Speech modifications in interactive speech: Effects of age, sex and noise type

When attempting to maintain conversations in noisy communicative settings, talkers typically modify their speech to make themselves understood by the listener. In this study, we investigated the impact of background interference type and talker age on speech adaptations, vocal effort and communicative success. We measured speech acoustics (articulation rate, mid-frequency energy, fundamental frequency), vocal effort (correlation between mid-frequency energy and fundamental frequency) and task completion time in 114 participants aged 8–80 years carrying out an interactive problem-solving task in good and noisy listening conditions (quiet, non-speech noise, background speech). We found greater changes in fundamental frequency and mid-frequency energy in non-speech noise than in background speech and similar reductions in articulation rate in both. However, older participants (50+ years) increased vocal effort in both background interference types, whereas younger children (less than 13 years) increased vocal effort only in background speech. The presence of background interference did not lead to longer task completion times. These results suggest that when the background interference involves a higher cognitive load, as in the case of other speech of other talkers, children and older talkers need to exert more vocal effort to ensure successful communication. We discuss these findings within the communication effort framework. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’

The effect of age and hearing loss on partner-directed gaze in a communicative task

The study examined the partner-directed gaze patterns of old and young talkers in a task (DiapixUK) that involved two people (a lead talker and a follower) engaging in a spontaneous dialogue. The aim was (1) to determine whether older adults engage less in partner-directed gaze than younger adults by measuring mean gaze frequency and mean total gaze duration; and (2) examine the effect that mild hearing loss may have on older adult’s partner-directed gaze. These were tested in various communication conditions: a no barrier condition; BAB2 condition in which the lead talker and the follower spoke and heard each other in multitalker babble noise; and two barrier conditions in which the lead talker could hear clearly their follower but the follower could not hear the lead talker very clearly (i.e., the lead talker’s voice was degraded by babble (BAB1) or by a Hearing Loss simulation (HLS). 57 single-sex pairs (19 older adults with mild Hearing Loss, 17 older adults with Normal Hearing and 21 younger adults) participated in the study. We found that older adults with normal hearing produced fewer partner-directed gazes (and gazed less overall) than either the older adults with hearing loss or younger adults for the BAB1 and HLS conditions. We propose that this may be due to a decline in older adult’s attention to cues signaling how well a conversation is progressing. Older adults with hearing loss, however, may attend more to visual cues because they give greater weighting to these for understanding speech

Speech communication in older adults: an acoustic and perceptual investigation – ESRC

Speech communication can be difficult for older people, due to the combined effects of age-related hearing loss, which is common over the age of 65, age-related decline in the quality of phonation and speech articulation, and cognitive problems such as poorer short-term memory and processing speed. Past studies of how older individuals perceive and produce speech sounds have tended to consider these abilities independently of each other using controlled materials, such as read words or sentences. These studies tell us little about how older speakers function when using speech for communicative purposes, and how these various factors interact. In our project, we gained a comprehensive account of older people's speech production and perception in situations involving communication with another individual. Older adults with age-related hearing loss and the rarer group of older adults with normal hearing were included in the study, as well as younger adult controls. In Study 1, participants were recorded while they completed a problem-solving task with another person. Communication between the participants was either in good listening conditions, where both speakers could hear each other normally, or in adverse conditions. There, one of the participants had to get their message across to another speaker who has a simulated hearing loss or when both were speaking in a noisy background. These comparisons enabled us to get a sense of the degree to which an older person is able to adapt their speech to overcome difficult listening conditions, a skill which is of paramount importance in speech communication in everyday life. High-quality recordings were made of these interactions and these were used to carry out acoustic analyses of their speech and also analyses of interactional features such as eye gaze and turn-taking. In Study 2, older and younger listeners with normal and impaired hearing were presented some of the materials recorded in Study 1 in good and adverse listening conditions. Intelligibility tests will be run to see what impact age and hearing status have on speech understanding and to see whether the 'clear speech' adaptations made by older speakers to counter the effects of poor communication conditions gave the same benefit to that of younger speakers. This project aims to lead to a better understanding of the effects of ageing on speech communication and of the various contributing factors to potentially degraded speech communication in a population of 'healthy aged' individuals. These benchmarks will be of use for practitioners such as speech and language therapists and audiologists who work on aspects of communication with older people who have health complications. A better understanding of communication difficulties that older individuals experience and of their strategies to overcome these difficulties also assists professionals such as social workers and care professionals who work to improve quality of life for older people, as well as developers of speech technology devices for telemedicine and remote monitoring. Importantly, this research also contributes to our basic understanding of speech perception and production development across the lifespan

Language Development and Impairment in Children With Mild to Moderate Sensorineural Hearing Loss (vol 60, pg 1551, 2017)

" Erratum." Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(2), p. 39

Auditory processing deficits are sometimes necessary and sometimes sufficient for language difficulties in children: Evidence from mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss

There is a general consensus that many children and adults with dyslexia and/or specific language impairment display deficits in auditory processing. However, how these deficits are related to developmental disorders of language is uncertain, and at least four categories of model have been proposed: single distal cause models, risk factor models, association models, and consequence models. This study used children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL) to investigate the link between auditory processing deficits and language disorders. We examined the auditory processing and language skills of 46, 8-16year-old children with MMHL and 44 age-matched typically developing controls. Auditory processing abilities were assessed using child-friendly psychophysical techniques in order to obtain discrimination thresholds. Stimuli incorporated three different timescales (µs, ms, s) and three different levels of complexity (simple nonspeech tones, complex nonspeech sounds, speech sounds), and tasks required discrimination of frequency or amplitude cues. Language abilities were assessed using a battery of standardised assessments of phonological processing, reading, vocabulary, and grammar. We found evidence that three different auditory processing abilities showed different relationships with language: Deficits in a general auditory processing component were necessary but not sufficient for language difficulties, and were consistent with a risk factor model; Deficits in slow-rate amplitude modulation (envelope) detection were sufficient but not necessary for language difficulties, and were consistent with either a single distal cause or a consequence model; And deficits in the discrimination of a single speech contrast (/bɑ/ vs /dɑ/) were neither necessary nor sufficient for language difficulties, and were consistent with an association model. Our findings suggest that different auditory processing deficits may constitute distinct and independent routes to the development of language difficulties in children

Cumulative dyslipidemia with arterial stiffness and carotid IMT progression in asymptomatic adolescents: A simulated intervention longitudinal study using temporal inverse allocation model

Background and aimsWe aimed to examine the longitudinal associations of total cholesterol (TC), non–high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non–HDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglyceride, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) progression.MethodsWe studied 1779, 15-year-old participants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, UK birth cohort, followed up for 9 years. Fasting TC, non–HDL-C, HDL-C, triglyceride, and LDL-C were measured at 15, 17, and 24 years and age-categorized as normal, elevated, and dyslipidemia based on National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute lipid guidelines. cfPWV and cIMT were measured at 17 and 24 years. Associations were examined using linear mixed-effect models. To simulate the treatment of dyslipidemia we conducted temporal inverse allocation model analyses.ResultsAmong 1779 [49.9% female] participants, mean lipid levels and proportions at elevated or dyslipidemia categories increased from ages 15 through 24 years. Persistently elevated TC: effect estimate 0.026 mm; [95% CI 0.004 to 0.049; p = 0.024], elevated non–HDL-C, and elevated LDL-C were cumulatively associated with cIMT progression. Persistent borderline-low HDL-C: −0.027 mm; [-0.050 to −0.005; p = 0.019] and very-low HDL-C −0.035 mm; [-0.057 to −0.013; p = 0.002] levels were associated with cIMT progression. A temporal inverse allocation of elevated and dyslipidemic levels with normal lipid levels at age 17 years attenuated the associations of cumulative elevated TC, non–HDL-C, LDL-C, and low HDL-C with cIMT progression. Cumulative elevated lipids or dyslipidemia were not associated with cfPWV progression.ConclusionsLate adolescence is key to preventing, halting, and reversing dyslipidemic-related preclinical atherosclerosis progression, warranting universal lipid screening in the general pediatric population.</p

Identification of fluency and word-finding difficulty in samples of children with diverse language backgrounds

BACKGROUND: Stuttering and word-finding difficulty (WFD) are two types of communication difficulty that occur frequently in children who learn English as an additional language (EAL), as well as those who only speak English. The two disorders require different, specific forms of intervention. Prior research has described the symptoms of each type of difficulty. This paper describes the development of a non-word repetition test (UNWR), applicable across languages, that was validated by comparing groups of children identified by their speech and language symptoms as having either stuttering or WFD. AIMS: To evaluate whether non-word repetition scores using the UNWR test distinguished between children who stutter and those who have a WFD, irrespective of the children's first language. METHODS AND PROCEDURES UNWR was administered to ninety-six 4–5-year-old children attending UK schools (20.83% of whom had EAL). The children's speech samples in English were assessed for symptoms of stuttering and WFD. UNWR scores were calculated. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Regression models were fitted to establish whether language group (English only/EAL) and symptoms of (1) stuttering and (2) WFD predicted UNWR scores. Stuttering symptoms predicted UNWR, whereas WFD did not. These two findings suggest that UNWR scores dissociate stuttering from WFD. There were no differences between monolingual English-speakers and children who had EAL. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: UNWR scores distinguish between stuttering and WFD irrespective of language(s) spoken, allowing future evaluation of a range of languages in clinics or schools

Metallothioneins 2 and 3 contribute to the metal-adapted phenotype but are not directly linked to Zn accumulation in the metal hyperaccumulator, Thlaspi caerulescens

To study the role of metallothioneins (MTs) in Zn accumulation, the expression of TcMT2a, TcMT2b, and TcMT3 was analysed in three accessions and 15 F3 families of two inter-accession crosses of the Cd/Zn hyperaccumulator Thlaspi caerulescens, with different degrees of Zn accumulation. The highest expression levels were found in the shoots of a superior metal-accumulating calamine accession from St Laurent le Minier, with >10-fold TcMT3 expression compared with another calamine accession and a non-metallicolous accession. Moreover, F3 sibling lines from the inter-accession crosses that harboured the MT2a or MT3 allele from St Laurent le Minier had higher expression levels. However, there was no co-segregation of TcMT2a or TcMT3 expression and Zn accumulation. To examine the functions of TcMTs in plants, TcMT2a and TcMT3 were ectopically expressed in Arabidopsis. The transformant lines had reduced root length in control medium but not at high metal concentrations, suggesting that the ectopically expressed proteins interfered with the physiological availability of essential metals under limited supply. The Arabidopsis transformant lines did not show increased tolerance to Cd, Cu, or Zn, nor increased Cd or Zn accumulation. Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that in roots, MT2 protein is localized in the epidermis and root hairs of both T. caerulescens and Arabidopsis thaliana. The results suggest that TcMT2a, TcMT2b, and TcMT3 are not primarily involved in Zn accumulation as such. However, the elevated expression levels in the metallicolous accessions suggests that they do contribute to the metal-adapted phenotype, possibly through improving Cu homeostasis at high Zn and Cd body burdens. Alternatively, they might function as hypostatic enhancers of Zn or Cd tolerance

Human Tumor-Derived Matrix Improves the Predictability of Head and Neck Cancer Drug Testing

In vitro cancer drug testing carries a low predictive value. We developed the human leiomyoma–derived matrix “Myogel” to better mimic the human tumor microenvironment (TME). We hypothesized that Myogel could provide an appropriate microenvironment for cancer cells, thereby allowing more in vivo–relevant drug testing. We screened 19 anticancer compounds, targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), MEK, and PI3K/mTOR on 12 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines cultured on plastic, mouse sarcoma–derived Matrigel (MSDM), and Myogel. We applied a high-throughput drug screening assay under five different culturing conditions: cells in two-dimensional (2D) plastic wells and on top or embedded in Matrigel or Myogel. We then compared the efficacy of the anticancer compounds to the response rates of 19 HNSCC monotherapy clinical trials. Cancer cells on top of Myogel responded less to EGFR and MEK inhibitors compared to cells cultured on plastic or Matrigel. However, we found a similar response to the PI3K/mTOR inhibitors under all culturing conditions. Cells grown on Myogel more closely resembled the response rates reported in EGFR-inhibitor monotherapy clinical trials. Our findings suggest that a human tumor matrix improves the predictability of in vitro anticancer drug testing compared to current 2D and MSDM methods</p