The Difficulty of Listening to Time-Compressed Speech

Abstract

Forty normal college students rated the difficulty of listening to samples of speech subjected to 20, 30, 40, and 50% time compression compared with a standard consisting of normal speech. A male and female speaker were used. Results indicate that difficulty commences to increase and accelerate beyond 20% time compression to reach a value of about five times as difficult at 50% time compression. The male’s speech was increasingly less difficult to listen to than the female’s speech as the degree of time compression increased.

The Effect of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Chinese Lexical Tone Imitation: A Single-Subject Design

“…For T2 production, a major increased pitch is needed through the primary mechanism of cricothyroid and thyroarytenoid muscles [31,40]. Yet, the cricothyroid muscles are innervated by the superior laryngeal branch of the vagus nerve that was not targeted and stimulated via tVNS in the current study.…”

“…The target skin locations for simulation were determined as the middle of the tracheoesophageal groove on each side of the neck to set up the iReliev® system. According to Zemlin [31], both left and right RLNs are vertical to the larynx. The right RLN loops behind the examples bears the lexical tones.…”

“…Mandarin Chinese lexical T1 is a high-leveled pitch, Fundamental frequency measured in lexical tones reflects the biomechanical characteristics of human vocal folds and is determined by the laryngeal structure and related muscle forces [39]. Physiologically, the activities of cricothyroid and thyroarytenoid muscles are the primary mechanism in changing f0, with superior laryngeal branch of the vagus nerve innervating the cricothyroid muscles and the recurrent laryngeal branch innervating the thyroarytenoid muscles [31].…”

“…According to Zemlin [31], the modification of thyroarytenoid muscles changes stiffness and the effective vibrating mass of vocal folds. More importantly, when the cricothyroid muscles contract, the thyroid cartilage tilts downward and forward, and the cricoid cartilage may tilt upward as well.…”

­­STAT3 combines with Rho-ROCK signaling pathway inhibitor, regulate axon growth of ganglion cells derived from retinal Müller cells

“…Mdm4 decreased signi cantly in AAV-STAT3 group. Overexpression of Dclk2, Armcx1, c-myc, and Nrn1 are closely related to the regeneration of RGCs axon(31)(32)(33)(34). The mRNA level of Dclk2, Armcx1, c-myc, and Nrn1 signi cantly increased in the AAV-STAT3 group.…”