Vowel Space Expansion Sensorimotor Adaptation
ConditionSpeech
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18+
SponsorUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison
About this trial
The purpose of this research study is to understand how the brain processes and controls speech in healthy people. The investigators are doing this research because it will help identify the mechanisms that allow people to perceive their own speech errors and to learn new speech sounds. 117 participants will be enrolled into this part of the study and can expect to be on study between 1 day (Experiment 1) and 4 weeks (Experiment 2).
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
English-speaking adults
normal hearing and speech
no history of stroke or neurological conditions
Disqualifiers
Native language other than English
Any neurological disorders other than the disorder of interest
Any history of hearing disorders
Uncorrected vision problems that prevent participants from seeing visually-presented stimuli
Trial design
Design model
Single group
Treatments tested in this trial
Exp 3 Speaking Task
BehavioralParticipant will sit in front of a computer screen in a quiet room and to produce speech based on what is on the screen. Participant may see real words or nonsense words to read. Investigators may play sounds through headphones and ask the participant to repeat them. Participant speech will be recorded by a microphone. This task takes about one hour to complete.
Treatment groups
117 Participants
are divided into 1 treatment groupGroup A: Healthy Adult SpeakersExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Average Vowel Spacing (AVS) Measured as the Mean of Pairwise Formant Distances Between Vowels
AVS is a local measure of vowel spacing.
Time frame
up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)2
Quadrilateral Vowel Space Area (qVSA)
qVSA measures the area (in Hz\^2) between the F1/F2 coordinates of the corner vowels. This is a global measure of working vowel space.
Time frame
up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)3
Intelligibility measured by Percent of words correctly identified by 5 independent transcribers
Intelligibility is a perceptual measure. Four repetitions of each spoken production from each adaptation phase, as well as the minimal-pair neighbors from the calibration phase, will be identified by all transcribers. Because intelligibility in healthy speakers is expected to be near ceiling, speech signals will be masked by speech-shaped noise and delivered at 72 dB over closed-ear headphones. Signal-to-noise ratio will be determined prior to testing as the ratio where, on average, 50% of stimuli in the calibration phase are correctly identified. Transcribers will be native English speakers with no history of neurological/hearing disorders who pass a pure-tone hearing test.
Time frame
up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)4
Auditory acuity is measured as the average just noticeable difference (JND) along 4 vowel formant continua
Auditory acuity is measured as the average just noticeable difference (JND) along 4 vowel formant continua: /i/-/ɪ/, /ɛ/-/æ/, /u/-/ʊ/, and /ɑ/-/ʌ/. Acuity will be measured at continua midpoint (across-category acuity) and at the four corner vowel endpoints (within-category acuity). JNDs will be measured through a 4-interval, 2-alternative forced choice task (AABA or ABAA) via a staircase procedure.
Time frame
up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)Sponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Lead sponsor
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov