Learning new sounds in a second language requires the acquisition of new motor routines and new sensorimotor planning systems needed to ensure coordination. Auditory feedback is an important part of the planning and control system required for fluent speech production. ESL vowel production was studied using a real-time formant perturbation technique to modify auditory feedback. Three groups of ...

OBJECTIVE To verify the auditory selective attention in children with stroke. METHODS Dichotic tests of binaural separation (non-verbal and consonant-vowel) and binaural integration - digits and Staggered Spondaic Words Test (SSW) - were applied in 13 children (7 boys), from 7 to 16 years, with unilateral stroke confirmed by neurological examination and neuroimaging. RESULTS The attention p...

The feature-integration theory of attention posits that auditory features are first processed independently at early stages. We tested the theory by examining the neural processing integrality of vowels and tones at the early pre-attentive auditory level. Twenty native Cantonese listeners participated in the event-related potential (ERP) experiment. We adopted the mismatch negativity (MMN) addi...

This fMRI study investigated phonological vs. auditory temporal processing in developmental dyslexia by means of a German vowel length discrimination paradigm (Groth, Lachmann, Riecker, Muthmann, & Steinbrink, 2011). Behavioral and fMRI data were collected from dyslexics and controls while performing same-different judgments of vowel duration in two experimental conditions. In the temporal, but...

This study investigated the shortand long-term effects of a high variability perceptual training on the production of three English vowel contrasts (/i//ɪ/; /ɛ/-/æ/; /u/-/ʊ/) by Portuguese learners. The perceptual training consisted of five sessions divided into two blocks that included both discrimination and identification tasks followed by immediate feedback with natural stimuli produced by ...

In order to fully process and understand speech, it is necessary that its neural encoding remain intact as the signal is transduced from the eighth nerve to the auditory cortex. Imperfections in this transduction may occur in the brainstem, midbrain, thalamus or the cortex itself. Unsatisfactory speech perception is experienced by everyone to some degree when exposed to noisy, or otherwise adve...

The temporal response of auditory-nerve (AN) fibers to a steady-state vowel is investigated using a computational auditory-periphery model. The model predictions are validated against a wide range of physiological data for both normal and impaired fibers in cats. The model incorporates two parallel filter paths, component 1 (C1) and component 2 (C2), which correspond to the active and passive m...

Consonant and vowel sounds of English (segmentals) carry a significant weight in communication. Pronunciation instruction focusing on segmental features has been found to be highly effective (e.g., Thomson & Derwing, 2015). However, students with different first languages (L1) or even from the same L1 backgrounds, have pronunciation needs. With limited class time, teachers cannot expected c...

This paper reports the results of two English experiments on timing and perception. The finding is that temporal patterns in production correspond to asymmetries in perception. We argue that these phenomena are best described in terms of auditory rather than articulatory representations. The production data concern compression effects, whereby, in syllables with a greater number of segments, ea...