The effects of delayed auditory feedback on speech sequencing: acoustics, physiology, and computational modeling

健康的人在说话时不断监测自己的声音输出，使他们能够迅速察觉并纠正错误。当这种听觉反馈信号的内容或时序被实验性地改变时，大多数说话者会迅速修改他们的语音。该项目将主要讨论听觉反馈的时机如何影响言语产生系统，并将评估听觉反馈使用的个体差异。结果将指导语音计划和产生的计算模型的开发，该模型有可能加速设计针对发育性和获得性言语障碍的新的治疗方法。将开发的一系列教学模块将为社会带来额外的好处，这些模块将探索听觉反馈在正常和紊乱语言中的作用。该项目团队还将开发连接神经科学和通信科学的教育材料，并为本科生和K-12年级的学生，包括来自弱势背景和残疾的学生提供形成经验，以吸引他们未来在这一领域的学习。所有项目材料将作为公共数据库提供。调查人员将使用实验和计算研究相结合的方法。第一个研究目标是利用多通道实验技术确定延迟听觉反馈(DAF)在语音序列中的作用。将收集和分析声学数据，以确定DAF对非单词音节序列和句子产生的影响。这些数据将用于评估DAF引起的误差类型，以及这些影响与对反馈信号的频率内容(而不是定时)快速变化的响应之间的关系。通过众包平台收集的数据和感知评估将使研究个别发言者的可变性成为可能。数据还将作为一个大型公共语音数据库在改变反馈条件下可用。第二个研究目标是开发一种计算模型，该模型也由来自参与者子集的语音的运动学测量提供信息，该模型可以捕捉听觉反馈与语音序列产生的相互作用。该模型将模拟一系列关于语音感知、规划和产生组件之间相互作用的假设，并评估它们解释实验数据中观察到的错误模式的能力。该模型还将评估个体对DAF影响敏感度的差异来源，正如实验观察到的那样。

Healthy individuals continuously monitor their sound output while speaking, allowing them to perceive and correct errors quickly. When the content or timing of this auditory feedback signal is experimentally altered, most speakers rapidly modify their speech. This project will primarily address how the timing of auditory feedback impacts the speech production system and will assess individual differences in the use of auditory feedback. Results will guide development of a computational model of speech planning and production that has the potential to accelerate the design of new therapeutic approaches to developmental and acquired disorders of speech. Additional benefits to society will accrue from a series of teaching modules that will be developed that explore the role of auditory feedback in normal and disordered speech. The project team will also develop educational materials that bridge neuroscience and communication sciences and that provide formative experiences for undergraduate and K-12 students, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and with disabilities, to attract them to future study in this area. All project materials will be made available as a public database.The investigators will use a combination of experimental and computational studies. The first research goal is to determine the role of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) on speech sequencing using multimodal experimental techniques. Acoustic data will be collected and analyzed to determine the impact of DAF on the production of non-word syllable sequences and sentences. These data will be used to assess the types of errors elicited by DAF and the relationship between these effects and responses to rapid shifts in the frequency content, rather than timing, of the feedback signal. The collected data and perceptual evaluations, obtained via a crowdsourcing platform, will enable the study of individual speaker variability. Data will also be made available as a large public database of speech under altered feedback conditions. The second research goal is to develop a computational model, informed also by kinematic measures of speech from a subset of participants, that can capture the interaction of auditory feedback with speech sequence production. The model will simulate a series of hypotheses about the interactions among speech perception and planning and production components and assess their ability to account for the patterns of errors observed in the experimental data. The model will also assess the sources of individual variation in susceptibility to the effects of DAF, as observed experimentally.