral location for identifying microcirculatory alterations using handheld vital microscopes (HVMs). The anatomic description of the sublingual cave and its related training have not been adequately introduced. The aim of this study was to introduce anatomy guided sublingual microcirculatory assessment. Measurements were acquired from the floor of the mouth using incident dark-field (IDF) imaging before (T0) and after (T1) sublingual cave anatomy instructed training. Instructions consists of examining a specific region of interested identified through observable anatomical structures adjacent and bilaterally to the lingual frenulum which is next to the sublingual papilla. The anatomical location called the sublingual triangle, was identified as stationed between the lingual frenulum, the sublingual fold and ventrally to the tongue. Small, large, and total vessel density datasets (SVD, LVD and TVD respectively) obtained by non-instructed and instructed measurements (NIN (T0) and IM (T1) respectively) were compared. Microvascular structures were analyzed, and the presence of salivary duct-related microcirculation was identified. A total of 72 video clips were used for analysis in which TVD, but not LVD and SVD, was higher in IM compared to NIM (NIM vs. IM, 25 ± 2 vs. 27 ± 3 mm/mm$^{2}$ (p = 0.044), LVD NIM vs. IM: 7 ± 1 vs. 8 ± 1mm/mm$^{2}$ (p = 0.092), SVD NIM vs. IM: 18 ± 2 vs. 20 ± 3 mm/mm$^{2}$ (p = 0.103)). IM resulted in microcirculatory assessments which included morphological properties such as capillaries, venules and arterioles, without salivary duct-associated microcirculation. The sublingual triangle identified in this study showed consistent network-based microcirculation, without interference from microcirculation associated with specialized anatomic structures. These findings suggest that the sublingual triangle, an anatomy guided location, yielded sublingual based measurements that conforms with international guidelines. IM showed higher TVD values, and future studies are needed with larger sample sizes to prove differences in microcirculatory parameters

Data-Driven Regionalization of Decarbonized Energy Systems for Reflecting Their Changing Topologies in Planning and Optimization

The decarbonization of energy systems has led to a fundamental change in their topology since generation is shifted to locations with favorable renewable conditions. In planning, this change is reflected by applying optimization models to regions within a country to optimize the distribution of generation units and to evaluate the resulting impact on the grid topology. This paper proposes a globally applicable framework to find a suitable regionalization for energy system models with a data-driven approach. Based on a global, spatially resolved database of demand, generation, and renewable profiles, hierarchical clustering with fine-tuning is performed. This regionalization approach is applied by modeling the resulting regions in an optimization model including a synthesized grid. In an exemplary case study, South Africa’s energy system is examined. The results show that the data-driven regionalization is beneficial compared to the common approach of using political regions. Furthermore, the results of a modeled 80% decarbonization until 2045 demonstrate that the integration of renewable energy sources fundamentally changes the role of regions within South Africa’s energy system. Thereby, the electricity exchange between regions is also impacted, leading to a different grid topology. Using clustered regions improves the understanding and analysis of regional transformations in the decarbonization process