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ABSTRACT Purpose to investigate prosodic boundary effects on the comprehension of attachment ambiguities in Brazilian Portuguese and to test two hypotheses relying on the notion of boundary strength: the absolute boundary hypothesis (ABH) and the relative boundary hypothesis (RBH). Manipulations of prosodic structure influence how listeners interpret syntactically ambiguous sentences. However, the role of prosody in spoken language comprehension of sentences has received limited attention in languages other than English, particularly from a developmental perspective. Methods Twenty-three adults and 15 children participated in a computerized sentence comprehension task involving syntactically ambiguous sentences. Each sentence was recorded in eight different prosodic forms with acoustic manipulations of F0, duration and pause varying the boundary size to reflect predictions of the ABH and RBH. Results Children and adults differed in how prosody influenced their syntactic processing and children were significantly slower than adults. Results indicated that interpretation of sentences varied according to their prosodic forms. Conclusion Neither the ABH or the RBH explained how children and adults who speak Brazilian Portuguese use prosodic boundaries to disambiguate sentences. There is evidence that the way prosodic boundaries influence disambiguation varies cross-linguistically.
RESUMO Objetivo investigar os efeitos de fronteiras prosódicas na compreensão de ambiguidades sintáticas no português brasileiro além de testar duas hipóteses baseadas na noção de intensidade de fronteira: a hipótese de fronteira absoluta (ABH) e a hipótese de fronteira relativa (RBH). Manipulações da estrutura prosódica influenciam como os ouvintes interpretam frases sintaticamente ambíguas. No entanto, o papel da prosódia na compreensão da linguagem oral tem recebido atenção limitada em línguas além do inglês, particularmente do ponto de vista do desenvolvimento. Método Vinte e três adultos e 15 crianças participaram de uma tarefa computadorizada de compreensão de frases envolvendo frases sintaticamente ambíguas. Cada frase foi gravada em oito formas prosódicas diferentes com manipulações acústicas de F0, duração, e pausa, variando o tamanho da fronteira prosódica de modo a transparecer as previsões da ABH e RBH. Resultados Crianças e adultos diferiram em como a prosódia influenciou o processamento sintático; as crianças foram significativamente mais lentas que os adultos. Os resultados indicaram que a interpretação das frases variou de acordo com suas formas prosódicas. Conclusão Nenhuma das hipóteses (ABH ou RBH) explica como crianças e adultos falantes do Português brasileiro utilizam as fronteiras prosódicas para desambiguar frases. Há evidências de que a maneira com a qual os limites prosódicos influenciam a desambiguação de frases varia entre os idiomas.
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Resumen La fluidez ha sido considerada como uno de los factores relevantes que interviene en la comprensión lectora. Actualmente se incluye en la fluidez, además de la velocidad y la precisión, la prosodia como uno de los componentes que actúa de forma preponderante en la construcción del significado de la lectura. El propósito de este estudio fue realizar una revisión sistemática y un metaanálisis para determinar, por un lado, la situación de la agenda investigativa en la materia y, por el otro, mensurar la magnitud de la relación entre prosodia y comprensión lectora en alumnos hablantes nativos del español. Se realizó para ello un rastreo bibliográfico en las bases de datos Dialnet, Redalyc, SciELO, ERIC, Scopus y PubMed, sin restricciones temporales. En la revisión sistemática se incluyeron 18 estudios. Con los estudios correlacionales (n = 12) se llevó a cabo un metaanálisis multinivel, en el que se examinaron 59 coeficientes de correlación. El análisis mostró una asociación significativa entre prosodia y comprensión lectora (t(58) = 9.77, p < .001) con un efecto moderado de .46 (Z de Fisher = .49 [95 % CI = .39, .59]). Ni el nivel escolar al que asisten los alumnos (primario o secundario), ni el nivel en el que se evaluó la comprensión (oración o texto) moderaron la relación entre las variables. En suma, los resultados sostienen que las habilidades prosódicas contribuyen al procesamiento semántico de las oraciones y textos en español, más allá del nivel educativo del que se trate.
Abstract Fluency has been considered one of the relevant factors involved in reading comprehension, by providing a bridge between decoding and comprehension. At present, fluency includes, alongside rate and accuracy, prosody as one the parts which plays a preponderant role in the construction of meaning during the reading process. Prosodic reading is the use of oral language features when reading a text, such as pausing, stress and intonation, in order that the text will be read aloud with the tonal and rhythmic characteristics of speech. Furthermore, prosodic reading makes it possible to organize word sequences into syntactically cohesive units of meaning. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis, firstly, in order to determine the situation of research articles which enquire into the relation between prosody and reading comprehension, and secondly, to measure the significance of that relation in students who are native speakers of Spanish. To that end, a bibliographic search was performed without time restrictions in the following databases: Dialnet, Redalyc, SciELO, ERIC, Scopus and PubMed. The systematic review included 18 studies. The qualitative synthesis showed four categories of articles: (1) validation studies of instruments to assess reading fluency; (2) intervention studies on different prosodic aspects and enquiries into their impact on reading comprehension; (3) comparisons of good and poor comprehenders; and (4) correlational studies. A multilevel meta-analysis was performed in the correlational studies (n = 12), examining 59 correlation coefficients. The analysis showed a significant association between reading comprehension and prosody (t(58) = 9.77, p < .001) with a moderate effect of .46 (z = .49 [95 % CI = .39, .59]). Once outlier values had been removed, no variation was found in the size of the estimated effect (r = .46). Two additional models were adjusted, including as moderating variables, respectively, the type of assessment performed on comprehension (sentence or text level) and the educational level (primary or secondary). The results obtained from these models suggest the association between comprehension and prosody is neither moderated by the type of assessment carried out (F(1, 57) = 1.51, ρ = .22), nor by the educational level (F(1, 57) = 0.10, ρ = .75). In summary, the meta-analysis showed a moderate relation between prosody and reading comprehension. These relations continued beyond the level at which the latter variable (sentence or text) was examined, and throughout the school trajectory. In other words, and in contrast to other aspects of fluency, such as accuracy and rate, prosody seems to maintain its contribution to comprehension. In sum, the findings support the claim that suprasegmental skills, both at lexical level (i. e. the skills related to the identification, stress and manipulation of stressed syllables in words) and at metrical level (the capabilities responsible for processing intonation, rhythm and pausing when reading), contribute to the semantic processing of sentences and texts in Spanish, regardless of the educational level under analysis. These results should be moderated given the limited number of studies found and the smaller amount of research carried out at secondary school level. In spite of these limitations, the relationships observed among the variables studied support the importance of prosodic reading to psychoeducational diagnosis and intervention in reading comprehension, and they provide significant background for future research.
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Resumo Este artigo, de natureza teórico-metodológica, discute a relação entre prosódia e compreensão leitora a partir de dois enfoques. O primeiro trata dos diferentes recursos metodológicos adotados na investigação dessa complexa relação, e o segundo versa sobre a controvérsia existente quanto à maneira como se configura essa relação. Reflexões como essas permitem aprofundar o conhecimento acerca das características dos diferentes recursos metodológicos adotados na investigação de dado fenômeno, assim como contribuem para esclarecer controvérsias em determinado campo do conhecimento, como é o caso da relação entre prosódia e compreensão leitora, tema ainda aberto a muitas interpretações. As discussões tomam por base pesquisas realizadas com crianças matriculadas no ensino fundamental.
Abstract This theoretical and methodological study discusses the relationship between prosody and reading comprehension from two different approaches: 1) the different methodological resources adopted to investigate this complex relationship; 2) the existing controversy on how this relationship is configured. Reflections such as these allow for an in-depth knowledge on the characteristics of the different methodological resources used to study a given phenomenon and to clarify controversies in certain fields of knowledge, such as the prosody-reading comprehension relationship, a topic still open to different interpretations. The discussions presented here are based on research carried out with elementary school children.
Resumen Este artículo, de carácter teórico-metodológico, analiza la relación entre la prosodia y la comprensión lectora desde dos enfoques. El primer enfoque aborda los diferentes recursos metodológicos adoptados en la investigación de esta compleja relación, mientras que el segundo plantea la controversia existente sobre cómo se configura esta relación. Estas reflexiones nos permiten profundizar nuestro conocimiento acerca de las características de diferentes recursos metodológicos adoptados en la investigación de un fenómeno dado; también contribuye a esclarecer controversias en determinados campos del conocimiento, como la relación entre prosodia y comprensión lectora, tema que aún permanece abierto a diversas interpretaciones. Las discusiones que aquí se presentan están basadas en investigaciones realizadas con niños de escuela primaria.
Résumé Cet étude théorico-méthodologique traite de la relation entre la prosodie et la compréhension en lecture à partir de deux approches différentes: 1) les différentes ressources méthodologiques adoptées pour étudier cette relation complexe; 2) la controverse existante sur la façon dont cette relation est configurée. De telles réflexions permettent d'approfondir la connaissance des caractéristiques des différentes ressources méthodologiques adoptées pour étudier un phénomène donné et de clarifier les controverses dans certains domaines de savoir, comme la relation prosodie-compréhension en lecture, un sujet encore ouvert à différentes interprétations. Les discussions présentées ici sont basées sur des recherches menées auprès d'enfants de l'école primaire.
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Education, Primary and Secondary , Comprehension , Reading , LearningABSTRACT
The article reveals the features of the study and development of the tempo-rhythmic speech components of children with disabilities as exemplified by preschool children with a stutter. The article describes the course and methods of an ascertaining experiment to identify the initial state of the tempo-rhythmic speech components of children with stuttering. Games and tasks, with the help which it is possible to determine the state of the tempo and rhythm of children's speech, are offered and the obtained results are described. The stages of correctional work with children on the development of the tempo-rhythmic speech components of children with stuttering are given.
Subject(s)
Humans , Child, Preschool , Child , Speech , Speech Therapy/methods , Stuttering/etiology , Time , Epidemiologic Methods , Disabled Children/rehabilitation , Games, ExperimentalABSTRACT
AIM:The objective of the study is to evaluate the relationship between cognitive and emotional deficit in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: Asample of 30 patients with PD and 32 healthy control was recruited out of which 22 of them are matched on gender, age and education. NIMHANS Emotion Perception Test (NEPT) was used to assess emotion from facial and prosody expression. Neuropsychological tests to measure attention and executive functions were chosen. RESULTS:Chi-square, student t-test, Pearson's product moment correlation, Mann- Whitney U test, z-score of cumulative proportion (Van der Waerden's formula) and Multivariate Analysis were used for analysis of the data. PD shows significant impairment in cognitive function and emotional perception. CONCLUSION:PD shows significant impairment in recognizing and discrimination of emotion which is correlated with cognitive deficits
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RESUMO Objetivo Caracterizar a variação melódica e a velocidade de leitura, comparando-as e verificando se há evolução de acordo com o avanço da escolaridade. Método Foi analisada a leitura de 78 escolares do 2° ao 5° ano do Ensino Fundamental I, por meio do Praat, por meio da análise dos parâmetros de variação melódica (F0) e velocidade de leitura (Duração) e foram realizadas medidas estatísticas (média e desvio padrão) e o teste de student (com nível de significância de 5%). Resultados Foi possível observar que a variação melódica e a velocidade de leitura tendem a aumentar com o desenvolvimento da escolaridade, especialmente para o quinto ano. Conclusão A variação melódica aumenta de acordo com o avanço da escolaridade, assim como a velocidade de leitura, sendo maiores os resultados para o quinto ano. Verificou-se que a análise de leitura do primeiro minuto seria necessária para a análise da velocidade de leitura de textos, não sendo necessária a análise do texto completo.
ABSTRACT Purpose Characterize and compare melodic variation and reading speed and verify their evolution throughout the development of schooling. Methods The reading of 78 Elementary School (2nd to 5th grade) students was analyzed using the Praat program with regards to the parameters of melodic variation (F0) and reading speed (Duration). Statistical measures (mean and standard deviation) were taken and the Student´s t-test was applied at significance level of 5%. Results Melodic variation and reading speed increased as schooling progressed, especially during 5th grade. Conclusion Melodic variation increases as schooling progresses, mainly during 5th grade. First minute of reading analysis is sufficient to assess reading speed, not being necessary to analyze the full text.
Subject(s)
Humans , Child , Reading , Speech/physiology , Students , Comprehension , Educational Measurement , LanguageABSTRACT
Facial and vocal expressions are essential modalities mediating the perception of emotion and social communication. Nonetheless, currently little is known about how emotion perception and its neural substrates differ across facial expression and vocal prosody. To clarify this issue, functional MRI scans were acquired in Study 1, in which participants were asked to discriminate the valence of emotional expression (angry, happy or neutral) from facial, vocal, or bimodal stimuli. In Study 2, we used an affective priming task (unimodal materials as primers and bimodal materials as target) and participants were asked to rate the intensity, valence, and arousal of the targets. Study 1 showed higher accuracy and shorter response latencies in the facial than in the vocal modality for a happy expression. Whole-brain analysis showed enhanced activation during facial compared to vocal emotions in the inferior temporal-occipital regions. Region of interest analysis showed a higher percentage signal change for facial than for vocal anger in the superior temporal sulcus. Study 2 showed that facial relative to vocal priming of anger had a greater influence on perceived emotion for bimodal targets, irrespective of the target valence. These findings suggest that facial expression is associated with enhanced emotion perception compared to equivalent vocal prosodies.
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Young Adult , Brain Mapping , Methods , Cerebral Cortex , Diagnostic Imaging , Physiology , Emotions , Physiology , Facial Expression , Facial Recognition , Physiology , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Psychomotor Performance , Physiology , Social Perception , Speech Perception , PhysiologyABSTRACT
El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar patrones de disociación entre el procesamiento de prosodia lingüística y emocional con el fin de analizar la independencia funcional entre ambos. Se realizó un estudio con un diseño de múltiples casos únicos de 17 pacientes con lesiones del hemisferio derecho debidas a accidente cerebro vascular. Se analizaron los perfiles de alteración/ conservación de la capacidad para procesar ambos tipos de prosodia con cuatro pruebas de comprensión y repetición de prosodia emocional y lingüística, y se comparó el rendimiento de cada paciente con un grupo control sano. Los resultados mostraron rendimiento disociado entre prosodia emocional y lingüística en la habilidad de comprensión prosódica en 3/17 pacientes y no se hallaron disociaciones dobles. El hallazgo de distintos patrones de alteración/conservación entre prosodia lingüística y emocional, tanto en la habilidad para comprender como para repetir prosodia, es evidencia que apoya el supuesto de independencia funcional entre los procesamientos de ambos tipos de prosodia.
The goal of this study was to evaluate dissociation patterns between processing of linguistic prosody and emotional (or affective) prosody, in order to analyze the functional independence between them. We carried out a multiple single-cases study of 17 patients with right hemisphere lesions due to stroke. The alteration / conservation profiles of the ability to process both types of prosody were analyzed with four tasks of comprehension and repetition of emotional and linguistic prosody. The performance of each patient was compared with a healthy control group. The results showed a dissociated performance between emotional and linguistic prosody in prosodic comprehension in 3/17 patients, and no double dissociations were found. Finding different patterns of alteration / conservation between linguistic and emotional prosody, both in the ability to understand and to repeat prosody, supports the assumption of functional independence between processing of both types of prosody.
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La esquizofrenia y la demencia frontotemporal (DFT) variante lingüística comparten características de lenguaje tales como la dificultad para acceder al léxico, la desorganización del discurso con múltiples interrupciones, reformulaciones, pausas y retractaciones. En el caso de los pacientes esquizofrénicos, estas dificultades revelan fallas para expresar el afecto, mientras que en los pacientes con DFT variante lingüística refleja un problema lingüístico. Métodos: El presente estudio, a través de un análisis de una serie de casos valorados tanto en la Clínica de memoria como en la Unidad de Salud Mental del HUSI-PUJ (Hospital Universitario de San Ignacio), con evaluación lingüística adicional (análisis de discurso y análisis acústico), presenta características distintivas de la DFT en sus variantes lingüísticas y la esquizofrenia que permiten guiar al especialista en la búsqueda de marcadores tempranos de un diagnóstico diferencial. Resultados: En el 100%de los pacientes con DFT variante lingüística, hay dificultades para comprender estructuras lingüísticas de tipo complejo e importantes problemas de fluidez del discurso. En los pacientes con esquizofrenia se encuentran importantes alteraciones en la expresión de los elementos suprasegmentales del habla e interrupciones en el discurso. Conclusiones: Se presenta como una evaluación lingüística en profundidad permite revaluar algunas de las modalidades de valoración del discurso y la prosodia de los pacientes con demencia y esquizofrenia; indica que algunos elementos del discurso son útiles para orientar el diagnóstico y correlacionar el deterioro funcional en la cotidianidad de la práctica del psiquiatra.
Patients with schizophrenia and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) in their linguistic variants share some language characteristics such as the lexical access difficulties, disordered speech with disruptions, many pauses, interruptions and reformulations. For the schizophrenia patients it reflects a difficulty of affect expression, while for the FTD patients it reflects a linguistic issue. Methods: This study, through an analysis of a series of cases assessed Clinic both in memory and on the Mental Health Unit of HUSI-PUJ (Hospital Universitario San Ignacio), with additional language assessment (analysis speech and acoustic analysis), present distinctive features of the DFT in its linguistic variants and schizophrenia that will guide the specialist in finding early markers of a differential diagnosis. Results: In patients with FTD language variants, in 100% of cases there is a difficulty understanding linguistic structure of complex type; and important speech fluency problems. In patients with schizophrenia, there are significant alterations in the expression of the suprasegmental elements of speech, as well as disruptions in discourse. Conclusions: We present how depth language assessment allows to reassess some of the rules for the speech and prosody analysis of patients with dementia and schizophrenia; we suggest how elements of speech are useful in guiding the diagnosis and correlate functional compromise in everyday psychiatrist's practice.
Subject(s)
Humans , Frontotemporal Dementia/complications , Schizophrenia/complications , Speech Disorders/etiology , Comprehension , Diagnosis, Differential , Frontotemporal Dementia/physiopathology , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Speech Disorders/diagnosis , Speech Production Measurement/methodsABSTRACT
La relación entre la música y el lenguaje ha sido ampliamente estudiada desde diversas perspectivas y en general se atribuyen a la música efectos sobre los procesos cognitivos, aunque no queda claro el porqué de dichos efectos, encontrando relaciones específicas con otros aspectos como la prosodia, la memoria, la percepción tonal, a lo cual se agrega que ambos procesos comparten características fonético-fonológicas y visuales que se encuentran alojados en estructuras cerebrales compartidas. El presente artículo es un estudio documental, a partir de estudios neurocientíficos, evolutivos y psicológicos que tiene como objetivo analizar las relaciones neuro-anatómicas, fonológicas y visuales del procesamiento del lenguaje que intervienen en la música, buscando conocer si existen vías compartidas, producto del proceso evolutivo que expliquen el desarrollo del proceso de la lecto-escritura, y su relación con características musicales y con ello reconocer los efectos cognitivos de la música sobre los procesos lingüísticos con una base neurocognitiva. Para ello se analiza en primer lugar la relación entre la música y el lenguaje como antecedente acústico a la representación visual del lenguaje. La conclusión es que el procesamiento acústico del ambiente dio paso tanto al lenguaje como a la música, generando estructuras complejas, pero debido a la necesidad de representación gráfica y con fines prácticos, se desarrollaron alfabetos distintos, aunque bajo los mismos principios, lo cual permite comprender el porqué las vías neuronales se comparten tanto en los procesos lingüísticos como en la música, por lo que se encuentran relaciones estrechas en su desarrollo a nivel cerebral...
The relationship between music and language has been extensively studied from different perspectives, and generally have been attributed effects of music on cognitive processes, although it is unclear why these effects are produced, more than finding specific relations with other aspects such as prosody, memory, tonal perception, which is added that both processes share phonetic- phonological and visual features that are hosted on brain structures. This article is a documentary study from neuroscientists, evolutionary and psychological studies, to analyse the neuro - anatomical and visual - phonological processing relationships with the music shared with language, seeking to know if there are common pathways, product of the evolutionary practice of reading and writing, and their relationship to musical characteristics which can allow to recognize cognitive effects of music on language processes with neurocognitive basis to recognize a clear relationship between music and language as acoustic background to the visual representation of language. The conclusion is that acoustic environmental processing ushered in both language and music, creating complex structures due to the need for graphical representation for practical purposes, human beings developed different alphabets, but under the same principles that allow us to understand why the neural pathways are shared both linguistic processes like music, are close relationships in their development in the brain...
Subject(s)
Humans , Cognitive Neuroscience , Language , Music/psychology , ReadingABSTRACT
A fluência na leitura vem recebendo considerável atenção nas pesquisas estrangeiras, mas ainda é pouco estudada no Brasil. O presente estudo teve como objetivo analisar a literatura recente sobre a fluência, discutindo seus componentes, desenvolvimento e relações com a compreensão da leitura. As pesquisas analisadas deixam evidente que a fluência é uma habilidade essencial, presente em todos os bons leitores, e merece a atenção dos pesquisadores pelas relações que estão sendo estabelecidas entre ela e a compreensão de texto. São feitas algumas considerações sobre as implicações do modelo teórico para a prática em sala de aula...
Reading fluency has received considerable attention in foreign studies but is still little studied in Brazil. The present study aimed to analyze the recent literature on fluency, discussing its components, development and relationships with reading comprehension. Studies analyzed shows clearly that fluency is an essential skill, present in all good readers and deserves the attention of researchers due to the relations being established between it and the text comprehension. Some thoughts on the implications of the theoretical model for classroom practice were made...
La fluidez en la lectura ha recibido considerable atención en los estudios extranjeros, pero aún está poco estudiada en Brasil. El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar la literatura reciente sobre la fluidez, la discusión de sus componentes, y el desarrollo delas relaciones con la comprensión de lectura. Todos los estudios analizados muestran claramente que la fluidez es una habilidad esencial, presente en todos los buenos lectores y merece la atención de los investigadores debido a las relaciones que se establecen entre éste y la comprensión de textos. Hacemos algunas reflexiones sobre las implicaciones del modelo teórico para la práctica en el aula...
Subject(s)
Humans , Aptitude , Comprehension , Reading , Review Literature as TopicABSTRACT
Uma lesão de hemisfério direito pode gerar alterações comunicativas, comprometendo habilidades dos processamentos discursivo, pragmático-inferencial, léxico-semântico e prosódico (nos níveis compreensivo e expressivo). Uma das sequelas que vem sendo estudadas é a disprosódia. No entanto, o conhecimento sobre os instrumentos de avaliação para seu diagnóstico ainda é restrito. Este artigo visa a apresentar uma revisão sistemática sobre os instrumentos de avaliação da prosódia emocional em estudos de pessoas com lesão de hemisfério direito. Fez-se uma busca de resumos nas bases SciELO, LILACS e PubMed, com as palavras-chave "hemisfério", "direito", "prosódia" e "emocional". Encontraram-se 14 estudos apenas na base PubMed. A maioria utiliza tarefas experimentais, com pouca frequência de testes padronizados, sendo que seis investigações tiveram a participação de um mesmo pesquisador. Ressalta-se o caráter relativamente recente e incipiente dos estudos internacionais sobre a avaliação de déficits prosódicos após lesão cerebral direita, havendo uma importante lacuna nacional nessa área de diagnóstico neuropsicológico.
A right hemisphere brain damage can cause communicative impairments, compromising skills in discursive, pragmatic-inferential, lexical-semantic, and prosodic (at the comprehensive and expressive levels) processing. One of the sequelae which has been studied is dysprosody. However , the knowledge of the assessment instruments for its diagnosis is yet uncertain. The aim of this article is to present a systematic review on the emotional prosody assessment instruments in studies of people with right hemisphere brain damage. Abstracts were searched for in SciELO, Lilacs and PubMed databases, using the keywords "right", "hemisphere", "emotional" and "prosody". 14 studies were found only in Medline database. Most of them use experimental tasks, with standardized tests being less frequent, and six investigations were conducted by the same researcher. The relatively recent and incipient nature of the international studies on the assessment of prosodic deficits after right hemisphere brain damage must be highlighted, as well as an important national gap in this field of neuropsychological diagnosis.
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Uno de los mayores problemas en el estudio del lenguaje es la comprensión de sus fundamentos biológicos. Una forma de abordar este problema que ha resultado efectiva es la de estudiar hasta qué punto compartimos con otros animales algunos de los mecanismos responsables de su procesamiento. En este artículo se presentan una serie de experimentos que demuestran que las habilidades para extraer regularidades rítmicas y estadísticas del habla están ya presentes en algunos roedores. A su vez, otros estudios sugieren que los animales también pueden procesar ciertas estructuras abstractas tradicionalmente ligadas a la gramática. Estos estudios apuntan en la dirección de que muchos de los componentes básicos del procesamiento lingüístico son compartidos a través de diferentes especies animales. Sin embargo, existe todavía un amplio abanico de fenómenos lingüísticos que deben ser estudiados desde una perspectiva comparada para determinar hasta qué punto el lenguaje humano hace uso de habilidades ya existentes en otros animales.
One of the major problems in the study of language is to understand its biological roots. An effective way to tackle this issue is to explore to which extent we share with other animals some of the mechanisms responsible for its processing. In this paper we present a series of experiments that demonstrate that the abilities required to extract rhythmic and statistical regularities from speech are already present in rodents. Other studies also suggest that some animals might be able to process certain abstract structures that have been traditionally linked to grammar. Together, these studies point towards the idea that many of the basic components of language processing are shared across different species. Nevertheless, there is still a wide array of linguistic phenomena that should be studied from a comparative perspective to determine the extent to which human language uses abilities found in other animals.
ABSTRACT
A medida que las tecnologías de procesamiento del habla continúan mejorando, gradualmente nos acercamos al viejo sueño de crear una máquina que hable. Los actuales sistemas interactivos de diálogo hablado permiten que los usuarios realicen tareas simples, tales como transacciones bancarias y reservas en hoteles, mediante la interacción verbal. Pese a ser relativamente exitosas, estas conversaciones humano-computadora aún tienen un largo camino para recorrer en cuanto a su naturalidad: estos sistemas tienden a ser descriptos por los usuarios como extraños o incluso intimidantes. Entre las razones principales para esta falta de naturalidad, figura el modelado imperfecto de la variación prosódica, o cómo algunas propiedades del habla (tales como la entonación, la intensidad o el ritmo) cambian en las expresiones verbales. Los sistemas actuales todavía son incapaces de manejar estas características en forma correcta, tanto al entender el habla del usuario como para producir respuestas sintetizadas. La variación prosódica es extremadamente compleja en el habla espontánea, y se sabe que la afectan varios niveles de representación lingüística (léxica, sintáctica, semántica y pragmática). En el presente artículo, enfocamos nuestra atención en una dimensión particular de variación prosódica, conocida como mimetización entre interlocutores, que consiste en la alineación automática de características del habla entre los participantes de un diálogo. Tras un repaso general de la literatura de estos temas, describimos un proyecto de investigación en curso que busca modelar la mimetización prosódica en diálogos.
As speech processing technologies continue to improve, the old dream of creating a machine that talks gradually becomes real. The present interactive speech systems enable users to perform simple tasks such as banking transactions and hotel reservations,through verbal interaction. Despite being relatively successful, these human-computer conversations still have a long way to go regarding their naturalness: these systems tend to be described as odd or even intimidating by users. Among the main reasons for this lack of naturalness, is the flawed modeling of prosodic variation or the way some properties of speech (such as intonation, intensity and rhythm) change in verbalexpressions. Current systems are still unable to handle these features correctly, both to understand the speech of the user as to produce synthesized responses. Prosodic variation is extremely complex in spontaneous speech, and it is well known that it´saffected by several levels of linguistic representation (lexical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic). The present article focuses on a specific dimension of prosodic variation, known as mimetization between interlocutors, which consists in the automatic alignment of speech features between the participants of a dialogue. After a general overview of the literature on these subjects, a research project in process that seeks to model the prosodic mimetization in dialogues is described.
Subject(s)
Speech , Language , Natural Language Processing , PsychologyABSTRACT
There are few studies of language and speech in patients with Sydenham's chorea (SC). We have done an acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency (F0), duration and intensity of declarative and interrogative sentences made by 20 SC patients, 20 patients with rheumatic fever (RF) without chorea, and compared them with 20 healthy age-matched controls (CO). Each group included 12 females. We found that there is no difference between the RF and CO groups in all studied parameters. Patients with SC, however, presented with a speech characterized by decreased F0 range (difference between minimum and maximum F0), shorter duration of sentences, and higher intensity of the first syllable of sentences. The findings were not influenced by the nature of the sentences (i.e. , declarative or interrogative), but for all variables they were significantly more severe in males than females. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that patients with acute SC have an impairment of modulation of F0 and longer duration of emission of sentences, resulting in a monotone and slow speech. This pattern is similar to what has been described in other basal ganglia illnesses, such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Wilson's disease.
Há poucos estudos sobre linguagem e fala em pacientes com coréia de Sydenham (CS). Fizemos uma análise acústica da freqüência fundamental (F0), duração e intensidade de sentenças declarativas e interrogativas feitas por 20 pacientes com CS, 20 pacientes com febre reumática (FR) sem coréia, comparando-os com 20 controles saudáveis e pareados por idade (CO). Cada grupo incluiu 12 mulheres. Foi encontrado que não há diferença entre os grupos FR e CO quanto a todos parâmetros estudados. Pacientes com CS, contudo, apresentaram-se com fala caracterizada pela redução da variação de F0 (diferença entre F0 mínima e máxima), duração mais curta das sentenças e maior intensidade da primeira sílaba das sentenças. Os achados não foram influenciados pela natureza das sentenças (i.e. , declarativas ou interrogativas), mas os achados foram mais evidentes em todas as variáveis em homens em contraste com mulheres. Em conclusão, demonstramos que pacientes com CS aguda têm prejuízo da modulação da F0 e duração mais longa da emissão de sentenças, resultando em fala mais lenta e monótona. Esse padrão é semelhante ao que tem sido descrito em outras fecções dos núcleos da base, tais como doença de Parkinson, doença de Huntington e doença de Wilson.
Subject(s)
Child , Female , Humans , Male , Chorea/physiopathology , Rheumatic Fever/physiopathology , Speech Acoustics , Speech Perception/physiology , Verbal Behavior/physiology , Acute Disease , Case-Control StudiesABSTRACT
Neuropsychology has traditionally studied language emphasizing the exclusive control of the left hemisphere of the brain over this process. With the growing development of this area in psychology and the availability of neuroimaging techniques, a critical analysis of the traditional concept of cerebral dominance for language and of the bases of the neurobiological representations of this cognitive function is crucial. In this context, this review aims to investigate evidence brought by neuroimaging studies on the role of the right hemisphere in communicative processing in healthy individuals. Data suggest a co-activation of brain hemispheres in this processing, with an important contribution given by the right hemisphere in discursive, pragmatic-inferential, and prosodic processing.