Speaker verification is an active research problem that has been addressed using a variety of different classification techniques. However, in general, methods inspired by the human auditory system tend to show better verification performance than other methods. In this thesis three biologically inspired speaker verification algorithms are presented. The first is a vowel-dependent speaker verif...

PURPOSE To assess the effect of a program of singing training on the voice of total laryngectomees wearing tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis, considering the quality of alaryngeal phonation, vocal extension and the musical elements of tunning and legato. METHODS Five laryngectomees wearing tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis completed the singing training program over a period of three months...

Cochlear implants partially restore auditory sensation in individuals affected by severe to profound hearing loss. We investigated vowel detection, identification, and discrimination in a group of congenitally-deafened, unilaterally-implanted, Italian children and in a group of age-matched controls, by combining behavioral and neurophysiologic measures. Comparable vowel identification and discr...

Infants' perception of speech sound contrasts is modulated by their language environment, for example by the statistical distributions of the speech sounds they hear. Infants learn to discriminate speech sounds better when their input contains a two-peaked frequency distribution of those speech sounds than when their input contains a one-peaked frequency distribution. Effects of frequency distr...

Gaze-independent brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are a possible communication channel for persons with paralysis. We investigated if it is possible to use auditory stimuli to create a BCI for the Japanese Hiragana syllabary, which has 46 Hiragana characters. Additionally, we investigated if training has an effect on accuracy despite the high amount of different stimuli involved. Able-bodied pa...

The extent to which auditory experience can shape general auditory perceptual abilities is still under constant debate. Some studies show that specific auditory expertise may have a general effect on auditory perceptual abilities, while others show a more limited influence, exhibited only in a relatively narrow range associated with the area of expertise. The current study addresses this issue ...

We hear vowels pronounced by men and women as approximately the same although the length of the vocal tract varies considerably from group to group. At the same time, we can identify the speaker group. This suggests that the auditory system can extract and separate information about the size of the vocal-tract from information about its shape. The duration of the impulse response of the vocal t...

Three experiments asked whether phonotactic regularities not present in English could be acquired by adult English speakers from brief listening experience. Subjects listened to consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) syllables displaying restrictions on consonant position. Responses in a later speeded repetition task revealed rapid learning of (a) first-order regularities in which consonants were rest...

As we get older, both our bodies and brains find themselves in a constant state of change. While some of these changes are governed by normal developmental and maturational processes, others are experience-dependant and occur as a result of our day-to-day activities. Musical training is one of those activities that children tend to undertake and sometimes give up later in life. Even if of a sho...