Effects of Semantic Context and Fundamental Frequency Contours on Mandarin Speech Recognition by Second Language Learners

Sentence Context Differentially Modulates Contributions of Fundamental Frequency Contours to Word Recognition in Chinese-Speaking Children With and Without Dyslexia

Previous work has shown that children with dyslexia are impaired in speech recognition in adverse listening conditions. Our study further examined how semantic context and fundamental frequency (F₀) contours contribute to word recognition against interfering speech in dyslexic and non-dyslexic children. Thirty-two children with dyslexia and 35 chronological-age-matched control children were tested on the recognition of words in normal sentences versus wordlist sentences with natural versus flat F₀ contours against single-talker interference. The dyslexic children had overall poorer recognition performance than non-dyslexic children. Furthermore, semantic context differentially modulated the effect of F₀ contours on the recognition performances of the two groups. Specifically, compared with flat F₀ contours, natural F₀ contours increased the recognition accuracy of dyslexic children less than non-dyslexic children in the wordlist condition. By contrast, natural F₀ contours increased the recognition accuracy of both groups to a similar extent in the sentence condition. These results indicate that access to semantic context improves the effect of natural F₀ contours on word recognition in adverse listening conditions by dyslexic children who are more impaired in the use of natural F₀ contours during isolated and unrelated word recognition. Our findings have practical implications for communication with dyslexic children when listening conditions are unfavorable.

Influence of subcortical auditory processing and cognitive measures on cocktail party listening in younger and older adults

OBJECTIVE

The study aimed to investigate the influence of subcortical auditory processing and cognitive measures on cocktail party listening in younger and older adults with normal hearing sensitivity.

DESIGN

Tests administered included quick speech perception in noise test to assess cocktail party listening, speech auditory brainstem response to assess subcortical auditory processing and digit span, digit sequencing and spatial selective attention test to assess cognitive processing.

STUDY SAMPLE

A total of 92 participants with normal hearing sensitivity participated in the study. They were divided into two groups: 52 young adults (20-40 years) and 40 older adults (60-80 years).

RESULTS

The older adults performed significantly poorer than, the younger adults on the quick speech perception in noise test and various cognitive measures. Further, cognitive measures correlated with speech perception in noise in younger and older adults. The results of this study also showed that there was a significant deterioration in brainstem encoding of speech with ageing. Further, it was also noted that the fundamental frequency of the speech auditory brainstem response correlated with speech perception in noise.

CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded from this study that subcortical auditory processing and cognitive measures play a role in cocktail party listening.

The underlying mechanism of deficits of speech comprehension and hallucinations in Chinese patients with schizophrenia

Sentence context and fundamental frequency (F0) contours are important factors to speech perception and comprehension. In Chinese-Mandarin, lexical tones can be distinguished by the F0 contours. Previous studies found healthy people could use the cue of context to recover the phonological representations of lexical tones from the altered tonal patterns to comprehend the sentences in quiet condition, but can not in noise environment. Lots of research showed that patients with schizophrenia have deficits of speech perception and comprehension. However, it is unclear how context and F0 contours influence speech perception and comprehension in patients with schizophrenia. This study detected the contribution of context and lexical tone to sentence comprehension in four types of sentences by manipulating the context and F0 contours in 32 patients with schizophrenia and 33 healthy controls. The results showed that (1) in patients with schizophrenia, the interaction between context and F0 contour was not significant, which was significant in healthy controls; (2) the scores of sentences with two types of sentences with flattened F0 contours were negatively correlated with hallucination trait scores; (3) the patients with schizophrenia showed significantly lower scores on the intelligibility of sentences in all conditions, which were negatively correlated with PANSS-P. The patients with schizophrenia couldn't use the cue of context to recover the phonological representations of lexical tones from the altered tonal patterns when they comprehend the sentences, inner noise may be the underlying mechanism for the deficits of speech perception and comprehension.

Native language status of the listener modulates the neural integration of speech and iconic gestures in clear and adverse listening conditions

Native listeners neurally integrate iconic gestures with speech, which can enhance degraded speech comprehension. However, it is unknown how non-native listeners neurally integrate speech and gestures, as they might process visual semantic context differently than natives. We recorded EEG while native and highly-proficient non-native listeners watched videos of an actress uttering an action verb in clear or degraded speech, accompanied by a matching ('to drive'+driving gesture) or mismatching gesture ('to drink'+mixing gesture). Degraded speech elicited an enhanced N400 amplitude compared to clear speech in both groups, revealing an increase in neural resources needed to resolve the spoken input. A larger N400 effect was found in clear speech for non-natives compared to natives, but in degraded speech only for natives. Non-native listeners might thus process gesture more strongly than natives when speech is clear, but need more auditory cues to facilitate access to gestural semantic information when speech is degraded.

What Can Lexical Tone Training Studies in Adults Tell Us about Tone Processing in Children?

A growing number of studies on the acquisition of lexical tone by adult learners have revealed that factors such as language background, musical experience, cognitive abilities, and neuroanatomy all play a role in determining tone learning success. On the basis of these findings, it has been argued that the effectiveness of tone learning in adulthood depends on individual differences in these factors. However, it is not clear whether similar individual differences play an analogous role in tone learning in childhood. Indeed, relatively few studies have made comparisons between how adults and children learn lexical tones. Here, we review recent developments for tone learning in both adults and children. The review covers tone training in a range of contexts, including in naive listeners, in native speakers of other tone languages, in listeners with varying levels of musical experience, and in individuals with speech and hearing disorders. Finally, we discuss the parallels between adult and child tone learning, and provide recommendations concerning how findings in adult tone training can provide insights into tone learning for children by accommodating the needs of individual learners.

Mandarin-Speaking Children's Speech Recognition: Developmental Changes in the Influences of Semantic Context and F0 Contours

The goal of this developmental speech perception study was to assess whether and how age group modulated the influences of high-level semantic context and low-level fundamental frequency (F₀) contours on the recognition of Mandarin speech by elementary and middle-school-aged children in quiet and interference backgrounds. The results revealed different patterns for semantic and F₀ information. One the one hand, age group modulated significantly the use of F₀ contours, indicating that elementary school children relied more on natural F₀ contours than middle school children during Mandarin speech recognition. On the other hand, there was no significant modulation effect of age group on semantic context, indicating that children of both age groups used semantic context to assist speech recognition to a similar extent. Furthermore, the significant modulation effect of age group on the interaction between F₀ contours and semantic context revealed that younger children could not make better use of semantic context in recognizing speech with flat F₀ contours compared with natural F₀ contours, while older children could benefit from semantic context even when natural F₀ contours were altered, thus confirming the important role of F₀ contours in Mandarin speech recognition by elementary school children. The developmental changes in the effects of high-level semantic and low-level F₀ information on speech recognition might reflect the differences in auditory and cognitive resources associated with processing of the two types of information in speech perception.