Phonetics and Phonology Research

Dynamic acoustic-to-categorical representations of phonemes and prosody along ventral and dorsal speech streams

This study shows that phonemes and prosody are processed in parallel rather than sequentially in the brain's speech streams, with prosody showing greater spatial spread.

Rapid phonetic learning of Mandarin tones in adults: Daily behavioral improvement and brain activity changes

This study shows that adults can rapidly improve Mandarin tone perception through short-term training, with behavioral gains and neural plasticity, and early benefits from learning in pairs.

Human and AI voice identities evoke shared neural signatures during speaker recognition across changes in speech content and prosody

The paper investigates how human and AI voices are processed neurally during speaker recognition, showing distinct but overlapping patterns in response to prosodic changes.

Neural network-assisted analysis of tube vocal tract models

The paper presents a pipeline using deep neural networks to analyze tube vocal tract models and explore articulatory-acoustic relationships through regression and machine learning.

Consistency in phonetic categorization predicts successful speech-in-noise perception

The paper examines how perceptual consistency and working memory predict speech-in-noise perception performance in listeners.

Acoustic parameter combinations underlying mapping of pseudoword sounds to multiple domains of meaning: representational similarity analyses and machine-learning models

The paper uses representational similarity analysis and machine learning to identify acoustic parameter combinations linked to iconicity in pseudowords across different meaning domains.

Acoustic Features of Emotional Expression in Preverbal Infant Vocalizations

This study examines how emotional valence is encoded in preverbal infant vocalizations through acoustic features, revealing age-related changes and distinct patterns for positive and negative vocalizations.

A universal of speech timing: Intonation units form low frequency rhythms and balance cross-linguistic syllable rate variability

The paper analyzes intonation unit (IU) rates across 48 languages and finds a low-frequency rhythm with minimal variation, suggesting IUs balance information content more than syllables.

The Role of Syllabic Rhythm in Speech Perception Across Languages

The paper tests if inserting silences to restore theta rhythm improves speech comprehension in French and Japanese, finding it effective in French but not Japanese.

The Memorability of Voices is Predictable and Consistent across Listeners

This study shows that voice memorability is consistent across listeners and can be predicted by voice features.

Are you talking to me? How the choice of speech register impacts listeners' hierarchical encoding of speech.

This study examines how different speech registers, specifically Foreigner-Directed Speech (FDS), affect the cortical encoding of speech in L2 learners and L1 listeners, finding enhanced encoding at multiple processing levels for FDS in L2 learners.

The impact of speaker accent on discourse processing: a frequency investigation

This study investigates how native, dialectal, and foreign accents affect discourse processing by analyzing EEG power spectral density in different frequency bands.

Mapping the spectrotemporal regions influencing perception of French stop consonants in noise

This study identifies the spectrotemporal acoustic cues used by listeners to discriminate French stop consonants in noise, revealing cue combinations and individual variability.

Gender and speech material effects on the long-term average speech spectrum, including at extended high frequencies

The paper examines how gender and speech material affect the long-term average speech spectrum, finding gender differences in extended high frequencies and spectral levels across speech types.

Does pre-speech auditory modulation reflect processes related to feedback monitoring or speech movement planning?

The paper investigates whether pre-speech auditory modulation reflects feedback monitoring or speech movement planning by analyzing correlations between auditory modulation and articulatory adjustments in speech production.

Arm movements increase acoustic markers of expiratory flow

This study investigates how arm movements affect acoustic markers of expiratory flow, finding increased amplitude peaks and timing correlations with kinematic peaks.

Spectro-temporal acoustical markers differentiate speech from song across cultures

The paper shows spectro-temporal acoustical features reliably distinguish speech from song across 21 societies using machine learning and human listener analysis.

Functional benefits of continuous vs. categorical listening strategies on the neural encoding and perception of noise-degraded speech

This study compares continuous and categorical listening strategies on speech perception in noise, finding continuous strategies improve performance and neural resilience.

Perceptual formant discrimination during speech movement planning

The paper tests if speech planning affects perceptual sensitivity to vowel formant discrimination, finding reduced sensitivity before speaking.

Influence of social and semantic contexts on phonetic encoding in naturalistic conversations

The paper investigates how semantic and social contexts affect phonetic encoding in natural conversations using a speech-in-noise paradigm, finding that dialogues and intact conversations improve performance.

Neural representations of non-native speech reflect proficiency and interference from native language knowledge

The paper examines neural representations of non-native speech in native Dutch listeners, finding evidence of native language interference and proficiency-related changes in acoustic processing.

Representations of fricatives in sub-cortical model responses: comparisons with human consonant perception

The paper models neural responses to fricatives in the auditory nerve and inferior colliculus, finding that these responses better predict consonant perception than stimulus spectra.

Vowel and formant representation in human auditory speech cortex

The paper investigates how human auditory speech cortex processes vowel formants, finding localized formant tuning and population-level vowel category decoding.

Acoustic Correlates of the Syllabic Rhythm of Speech: Modulation Spectrum or Local Features of the Temporal Envelope

The paper analyzes speech envelope modulation spectrum and local temporal features to determine their relationship with syllable rhythm across multiple languages.

Perceptual warping exposes categorical representations for speech in human brainstem responses

This study shows that perceptual warping and categorical speech representations occur in the human brainstem, with neural responses reflecting top-down processing during active listening.

An ERP investigation of accented isolated single word processing

This study investigates how dialectal and foreign accents affect speech processing using ERP data, finding support for the Different Processes Hypothesis in both early and later processing stages.

Short-term perceptual re-weighting in suprasegmental categorization

The paper shows that listeners adjust the perceptual weight of acoustic speech dimensions during suprasegmental categorization, down-weighting less relevant dimensions in accented speech.

Nonlinear dynamics in auditory cortical activity reveal the neural basis of perceptual warping in speech categorization

The paper investigates how perceptual warping in speech categorization is influenced by stimulus history, showing frontotemporal brain interactions.

Speech Sound Discrimination by Mongolian Gerbils

This study shows that Mongolian gerbils can discriminate speech sounds similarly to humans, using formant frequencies for vowels and articulatory features for consonants, though requiring higher signal-to-noise ratios.

Event-related potential correlates of learning to produce novel foreign phonemes

The paper investigates neural correlates of learning to pronounce novel foreign phonemes using ERP recordings, finding that late slow waves correlate with pronunciation improvement.