Changes in sound pressure and fundamental frequency contours following changes in hearing status
Article comments
The following article appeared in J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 101, Issue 4, pp. 2244-2252 (April 1997) and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.418245
Abstract
Sound-pressure level (SPL) and fundamental frequency (F0) contours were obtained from four postlingually deafened adults who received cochlear implants and from a subject with Neurofibromatosis-2 (NF2) who had her hearing severely reduced following surgery to remove an auditory-nerve tumor and to implant an auditory brainstem implant. SPL and F0 contours for each phrase in passages read before and after changes in hearing were averaged over repeated readings and then normalized with respect to the highest SPL or F0 value in the contour. The regularity of each average contour was measured by calculating differences between successive syllable means and averaging the absolute values of these differences. With auditory feedback made available, the cochlear implant user with the least contour variation preimplant showed no change but all of the remaining speakers produced less variable F0 contours and three also produced less variable SPL contours. In complementary fashion, when the NF2 speaker had her auditory feedback severely reduced, she produced more variable F0 and SPL contours. The results are interpreted as supporting a dual-process theory of the role of auditory feedback in speech production, according to which one role of self-hearing is to monitor transmission conditions, leading the speaker to make changes in speech postures aimed at maintaining intelligibility.
Suggested Citation
Harlan Lane, Jane Wozniak, Melanie Matthies, Mario Svirsky, Joseph Perkell, Michael O'Connell, and Joyce Manzella. "Changes in sound pressure and fundamental frequency contours following changes in hearing status" Psychology Faculty Publications (1997).
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/hlane/19