Speech rhythm and language acquisition: an amplitude modulation phase hierarchy perspective.

Language lies at the heart of our experience as humans and disorders of language acquisition carry severe developmental costs. Rhythmic processing lies at the heart of language acquisition. Here, I review our understanding of the perceptual and neural mechanisms that support language acquisition, from a novel amplitude modulation perspective. Amplitude modulation patterns in infant- and child-directed speech support the perceptual experience of rhythm, and the brain encodes these rhythm patterns in part via neuroelectric oscillations. When brain rhythms align themselves with (entrain to) acoustic rhythms, speech intelligibility improves. Recent advances in the auditory neuroscience of speech processing enable studies of neuronal oscillatory entrainment in children and infants. The "amplitude modulation phase hierarchy" theoretical perspective on language acquisition is applicable across languages, and cross-language investigations adopting this novel perspective would be valuable for the field

Numerical simulation of the influence of the orifice aperture on the flow around a teeth-shaped obstacle

The sound generated during the production of the sibilant [s] results from the impact of a turbulent jet on the incisors. Several geometric characteristics of the oral tract can affect the properties of the flow-induced noise so that the characterization of the influence of different geometric parameters on the acoustic sources properties allows determining control factors of the noise production. In this study, a simplified vocal tract/teeth geometric model is used to numerically investigate the flow around a teeth-shaped obstacle placed in a channel and to analyze the influence of the aperture at the teeth on the spectral properties of the fluctuating pressure force exerted on the surface of the obstacle, which is at the origin of the dipole sound source. The results obtained for Re = 4000 suggest that the aperture of the constriction formed by the teeth modifies the characteristics of the turbulent jet downstream of the teeth. Thus, the variations of the flow due to the modification of the constriction aperture lead to variations of the spectral properties of the sound source even if the levels predicted are lower than during the production of real sibilant fricative

Discerning pig screams in production environments

Pig vocalisations convey information about their current state of health and welfare. Continuously monitoring these vocalisations can provide useful information for the farmer. For instance, pig screams can indicate stressful situations. When monitoring screams, other sounds can interfere with scream detection. Therefore, identifying screams from other sounds is essential. The objective of this study was to understand which sound features define a scream. Therefore, a method to detect screams based on sound features with physical meaning and explicit rules was developed. To achieve this, 7 hours of labelled data from 24 pigs was used. The developed detection method attained 72% sensitivity, 91% specificity and 83% precision. As a result, the detection method showed that screams contain the following features discerning them from other sounds: a formant structure, adequate power, high frequency content, sufficient variability and duration

Multimodal modeling and validation of simplified vocal tract acoustics for sibilant /s/

International audienc

Generation of frication noise for human speech sound production

International audienc

Acoustic modeling of fricative /s/ for an oral tract with rectangular cross-sections

International audienceFricative /s/ is known to be pronounced by jet generation and subsequent impact on walls of the oral cavity. The prediction of acoustic characteristics of /s/ is an ongoing research topic due to the aeroacoustic nature of the sound source. In this study, acoustic characteristics are modeled using the multi-modal theory with monopole and dipole sources positioned in the oral tract waveguide. The oral tract geometry of fricative /s/ was simplified by concate-nating rectangular channels whose cross-sectional areas and vertical height are derived from medical imaging. To validate the model accuracy, transverse and sagittal directivity patterns (49 cm every 15 •) were measured for flow supplied to a realistic oral tract replica. Comparison between measured and modeled spectra showed that the modeling with the dipole source predicted the pressure amplitude within a discrepancy of ±5 dB up to 14 kHz. Modeled acoustic directivity patterns using a dipole source reflected main tendencies observed on measured directivity patterns in both the transverse and sagittal planes. The proposed modeling approach enables a systematic analysis of the high frequency (>5 kHz) acoustic characteristics as a function of geometrical details for speech production due to an aeroacoustic sound source