Breath Group Analysis for Reading and Spontaneous Speech in Healthy Adults

Abstract

Aims: The breath group can serve as a functional unit to define temporal and fundamental frequency (f₀) features in continuous speech. These features of the breath group are determined by the physiologic, linguistic, and cognitive demands of communication. Reading and spontaneous speech are two speaking tasks that vary in these demands and are commonly used to evaluate speech performance for research and clinical applications. The purpose of this study is to examine differences between reading and spontaneous speech in the temporal and f₀ aspects of their breath groups. Methods: Sixteen participants read two passages and answered six questions while wearing a circumferentially vented mask connected to a pneumotach. The aerodynamic signal was used to identify inspiratory locations. The audio signal was used to analyze task differences in breath group structure, including temporal and f₀ components. Results: The main findings were that spontaneous speech task exhibited significantly more grammatically inappropriate breath group locations and longer breath group duration than did the passage reading task. Conclusion: The task differences in the percentage of grammatically inadequate breath group locations and in breath group duration for healthy adult speakers partly explain the differences in cognitive-linguistic load between the passage reading and spontaneous speech.

Take a breath and take the turn: how breathing meets turns in spontaneous dialogue

“…inhalation is greater before a main clause than an embedded clause). These properties are observed in read speech [16,17,19,20,22] and, to a lesser extent, in spontaneous speech [18,19,21]. These results show that, at least during monologue, the respiratory system works in coordination with speech and language constraints, and that our oral communicative ability is closely linked to the respiratory function.…”

“…The results of these studies show different breathing profiles during both the speaking and listening phases of dialogue. Contrasting with monologue studies [18,19,21], they also reported a lack of relationship between the duration of speech utterances and inhalation pauses [34,35]. These studies [34,35], however, involved a single dyad.…”

“…Breathing cycles in speech are also irregular: the depth and duration of inhalation and exhalation vary as a function of the utterance produced over the course of the exhalation phase. Longer utterances involve longer exhalation, and also tend to be preceded by longer and deeper inhalations [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. In addition, inhalation pauses are coordinated with the linguistic structure of the text: speakers mainly take breaths at syntactic boundaries.…”

Speech and pause characteristics in multiple sclerosis: A preliminary study of speakers with high and low neuropsychological test performance

“…Rather, increased pause time explains the slower speech rate of spontaneous speech, which provides time needed for formulation of thought or cognitive-linguistic processing (Goldman-Eisler, 1968; Rochester, 1971; Walker, 1988). Spontaneous speech also has a higher proportion of grammatically inappropriate pauses compared to reading (Wang, Green, Nip, Kent, & Kent, 2010; Winkworth, Davis, Adams, & Ellis, 1995; Winkworth, Davis, Ellis, & Adams, 1994). …”

rConverse

“…Studies consistently show that speech production is achieved by a specific control of breathing, visible in the clear reduction of the inhalation duration relative to the exhalation duration, as compared with quiet breathing [38, 49, 60, 61, 63]. This gives speech breathing its well-known asymmetrical profile [21, 22, 50].…”