Formant ≈ Formant
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Evidence of a Vocalic Proto-System in the Baboon (Papio papio) Suggests Pre-Hominin Speech Precursors Open
Language is a distinguishing characteristic of our species, and the course of its evolution is one of the hardest problems in science. It has long been generally considered that human speech requires a low larynx, and that the high larynx …
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The effect of phonetic production training with visual feedback on the perception and production of foreign speech sounds Open
Second-language learners often experience major difficulties in producing non-native speech sounds. This paper introduces a training method that uses a real-time analysis of the acoustic properties of vowels produced by non-native speakers…
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Emotion Recognition from Chinese Speech for Smart Affective Services Using a Combination of SVM and DBN Open
Accurate emotion recognition from speech is important for applications like smart health care, smart entertainment, and other smart services. High accuracy emotion recognition from Chinese speech is challenging due to the complexities of t…
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Generalised additive mixed models for dynamic analysis in linguistics: a practical introduction Open
This is a hands-on introduction to Generalised Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) in the context of linguistics with a particular focus on dynamic speech analysis (e.g. formant contours, pitch tracks, diachronic change, etc.). The main goal is …
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Speech Coding in the Brain: Representation of Vowel Formants by Midbrain Neurons Tuned to Sound Fluctuations Open
Current models for neural coding of vowels are typically based on linear descriptions of the auditory periphery, and fail at high sound levels and in background noise. These models rely on either auditory nerve discharge rates or phase loc…
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Human Frequency Following Response Open
In Brief Objective: Listeners with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) typically experience reduced speech perception, which is not completely restored with amplification. This likely occurs because cochlear damage, in addition to elevating …
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Acoustic voice variation within and between speakers Open
Little is known about the nature or extent of everyday variability in voice quality. This paper describes a series of principal component analyses to explore within- and between-talker acoustic variation and the extent to which they confor…
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Discrimination of Voice Pitch and Vocal-Tract Length in Cochlear Implant Users Open
Objectives: When listening to two competing speakers, normal-hearing (NH) listeners can take advantage of voice differences between the speakers. Users of cochlear implants (CIs) have difficulty in perceiving speech on speech. Previous lit…
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A Framework for Biomarkers of COVID-19 Based on Coordination of Speech-Production Subsystems Open
Goal: We propose a speech modeling and signal-processing framework to detect and track COVID-19 through asymptomatic and symptomatic stages. Methods: The approach is based on complexity of neuromotor coordination across speech subsystems i…
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Speaker Recognition from Raw Waveform with SincNet Open
Deep learning is progressively gaining popularity as a viable alternative to i-vectors for speaker recognition. Promising results have been recently obtained with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) when fed by raw speech samples directly…
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Evolutionary loss of complexity in human vocal anatomy as an adaptation for speech Open
Human speech production obeys the same acoustic principles as vocal production in other animals but has distinctive features: A stable vocal source is filtered by rapidly changing formant frequencies. To understand speech evolution, we exa…
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Predicting Achievable Fundamental Frequency Ranges in Vocalization Across Species Open
Vocal folds are used as sound sources in various species, but it is unknown how vocal fold morphologies are optimized for different acoustic objectives. Here we identify two main variables affecting range of vocal fold vibration frequency,…
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Clear Speech Variants: An Acoustic Study in Parkinson's Disease Open
Purpose The authors investigated how different variants of clear speech affect segmental and suprasegmental acoustic measures of speech in speakers with Parkinson's disease and a healthy control group. Method A total of 14 participants wit…
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Speech-Like Rhythm in a Voiced and Voiceless Orangutan Call Open
The evolutionary origins of speech remain obscure. Recently, it was proposed that speech derived from monkey facial signals which exhibit a speech-like rhythm of ∼5 open-close lip cycles per second. In monkeys, these signals may also be vo…
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The origins of babytalk: smiling, teaching or social convergence? Open
When addressing their young infants, parents systematically modify their speech. Such infant-directed speech (IDS) contains exaggerated vowel formants, which have been proposed to foster language development via articulation of more distin…
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Discerning Pig Screams in Production Environments Open
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. W…
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On the acoustical features of vowel nasality in English and French Open
Although much is known about the linguistic function of vowel nasality, whether contrastive (as in French) or coarticulatory (as in English), and much effort has gone into identifying potential correlates for the phenomenon, this study exa…
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Using speech sounds to test functional spectral resolution in listeners with cochlear implants Open
In this study, spectral properties of speech sounds were used to test functional spectral resolution in people who use cochlear implants (CIs). Specifically, perception of the /ba/-/da/ contrast was tested using two spectral cues: Formant …
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Assessment of Spectral and Temporal Resolution in Cochlear Implant Users Using Psychoacoustic Discrimination and Speech Cue Categorization Open
Objectives: This study was conducted to measure auditory perception by cochlear implant users in the spectral and temporal domains, using tests of either categorization (using speech-based cues) or discrimination (using conventional psycho…
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Towards a social functional account of laughter: Acoustic features convey reward, affiliation, and dominance Open
Recent work has identified the physical features of smiles that accomplish three tasks fundamental to human social living: rewarding behavior, establishing and managing affiliative bonds, and negotiating social status. The current work ext…
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Relationship between tongue positions and formant frequencies in female speakers Open
This study examined the relationship (1) between acoustic vowel space and the corresponding tongue kinematic vowel space and (2) between formant frequencies (F1 and F2) and tongue x-y coordinates for the same time sampling point. Thirteen …
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Relative cue weighting in production and perception of an ongoing sound change in Southern Yi Open
Multiple co-varying cues for a phonological contrast are often introduced by coarticulation, and sound change occurs when their relative weighting shifts. The central issues for this kind of sound change include how cue weighting shifts ov…
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Identification of Mild Cognitive Impairment From Speech in Swedish Using Deep Sequential Neural Networks Open
While people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) portray noticeably incipient memory difficulty in remembering events and situations along with problems in decision making, planning, and finding their way in familiar environments, detaile…
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Selective Perceptual Phase Entrainment to Speech Rhythm in the Absence of Spectral Energy Fluctuations Open
Perceptual phase entrainment improves speech intelligibility by phase-locking the brain's high-excitability and low-excitability phases to relevant or irrelevant events in the speech input. However, it remains unclear whether phase entrain…
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On Short-Time Estimation of Vocal Tract Length from Formant Frequencies Open
Vocal tract length is highly variable across speakers and determines many aspects of the acoustic speech signal, making it an essential parameter to consider for explaining behavioral variability. A method for accurate estimation of vocal …
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Vocal Feminization for Transgender Women: Current Strategies and Patient Perspectives Open
Voice feminization for transgender women is a highly complicated comprehensive transition process. Voice feminization has been thought to be equal to pitch elevation. Thus, many surgical procedures have only focused on pitch raising for vo…
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Human Sensorimotor Cortex Control of Directly Measured Vocal Tract Movements during Vowel Production Open
During speech production, we make vocal tract movements with remarkable precision and speed. Our understanding of how the human brain achieves such proficient control is limited, in part due to the challenge of simultaneously acquiring hig…
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Ethnicity and phonetic variation in Sheffield English liquids Open
This article reports a study of acoustic phonetic variation between ethnic groups in the realisation of the British English liquids / l / and /ɹ/. Data are presented from ‘Anglo’ and ‘Asian’ native speakers of Sheffield English. Sheffield …
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Volitional exaggeration of body size through fundamental and formant frequency modulation in humans Open
Several mammalian species scale their voice fundamental frequency ( F 0) and formant frequencies in competitive and mating contexts, reducing vocal tract and laryngeal allometry thereby exaggerating apparent body size. Although humans’ rar…
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Efficiency of chosen speech descriptors in relation to emotion recognition Open
This research paper presents parametrization of emotional speech using a pool of common features utilized in emotion recognition such as fundamental frequency, formants, energy, MFCC, PLP, and LPC coefficients. The pool is additionally exp…