Search

Purpose: Dysphonic voices typically present multiple voice quality dimensions. This study investigated potential interactions between perceived breathiness and roughness and their contributions to overall dysphonia severity. Method: Synthetic stimuli based on four talkers were created to systematically map out potential interactions. For each talker, a stimulus matrix composed of 49 stimuli (seven breathiness steps x seven roughness steps) was created by varying aspiration noise and open quotient to manipulate breathiness and superimposing amplitude modulation of varying depths to simulate roughness. Onedimensional matching (1DMA) and magnitude estimation (1DME) tasks were used to measure perceived breathiness, roughness, their potential interactions, and overall dysphonia severity. Additional 1DME tasks were used to assess a set of natural stimuli that varied along both breathiness and roughness. Results: For the synthetic stimuli, the 1DMA task indicated little interaction between the two voice qualities. For the 1DME task, breathiness magnitude was influenced by roughness step to a greater extent than roughness magnitude was influenced by breathiness step. The additive contributions of breathiness and roughness to overall severity gradually diminished with increasing breathiness and roughness steps, possibly reflecting a ceiling effect in the 1DME task. For the natural stimuli, little consistent interaction was observed between breathiness and roughness. Conclusions: The matching task revealed minimal interaction between perceived breathiness and roughness, whereas the magnitude estimation task revealed some interaction between the two qualities and their cumulative contributions to overall dysphonia severity. Task differences are discussed in terms of differences in response bias and the role of perceptual anchors. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21313701, Typical and dysphonic voices are characterized by changes along multiple voice quality (VQ) dimensions, each of which can vary relative to the other. VQ in dysphonic speakers is routinely evaluated [...]

Purpose: Listeners shift their listening strategies between lower level acoustic information and higher level semantic information to prioritize maximum speech intelligibility in challenging listening conditions. Although increasing task demands via acoustic degradation modulates lexical-semantic processing, the neural mechanisms underlying different listening strategies are unclear. The current study examined the extent to which encoding of lower level acoustic cues is modulated by task demand and associations with lexical-semantic processes. Method: Electroencephalography was acquired while participants listened to sentences in the presence of fourtalker babble that contained either higher or lower probability final words. Task difficulty was modulated by time available to process responses. Cortical tracking of speech--neural correlates of acoustic temporal envelope processing--were estimated using temporal response functions. Results: Task difficulty did not affect cortical tracking of temporal envelope of speech under challenging listening conditions. Neural indices of lexical-semantic processing (N400 amplitudes) were larger with increased task difficulty. No correlations were observed between the cortical tracking of temporal envelope of speech and lexical-semantic processes, even after controlling for the effect of individualized signal-to-noise ratios. Conclusions: Cortical tracking of the temporal envelope of speech and semantic processing are differentially influenced by task difficulty. While increased task demands modulated higher level semantic processing, cortical tracking of the temporal envelope of speech may be influenced by task difficulty primarily when the demand is manipulated in terms of acoustic properties of the stimulus, consistent with an emerging perspective in speech perception., In challenging conditions, listeners dynamically shift weighting of lower level acoustic and higher level semantic cues by adopting strategies to maximize speech intelligibility. Increased reliance on semantic information under challenging [...]

Purpose: Spectral modulation detection is an increasingly common assay of suprathreshold auditory perception and has been correlated with speech perception performance. Here, the potential effects of stimulus duration and stimulus presentation level on spectral modulation detection were investigated. Method: Spectral modulation detection thresholds were measured as a function of modulation frequency in young, normal-hearing listeners. The standard stimulus was a bandpass noise, and signal stimuli were created by superimposing sinusoidal spectral modulation on the bandpass noise carrier. The modulation was sinusoidal on a [log.sub.2] frequency axis and a [log.sub.10] (dB) amplitude scale with a random starting phase (0-2TT radians). In 1 experiment, stimulus durations were 50, 100, 200, or 400 ms (at fixed level 81 dB SPL). In a 2nd experiment, stimuli were presented at sensation levels of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 60 dB SL (fixed at a duration of 400 ms). Results: Spectral modulation detection thresholds were similarly low for the 400- and 200-ms durations, increased slightly for the 100-ms duration, and increased markedly for the 50-ms duration. Thresholds were lowest for 40 dB SL; increased slightly for 20, 30, and 60 dB SL; and markedly higher for the 10-dB SL condition. Conclusions: The increase in thresholds for the shortest durations and lowest sensational levels is consistent with previous investigations of auditory spectral profile analysis. The effects of presentation level and stimulus duration are important considerations in the context of understanding potential relationships between the perception of spectral cues and speech perception, when designing investigations and interpreting data related to spectral envelope perception, and in the context of models of auditory perception. As examples, 2 simple models based on auditory nerve output that have been used to explain spectrotemporal modulation in previous investigations produced an output inconsistent with the present results. Plain language summary: Intensity variations across audio frequency lead to spectral shapes that are essential and sometimes signature features of various sounds in the environment, including speech. Here, we show how laboratory measures of spectral shape perception depend on presentation level and stimulus duration., The detection of sinusoidal spectral modulation is commonly used as a general measure of auditory spectral shape perception, a fundamental auditory perceptual ability. Spectral modulation detection is analogous to the [...]

Purpose: Growing evidence supports the inclusion of perceptual tests that quantify the processing of temporal fine structure (TFS) in clinical hearing assessment. Many tasks have been used to evaluate TFS in the laboratory that vary greatly in the stimuli used and whether the judgments require monaural or binaural comparisons of TFS. The purpose of this study was to compare laboratory measures of TFS for inclusion in a battery of suprathreshold auditory tests. A subset of available TFS tasks were selected on the basis of potential clinical utility and were evaluated using metrics that focus on characteristics important for clinical use. Method: TFS measures were implemented in replication of studies that demonstrated clinical utility. Monaural, diotic, and dichotic measures were evaluated in 11 young listeners with normal hearing. Measures included frequency modulation (FM) tasks, harmonic frequency shift detection, interaural phase difference (TFS-low frequency), interaural time difference (ITD), monaural gap duration discrimination, and tone detection in noise with and without a difference in interaural phase ([N.sub.0][S.sub.0], [N.sub.0][S.sub.[pi]]). Data were compared with published results and evaluated with metrics of consistency and efficiency. Results: Thresholds obtained were consistent with published data. There was no evidence of predictive relationships among the measures consistent with a homogenous group. The most stable tasks across repeated testing were TFS-low frequency, diotic and dichotic FM, and [N.sub.0][S.sub.[pi]]. Monaural and diotic FM had the lowest normalized variance and were the most efficient accounting for differences in total test duration, followed by ITD. Conclusions: Despite a long stimulus duration, FM tasks dominated comparisons of consistency and efficiency. Small differences separated the dichotic tasks FM, ITD, and [N.sub.0][S.sub.[pi]]. Future comparisons following procedural optimization of the tasks will evaluate clinical efficiency in populations with impairment., There is an increasing awareness of patients in clinical settings who present with an audiogram that is within or near normal limits but who have extensive complaints regarding their difficulty [...]

Purpose: Improving the ability to listen efficiently in noisy environments is a critical goal for hearing rehabilitation. However, understanding of the impact of difficult listening conditions on language processing is limited. The current study evaluated the neural processes underlying semantics in challenging listening conditions. Method: Thirty adults with normal hearing completed an auditory sentence processing task in 4-talker babble. Event-related brain potentials were elicited by the final word in high-or low-context sentences, where the final word was either highly expected or not expected, followed by a 4-alternative forced-choice response with either longer (1,000 ms), middle (700 ms), or shorter (400 ms) response time deadlines (RTDs). Results: Behavioral accuracy was reduced, and reactions times were faster for shorter RTDs. N400 amplitudes, reflecting ease of lexical access, were larger when elicited by target words in low-context sentences followed by shorter compared with longer RTDs. Conclusions: These results reveal that more neural resources are allocated for semantic processing/lexical access when listening difficulty increases. Differences between RTDs may reflect increased attentional allocation for shorter RTDs. These findings suggest that situational listening demands can impact the demands for cognitive resources engaged in language processing, which could significantly impact listener experiences across environments., Hearing impairment is a significant problem, affecting approximately 14% of all adults and almost 40% of older adults in the United States (Hoffman, Dobie, Losonczy, Themann, & Flamme, 2017; Nash [...]

Purpose: The purpose of this introduction is to briefly describe the nature of the conference, Aging and Speech Communication: An International and Interdisciplinary Research Conference, and to introduce the articles featured in this forum that represent the nature of the biennial conference., In 2005, Indiana University hosted the first biennial conference, Aging and Speech Communication: An International and Interdisciplinary Research Conference. A goal of the biennial conference is to provide a unique [...]

Purpose: The goal was to evaluate the potential effects of increasing hearing loss and advancing age on spectral envelope perception. Method: Spectral modulation detection was measured as a function of spectral modulation frequency from 0.5 to 8.0 cycles/ octave. The spectral modulation task involved discrimination of a noise carrier (3 octaves wide from 400 to 3200 Hz) with a flat spectral envelope from a noise having a sinusoidal spectral envelope across a logarithmic audio frequency scale. Spectral modulation transfer functions (SMTFs; modulation threshold vs. modulation frequency) were computed and compared 4 listener groups: young normal hearing, older normal hearing, older with mild hearing loss, and older with moderate hearing loss. Estimates of the internal spectral contrast were obtained by computing excitation patterns. Results: SMTFs for young listeners with normal hearing were bandpass with a minimum modulation detection threshold at 2 cycles/octave, and older listeners with normal hearing were remarkably similar to those of the young listeners. SMTFs for older listeners with mild and moderate hearing loss had a low-pass rather than a bandpass shape. Excitation patterns revealed that limited spectral resolution dictated modulation detection thresholds at high but not low spectral modulation frequencies. Even when factoring out (presumed) differences in frequency resolution among groups, the spectral envelope perception was worse for the group with moderate hearing loss than the other 3 groups. Conclusions: The spectral envelope perception as measured by spectral modulation detection thresholds is compromised by hearing loss at higher spectral modulation frequencies, consistent with predictions of reduced spectral resolution known to accompany sensorineural hearing loss. Spectral envelope perception is not negatively impacted by advancing age at any spectral modulation frequency between 0.5 and 8.0 cycles/octave., It is well known that coincident with the aging process is a degradation in auditory function at multiple levels within the auditory pathway. Physiological changes at the periphery often include [...]

Purpose: Perceptual estimates of voice quality obtained using rating scales are subject to contextual biases that influence how individuals assign numbers to estimate the magnitude of vocal quality. Because rating scales are commonly used in clinical settings, assessments of voice quality are also subject to the limitations of these scales. Instead, a matching task can be used to obtain objective measures of voice quality, thereby facilitating model development and tools for clinical use. Method: Twenty-seven individuals participated in a rating task or at least 1 of 3 matching tests (named after their modulation functions: SINE, SQUARE, POWER) to quantify the degree of roughness in dysphonic voice stimuli. Participants evaluated the roughness of 34 voice samples using an amplitude-modulated complex carrier. Results: The matching thresholds were highly correlated with the ratings estimates. Reliability of thresholds did not significantly differ across tasks, but linear regressions showed that the POWER test resulted in larger perceptual distances. Conclusions: A matching task can be used to obtain reliable estimates of roughness in dysphonic voices. The POWER comparison is recommended because the variability in matching thresholds across the range of roughness was evenly distributed, and the perceptual distances between stimuli were maximized. Key Words: voice quality, roughness, rating scale, matching, amplitude modulation, Roughness is an important dimension of dysphonic voice quality and may be defined as the psycho1 % acoustic impression of irregularity of vocal fold vibrations (Hirano, 1981). Perceptual evaluation of [...]

Purpose: In this experiment, a single comparison stimulus was developed as a reference in a perceptual matching task for the quantification of breathy voice quality. Perceptual judgments of a set of synthetic voice samples were compared to previous data obtained using multiple comparison stimuli 'customized' for different voices (Patel, Shrivastav, & Eddins, 2010). Method: Five male and 5 female samples of the vowel /a/ were selected from the Kay Elemetrics Disordered Voice Database and resynthesized using a Klatt synthesizer. Eleven samples were created for each base voice by manipulating the aspiration noise level. Five samples from each continuum were evaluated in a perceptual matching task in which a single sawtooth and noise comparison stimulus was used to obtain breathiness judgments. Linear regression was used to compare measurements obtained using the new comparison stimulus against the customized comparison stimuli. Results: Results indicated that the noncustomized sawtooth comparison provides reliability and perceptual distances between stimuli similar to those obtained using customized comparison stimuli. Conclusion: A single-variable matching task using a single comparison stimulus can be used to obtain perceptual estimates of breathiness across voices and experiments in a laboratory setting. This technique will help develop models of voice-quality perception. Key Words: voice quality, matching, breathy, single-variable, The ability to quantify voice quality precisely and quickly is critical for a number of applications, such as for the clinical assessment of voice disorders as well as automatic detection [...]