Sensori-motor development of speech: feedback perturbations

我的研究计划的最重要的长期目标是调查儿童言语产生-感知关系的发展。在过去的五十年里，人们声称使用多种感觉反馈来监控语音发音，其中最重要的是听觉反馈。从发展的角度来看，听觉反馈对于获得与元音和辅音相关的适当发音位置至关重要。虽然已经有很多关于反馈在言语产生中的作用的研究，但还没有人使用关于发音运动、声学参数和知觉测量的原始数据来解决儿童的这个问题。 在接下来的五年里，我的研究计划的总体目标是在学龄前和学龄儿童中使用感觉扰动范式来研究听觉反馈在言语产生中的作用。为此，这项建议的三个具体目标是：(A)研究与所产生的元音类别有关的知觉听觉敏锐度的发展；(B)研究儿童和成人用来适应元音类别内和元音类别之间变化的听觉反馈的发音和声学策略；以及(C)确定哪些适应策略在知觉上最相关。为了实现这些目标，我们建议对典型发育中的儿童和成年人产生的语音序列进行运动学和声学记录。还将进行感知测试，并将结果与产生的数据进行比较。 这一研究项目的创新本质主要在于所解决的问题：虽然感觉知觉对言语发展的影响已经是许多研究的主题，但还没有人把重点放在综合发音和声学分析策略上，以补偿改变的听觉反馈，考虑到个体的全局元音空间。此外，我们提出的结合红外运动捕捉和超声成像的方法是独一无二的。我们的研究计划将在语音感觉运动开发领域取得突破性进展，并将为创新技术工具的开发做出贡献。事实上，通过提供有关儿童声音类别和言语感知相互作用的原始数据，我们的项目将使我们能够巩固和扩大我们与声乐技术公司的合作，开发旨在改善第二语言学习的虚拟成长对话头。我们建议的研究计划还将创造一个有利于培养口语处理领域高素质人才(本科生、研究生和博士后研究员)的研究环境。

The overarching long-term objective of my research program is to investigate the development of speech production-perception relationships in children. In the last five decades, it has been claimed that multiple sources of sensory feedback are used to monitor the speech articulators, the most important of which is auditory feedback. From a developmental perspective, auditory feedback is crucial to acquire the appropriate articulatory positions related to vowels and consonants. Although many studies have been conducted on the role of feedback in speech production, none has addressed this issue in children, using original data on articulatory movements, acoustic parameters, and perceptual measures. For the next five years, the global objective of my research program is to study the role of auditory feedback in speech production using the sensory perturbation paradigm in preschool- and school-aged children. To this end, the three specific objectives of this proposal are (a) to study the development of perceptual auditory acuity in relation with the produced vowel categories, (b) to study the articulatory and acoustic strategies children and adults use to adapt to altered auditory feedback within and across vowel categories, and (c) to determine which adaptation strategies are the most perceptually relevant. To achieve these objectives, we propose to make kinematic and acoustic recordings of speech sequences produced by typically developing children and by adults. Perceptual tests will also be conducted and the results will be compared to the produced data. The innovative nature of this research program resides primarily in the problem addressed: while the impact of sensory perception on the development of speech has been the subject of numerous studies, none has focused on an integrated articulatory and acoustic analysis of strategies to compensate for altered auditory feedback, taking into account the individual's global vowel space. Furthermore, our proposed method, combining infrared motion capture and ultrasound imaging, is unique. Our research program will lead to groundbreaking advances in the area of sensorimotor development in speech, and will contribute to the development of innovative technological tools. Indeed, by providing original data on the interaction of sound categories and speech perception in children, our program will allow us to consolidate and expand our collaborations with vocal technology companies to develop virtual growing talking heads designed to improve second language learning. Our proposed research program will also create a research environment conducive to the training of highly qualified personnel (undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows) in the area of oral language processing.