ABSTRACT
In dichotic listening tasks, the (dominant) right ear's superiority in processing verbal stimuli has been attributed to its direct anatomic connection with the left dominant hemisphere. The role played by extralinguistic factors, such as attention and functional tuning of the associated cortical structures, has not been carefully examined. This investigation was undertaken to evaluate the effects of the left thalamic electric stimulation on the processing (recognition and recall) of dichotically presented CVC verbal stimuli in a patient being treated for chronic pain. We report the positive effects of electric stimulation (confirmed by increased subcortical metabolic activity using SPECT, a brain imaging technique) on the processing of dichotically presented verbal stimuli.
Subject(s)
Dominance, Cerebral/physiology , Speech Perception/physiology , Thalamic Nuclei/physiopathology , Attention/physiology , Brain Mapping , Dichotic Listening Tests , Electric Stimulation , Humans , Male , Mental Recall/physiology , Middle Aged , Tomography, Emission-Computed , Trigeminal Neuralgia/physiopathologyABSTRACT
The purpose of this investigation was to gather information on how much variability on measures of jitter and fundamental frequency standard deviation (F0 s.d.) can be expected within individual elderly women when phonating sustained vowels "as steadily as possible." Fifteen repeat productions of the vowels /i/, /a/, and /u/ from 18 elderly women (69-90 years) were analyzed for F0 s.d. and jitter. Results indicate that intraspeaker variability on jitter and F0 s.d. measures in elderly women's sustained vowel productions can be quite considerable in some cases. This is a factor which needs to be considered in establishing normative data on elderly speakers' vocal capabilities.
Subject(s)
Aged , Voice Quality , Voice , Aged, 80 and over , Female , Humans , Sound SpectrographyABSTRACT
In dichotic listening tasks, the (dominant) right ear's superiority in processing verbal stimuli has been attributed to its direct access to the linguistically dominant left hemisphere. The roles played by the extralinguistic factors, such as induced attentiveness and functional tuning of the auditory system, have not been carefully examined. The evidence for the facilitating effects of subcortical stimulation on processing dichotic stimuli is presented.
Subject(s)
Dominance, Cerebral/physiology , Electric Stimulation Therapy , Hearing Disorders/therapy , Thalamus/physiopathology , Dichotic Listening Tests , Hearing Disorders/physiopathology , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Stereotaxic Techniques , Tomography, Emission-ComputedABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to provide data on the ability of elderly listeners to estimate the age group of women (25-35, 45-55, 70-80) from phonated and whispered vowel productions. Further, comparisons were made between the performance of these elderly listeners and results for young listeners reported previously [S. E. Linville and H. Fisher, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 40-48 (1985)]. Tape recordings of whispered and normally phonated /ae/ vowels were played to 23 elderly women for relative age judgments. Results suggest that elderly women are not as accurate as young women in estimating age from sustained vowel productions, although the two listener groups tend to categorize individual speakers similarly. Further, it appears that listener age is a factor in acoustic cues used in making age judgments.
Subject(s)
Aging , Phonetics , Speech Perception , Voice Quality , Voice , Adult , Aged , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , PsychoacousticsABSTRACT
This study measured the threshold of the acoustic reflex as a function of reflex-activating stimulus duration. Acoustic reflex thresholds (ARTs) were measured for tonal stimuli at frequencies of 1000 and 3000 Hz and broadband noise at six durations between 20 and 500 msec for both normal and hearing-impaired subjects. Traditional techniques and response averaging were used. Results suggest that these methods have a significant influence on ART and reflex temporal summation at threshold. Lowest thresholds and almost no temporal summation were found with a response averaging technique and a bidirectional shift criterion, whereas clinical procedures yielded highest thresholds and greater summation. These results suggest a need to examine the methodology used for measurement of the acoustic reflex and the interpretation of clinical pathology based on measurements of reflex temporal summation.
Subject(s)
Auditory Threshold , Hearing Loss, Sensorineural/diagnosis , Reflex, Acoustic , Adult , Audiometry, Pure-Tone , Humans , Pitch PerceptionABSTRACT
The effects of time-expanded monosyllabic words (NU-6) on the auditory discrimination performance of 15 young adults with normal hearing and 20 elderly subjects were studied. Three conditions of time expansion, 30, 60 and 100%, plus a 0% control condition, were presented at four sensation levels (8, 16, 24 and 32 dB). For the normally hearing subjects, auditory discrimination performance at all ratios of time expansion was equal to the 0% condition. Results for the elderly subjects indicated intelligibility was inversely related to time expansion at the 30 and 60% conditions. However, at the 100% condition, speech intelligibility improved over the 60% condition at 8 and 16 dB sensation level. At 24 and 32 dB sensation level, performance at 100% was equal to the 60% condition. With the normal and elderly subjects, ear and list effects were minimal. The results are discussed in terms of the clinical value of this procedure and in light of literature that reviews the performance of subjects on tests employing various temporally altered stimuli.
