Target Pitch Research Articles

Pitch specification of minor syllables in Sgaw Karen

Sgaw Karen is a Tibeto-Burman language with both lexical tone and a major-minor syllable divide. Unlike major syllables, minor syllables are structurally reduced and do not bear overt phonological tone. This acoustic study investigates the fundamental frequency of these minor syllables, summarizing surface pitch patterns and providing evidence for a phonetic target. The first acoustic look at minor syllables in Karenic languages, a phonetically understudied language family, 58 unique minor syllable sequences of each possible length (~500 tokens) are elicited from one native speaker from the Karen State, Myanmar (Burma). Analysis of minor syllable sequences adjacent to lexical tones shows (1) a low pitch target around 185 Hz to which minor syllables asymptotically approximate when given sufficient time, and (2) this target is not explicable by contextual interpolation. Results address the general problem of tonal underspecification and interpret findings in the context of a minor syllable typology. Acousti...

Dynamic measures of voice stability in young and old adults

This paper examines age-related differences in voice quality between 15 young and 15 old speakers, using electroglottographic (EGG) recordings of three elicitation types: sustained vowels, hVd word lists, and readings of the Rainbow Passage. For each elicitation type, fundamental frequency (F0), contact quotient (Qx), and their standard deviations are analysed. Results found, for all three elicitations, that Qx was significantly lower for older speakers. F0 was higher for the older speakers, but this was only significant for the hVd word lists. Sustained vowels were used to examine the effect of target pitch and loudness on F0 and Qx. Both Qx and F0 were raised with increased target loudness. The hVd word lists were used to examine the phonetic effects of different vowels. Lip rounded vowels had higher Qx than non-lip rounded vowels. Readings of the Rainbow Passage encompassed prosodic and phonetic variations in F0 and Qx, in addition to voice quality. F0 and Qx contours of the hVd word lists and the vowel/ei/taken from the Rainbow Passage were analysed using the discrete cosine transform. The hVd frame produced coarticulation effects on the Qx contour, but no such effects were evident for the vowel /ei/. The study concluded that using multiple elicitation types is beneficial in the study of the effect of age on the voice, and that analysing contour tracks for F0 and Qx will allow further examination of how prosodic and phonetic effects interact with age-related changes in voice quality.

WPŁYW I DOŚWIADCZENIA W NAUCE ŚPIEWU KARNATYCKIEGO NA SŁUCHOWE POTENCJAŁY KOROWE

BackgroundA musician’s ability to produce a precise pitch must involve some kind of neuroplasticity, allowing them to control fundamental frequency, maintain target pitch, and accurately control pitch through auditory perceptual monitoring. The present study uses cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) to investigate neuroplasticity by assessing the latency of P1, N1, P2, and N2 as well as the peak-to-peak amplitudes P1–N1, N1–P2, and P2–N2 in two groups of subjects: Carnatic vocal musicians and non-musicians.Material and MethodsTwo groups of normal hearing females aged 18 to 25 years. There were 20 Carnatic vocal musicians (Indian classical music of south India) and 20 non-musicians. Pure tones were used as stimuli.ResultsDescriptive statistics revealed lower latency and greater peak-to-peak amplitude for all measures in the Carnatic vocal musicians compared to the non-musicians. MANOVA showed that vocalists had significantly better (shorter) N1, P2, and N2 latencies and significantly better (greater) peak-to-peak amplitude of P1–N1.ConclusionsThe present study showed some significantly enhanced CAEP parameters in Carnatic vocal musicians compared to non-musicians. This indicates that musical experience has an effect on the central auditory nervous system, and this form of neuroplasticity can be investigated with CAEPs.

Coding pitch differences in voiceless fricatives: Whispered relative to normal speech.

Intonation can be perceived in whispered speech despite the absence of the fundamental frequency. In the past, acoustic correlates of pitch in whisper have been sought in vowel content, but, recently, studies of normal speech demonstrated correlates of intonation in consonants as well. This study examined how consonants may contribute to the coding of intonation in whispered relative to normal speech. The acoustic characteristics of whispered, voiceless fricatives /s/ and /f/, produced at different pitch targets (low, mid, high), were investigated and compared to corresponding normal speech productions to assess if whisper contained secondary or compensatory pitch correlates. Furthermore, listener sensitivity to fricative cues to pitch in whisper was established, also relative to normal speech. Consistent with recent studies, acoustic correlates of whispered and normal speech fricatives systematically varied with pitch target. Comparable findings across speech modes showed that acoustic correlates were secondary. Discrimination of vowel-fricative-vowel stimuli was less accurate and slower in whispered than normal speech, which is attributed to differences in acoustic cues available. Perception of fricatives presented without their vowel contexts, however, revealed comparable processing speeds and response accuracies between speech modes, supporting the finding that within fricatives, acoustic correlates of pitch are similar across speech modes.

Explaining the PENTA model: a reply to Arvaniti and Ladd

This paper presents an overview of the Parallel Encoding and Target Approximation (PENTA) model of speech prosody, in response to an extensive critique by Arvaniti & Ladd (2009). PENTA is a framework for conceptually and computationally linking communicative meanings to fine-grained prosodic details, based on an articulatory-functional view of speech. Target Approximation simulates the articulatory realisation of underlying pitch targets – the prosodic primitives in the framework. Parallel Encoding provides an operational scheme that enables simultaneous encoding of multiple communicative functions. We also outline how PENTA can be computationally tested with a set of software tools. With the help of one of the tools, we offer a PENTA-based hypothetical account of the Greek intonational patterns reported by Arvaniti & Ladd, showing how it is possible to predict the prosodic shapes of an utterance based on the lexical and postlexical meanings it conveys.

The Effect of Timbre, Pitch, and Vibrato on Vocal Pitch-Matching Accuracy

This study seeks to examine how target stimulus timbre, vibrato, pitch, and singer classification affect pitch-matching accuracy. This is a repeated-measures factorial design. Source signals were synthesized with a source slope of -12dB/octave with and without vibrato at each of the pitches, C4, B4, and F5. These source signals were filtered using five formant patterns (A-E) constituting a total of 30 stimuli (5 formant patterns × 3 pitches × 2 vibrato conditions). Twelve sopranos and 11 mezzo-sopranos with at least 3years of individual voice training were recruited from the University Of Tennessee, Knoxville, School of Music and the Knoxville Opera Company. Each singer attempted to match the pitch of all 30 stimuli presented twice in a random order. Results indicated that there was no significant effect of formant pattern on pitch-matching accuracy. With increasing pitch from C4 to F5, pitch-matching accuracy increased in midpoint of the vowel condition but not in prephonatory set condition. Mezzo-sopranos moved toward being in tune from prephonatory to midpoint of the vowel. However, sopranos at C4 sang closer to being in tune at prephonatory but lowered the pitch at the midpoint of the vowel. Presence or absence of vibrato did not affect the pitch-matching accuracy. However, the interesting finding of the study was that singers attempted to match the timbre of stimuli with vibrato. The results of this study show that pitch matching is a complex process affected by many parameters.

Relationships of a Circular Singer Arm Gesture to Acoustical and Perceptual Measures of Singing

The purpose of this study was to validate previous research that suggests using movement in conjunction with singing tasks can affect intonation and perception of the task. Singers ( N = 49) were video and audio recorded, using a motion capture system, while singing a phrase from a familiar song, first with no motion, and then while doing a low, circular arm gesture. Analysis of relationships between a circular singer arm gesture and changes in intonation indicated most singers (67.3%, n = 33) were closer to the target pitch when doing the low, circular gesture. Additionally, significant correlations were found between motion of the hand and face. Participant perceptions of singing with motion included “fuller tone” and “more breath” with the lower motion and singing without motion viewed as “easy” and “comfortable.” Results of this study suggest that singing with motion can affect intonation, other bodily movements, and perception of singing.

High F0 and musicianship make a difference: Pitch-shift responses across the vocal range

The control of vocal pitch plays a central role in speech and singing, where accurate tonal production relies on modulating F0 production. Previous research has shown that vocal pitch is modulated in response to artificial pitch perturbations during ongoing vocalization (i.e., the pitch-shift response) with response characteristics differing between musicians and non-musicians. However, little is known about the behavior of these responses in the higher portion of a speaker's vocal range for amateur musicians or non-musicians. The present study addresses whether pitch control changes as target pitch is systematically increased and whether this variation is affected by musicianship. We predicted that as F0 moves away from comfortable speaking level, pitch-shift response peak amplitude would increase and peak latency would decrease, while participants with musical experience would have lower amplitude responses than those without experience. Results showed that peak amplitude linearly increased as F0 was raised, and that peak latency similarly decreased but with more variability. However, musical participants had larger pitch-shift response amplitudes and longer peak latency times than non-musical participants, which is an unanticipated finding for persons with musical training. These patterns suggest that pitch control can be manipulated by vocal tasks that vary F0 while still being subject to strong modulation by musical background.

Mothers do not enhance phonemic contrasts of Mandarin lexical tones in child-directed speech

Child-directed speech is characterized by higher pitch, more expanded pitch contours, and more exaggerated phonetic contrasts, which was suggested to facilitate speech sound acquisition. This study examined the perceptual and acoustic differences of mothers' disyllabic Mandarin lexical tones directed to adults and children to determine whether mothers exaggerated the pitch targets of the four Mandarin tones when speaking to children. Twelve Mandarin-speaking mothers produced 700 child-directed (CD) and adult-directed (AD) disyllabic words in a picture naming task. Five Mandarin-native speakers identified the mothers' AD and CD tones in filtered speech. Overall, CD lexical tones were identified with significantly lower accuracy than AD lexical tones (89% vs. 94%, S = 25.5, p = 0.006, r = 0.927, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test). Acoustic analysis showed that the mean fundamental frequency (f0) of the four tones in both syllables was significantly higher in CD than in AD productions. No difference was found between AD and CD in the distinctive pitch targets for the 4 tones, namely pitch shift for Tone1, F0 slope for Tone2, minimum F0 for Tone3 and F0 slope for Tone4. F0 plots showed mostly parallel contours in AD and CD productions without exaggeration of the phonetic contrasts of the tones. [Work supported by NIDCD F31 DC008470-01A1.]

Assessment of vascular contrast and wall motion of the aortic root and ascending aorta on MDCT angiography: dual-source high-pitch vs non-gated single-source acquisition schemes

This retrospective study assessed whether dual-source high-pitch computed tomographic angiography (CTA) offered advantages over single-source standard-pitch techniques in the evaluation of the ascending aorta. Twenty patients who received both thoracic dual-source high-pitch and single-source standard-pitch CTAs within 1 year were assessed. Dual-source CTAs were performed; standard-pitch imaging used dose-modulated 120 kVp/150 mAs and 0.8 pitch compared with high-pitch protocols employing dose-modulated 120 kVp/250 mAs and 2.4 target pitch. Radiation dose was documented. Contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs) at sinuses of the Valsalva (CNRValsalva) and ascending aorta (CNRAorta) were calculated. Dose/CNR for each technique was compared with paired t-tests. Motion at aortic valve, aortic root and ascending aorta were assessed with four-point scales and Mann-Whitney U tests; longitudinal extension of motion was compared with paired t-tests. Significantly lower motion scores for high-pitch, compared with standard-pitch acquisitions for aortic annulus, 0 vs. 2, aortic root, 0 vs. 3, and ascending aorta, 0 vs. 2, were achieved. Significantly reduced longitudinal extension of motion at aortic root, 4.9 mm vs 15.7 mm, and ascending aorta, 4.9 mm vs 21.6 mm, was observed. Contrast was not impacted: CNRValsalva, 45.6 vs 46.3, and CNRAorta, 45.3 vs 47.1. CTDIvol was significantly decreased for high-pitch acquisitions, 13.9 mGy vs 15.8 mGy. Dual-source high-pitch CTAs significantly decreased motion artefact without negatively impacting vascular contrast and radiation dose. • Dual-source high-pitch CTA significantly decreased motion artefact of the ascending aorta. • Dual-source high-pitch CTA did not negatively impact on vascular contrast. • Dual-source high-pitch CTA significantly decreased radiation dose compared with single-source standard-pitch acquisitions.

Singing with yourself: Evidence for an inverse modeling account of poor-pitch singing

Singing is a ubiquitous and culturally significant activity that humans engage in from an early age. Nevertheless, some individuals – termed poor-pitch singers – are unable to match target pitches within a musical semitone while singing. In the experiments reported here, we tested whether poor-pitch singing deficits would be reduced when individuals imitate recordings of themselves as opposed to recordings of other individuals. This prediction was based on the hypothesis that poor-pitch singers have not developed an abstract “inverse model” of the auditory–vocal system and instead must rely on sensorimotor associations that they have experienced directly, which is true for sequences an individual has already produced. In three experiments, participants, both accurate and poor-pitch singers, were better able to imitate sung recordings of themselves than sung recordings of other singers. However, this self-advantage was enhanced for poor-pitch singers. These effects were not a byproduct of self-recognition (Experiment 1), vocal timbre (Experiment 2), or the absolute pitch of target recordings (i.e., the advantage remains when recordings are transposed, Experiment 3). Results support the conceptualization of poor-pitch singing as an imitative deficit resulting from a deficient inverse model of the auditory–vocal system with respect to pitch.

Region-specific modulations in oscillatory alpha activity serve to facilitate processing in the visual and auditory modalities

There have been a number of studies suggesting that oscillatory alpha activity (~10Hz) plays a pivotal role in attention by gating information flow to relevant sensory regions. The vast majority of these studies have looked at shifts of attention in the spatial domain and only in a single modality (often visual or sensorimotor). In the current magnetoencephalography (MEG) study, we investigated the role of alpha activity in the suppression of a distracting modality stream. We used a cross-modal attention task where visual cues indicated whether participants had to judge a visual orientation or discriminate the auditory pitch of an upcoming target. The visual and auditory targets were presented either simultaneously or alone, allowing us to behaviorally gauge the “cost” of having a distractor present in each modality. We found that the preparation for visual discrimination (relative to pitch discrimination) resulted in a decrease of alpha power (9–11Hz) in the early visual cortex, with a concomitant increase in alpha/beta power (14–16Hz) in the supramarginal gyrus, a region suggested to play a vital role in short-term storage of pitch information (Gaab et al., 2003). On a trial-by-trial basis, alpha power over the visual areas was significantly correlated with increased visual discrimination times, whereas alpha power over the precuneus and right superior temporal gyrus was correlated with increased auditory discrimination times. However, these correlations were only significant when the targets were paired with distractors. Our work adds to increasing evidence that the top–down (i.e. attentional) modulation of alpha activity is a mechanism by which stimulus processing can be gated within the cortex. Here, we find that this phenomenon is not restricted to the domain of spatial attention and can be generalized to other sensory modalities than vision.

A detailed evaluation of TomoDirect 3DCRT planning for whole-breast radiation therapy

The goal of this work was to develop planning strategies for whole-breast radiotherapy (WBRT) using TomoDirect three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (TD-3DCRT) and to compare TD-3DCRT with conventional 3DCRT and TD intensity-modulated radiation therapy (TD-IMRT) to evaluate differences in WBRT plan quality. Computed tomography (CT) images of 10 women were used to generate 150 WBRT plans, varying in target structures, field width (FW), pitch, and number of beams. Effects on target and external maximum doses (EMD), organ-at-risk (OAR) doses, and treatment time were assessed for each parameter to establish an optimal planning technique. Using this technique, TD-3DCRT plans were generated and compared with TD-IMRT and standard 3DCRT plans. FW 5.0cm with pitch = 0.250cm significantly decreased EMD without increasing lung V20Gy. Increasing number of beams from 2 to 6 and using an additional breast planning structure decreased EMD though increased lung V20Gy. Changes in pitch had minimal effect on plan metrics. TD-3DCRT plans were subsequently generated using FW 5.0cm, pitch = 0.250cm, and 2 beams, with additional beams or planning structures added to decrease EMD when necessary. TD-3DCRT and TD-IMRT significantly decreased target maximum dose compared to standard 3DCRT. FW 5.0cm with 2 to 6 beams or novel planning structures or both allow for TD-3DCRT WBRT plans with excellent target coverage and OAR doses. TD-3DCRT plans are comparable to plans generated using TD-IMRT and provide an alternative to conventional 3DCRT for WBRT.

Predicting utterance pitch targets in Yorùbá for tone realisation in speech synthesis

Pitch is a fundamental acoustic feature of speech and as such needs to be determined during the process of speech synthesis. While a range of communicative functions are attributed to pitch variation in speech of all languages, it plays a vital role in distinguishing meaning of lexical items in tone languages. As a number of factors are assumed to affect the realisation of pitch, it is important to know which mechanisms are systematically responsible for pitch realisation in order to be able to model these effectively and thus develop robust speech synthesis systems in under-resourced environments. To this end, features influencing syllable pitch targets in continuous utterances in Yorùbá are investigated in a small speech corpus of 4 speakers. It is found that the previous syllable pitch level is strongly correlated with pitch changes between syllables and a number of approaches and features are evaluated in this context. The resulting models can be used to predict utterance pitch targets for speech synthesisers (whether it be concatenative or statistical parametric systems), and may also prove useful in speech-recognition systems.

A Fröhlich effect and representational gravity in memory for auditory pitch.

Memory for the initial pitch of an auditory target that increased or decreased in auditory frequency was examined. Memory was displaced forward in the direction of pitch motion, and this is consistent with the Fröhlich effect previously observed for visual targets moving in visual physical space. The Fröhlich effect for pitch increased with faster target velocity and decreased if an auditory cue with the same pitch as the initial pitch of the target was presented before the target was presented. The Fröhlich effect was larger for descending pitch motion than for ascending pitch motion, and this is consistent with an influence of representational gravity. The data suggest that representation of auditory frequency space exhibits some of the same biases as representation of visual physical space, and implications for theories of attention in displacement and for crossmodal and multisensory representation of space are discussed.

Auditory selective attention reveals preparatory activity in different cortical regions for selection based on source location and source pitch.

In order to extract information in a rich environment, we focus on different features that allow us to direct attention to whatever source is of interest. The cortical network deployed during spatial attention, especially in vision, is well characterized. For example, visuospatial attention engages a frontoparietal network including the frontal eye fields (FEFs), which modulate activity in visual sensory areas to enhance the representation of an attended visual object. However, relatively little is known about the neural circuitry controlling attention directed to non-spatial features, or to auditory objects or features (either spatial or non-spatial). Here, using combined magnetoencephalography (MEG) and anatomical information obtained from MRI, we contrasted cortical activity when observers attended to different auditory features given the same acoustic mixture of two simultaneous spoken digits. Leveraging the fine temporal resolution of MEG, we establish that activity in left FEF is enhanced both prior to and throughout the auditory stimulus when listeners direct auditory attention to target location compared to when they focus on target pitch. In contrast, activity in the left posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), a region previously associated with auditory pitch categorization, is greater when listeners direct attention to target pitch rather than target location. This differential enhancement is only significant after observers are instructed which cue to attend, but before the acoustic stimuli begin. We therefore argue that left FEF participates more strongly in directing auditory spatial attention, while the left STS aids auditory object selection based on the non-spatial acoustic feature of pitch.

Development of the A§E test battery for assessment of pitch perception in speech

ObjectivesThe auditory speech sounds evaluation 2009 test battery for assessment of speech pitch perception is presented. It was designed to (a) assess perception of pitch in linguistic contexts without the confounds of secondary acoustic cues, (b) be usable with listeners from different language backgrounds, and (c) be suitable for use in a clinical setting. The need for this test battery arises from increased awareness of the importance of prosody in clinical practice, and the development of methods for improving pitch perception in listeners with profound hearing losses.MethodsIdentification and discrimination tasks based on linguistic contexts were developed to establish listeners' just noticeable differences (JNDs) for pitch changes. Stimuli were pseudosentences and pseudowords based on speech from a female speaker, overlain with stylized pitch contours. Target pitch excursions were varied from the 200 Hz baseline to a maximum of 349 Hz. Ninety normal-hearing listeners participated in test validation that assessed goals (a)–(c), established test–retest reliability, and gathered normative data.ResultsThe JNDs on non-linguistic, control tasks were lower than on linguistic ones, showing that non-linguistic tasks may overestimate pitch perception in speech. Listeners from different language backgrounds scored comparably on most linguistic tasks, and test–retest differences were non-significant. Test usability as evidenced by task duration and subject experience seemed satisfactory for clinical use.

A frog in your throat or in your ear? Searching for the causes of poor singing.

Singing is a cultural universal and an important part of modern society, yet many people fail to sing in tune. Many possible causes have been posited to explain poor singing abilities; foremost among these are poor perceptual ability, poor motor control, and sensorimotor mapping errors. To help discriminate between these causes of poor singing, we conducted 5 experiments testing musicians and nonmusicians in pitch matching and judgment tasks. Experiment 1 introduces a new instrument called a slider, on which participants can match pitches without using their voice. Pitch matching on the slider can be directly compared with vocal pitch matching, and results showed that both musicians and nonmusicians were more accurate using the slider than their voices to match target pitches, arguing against a perceptual explanation of singing deficits. Experiment 2 added a self-matching condition and showed that nonmusicians were better at matching their own voice than a synthesized voice timbre, but were still not as accurate as on the slider. This suggests a timbral translation type of mapping error. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that singers do not improve over multiple sung responses, or with the aid of a visual representation of pitch. Experiment 5 showed that listeners were more accurate at perceiving the pitch of the synthesized tones than actual voice tones. The pattern of results across experiments demonstrates multiple possible causes of poor singing, and attributes most of the problem to poor motor control and timbral-translation errors, rather than a purely perceptual deficit, as other studies have suggested.

Influence of Task-Relevant and Task-Irrelevant Feature Continuity on Selective Auditory Attention

Past studies have explored the relative strengths of auditory features in a selective attention task by pitting features against one another and asking listeners to report the words perceived in a given sentence. While these studies show that the continuity of competing features affects streaming, they did not address whether the influence of specific features is modulated by volitionally directed attention. Here, we explored whether the continuity of a task-irrelevant feature affects the ability to selectively report one of two competing speech streams when attention is specifically directed to a different feature. Sequences of simultaneous pairs of spoken digits were presented in which exactly one digit of each pair matched a primer phrase in pitch and exactly one digit of each pair matched the primer location. Within a trial, location and pitch were randomly paired; they either were consistent with each other from digit to digit or were switched (e.g., the sequence from the primer's location changed pitch across digits). In otherwise identical blocks, listeners were instructed to report digits matching the primer either in location or in pitch. Listeners were told to ignore the irrelevant feature, if possible, in order to perform well. Listener responses depended on task instructions, proving that top-down attention alters how a subject performs the task. Performance improved when the separation of the target and masker in the task-relevant feature increased. Importantly, the values of the task-irrelevant feature also influenced performance in some cases. Specifically, when instructed to attend location, listeners performed worse as the separation between target and masker pitch increased, especially when the spatial separation between digits was small. These results indicate that task-relevant and task-irrelevant features are perceptually bound together: continuity of task-irrelevant features influences selective attention in an automatic, obligatory manner, consistent with the idea that auditory attention operates on objects.

Tone perception cues: Pitch targets, trajectories, or both?

Zsiga and Nitisaroj [(2007)] conducted tone perception experiments to test the Moren and Zsiga [(2006)] hypothesis that the principal perceptual cues to the five-way tonal contrast in Thai are high (H) and low (L) pitch targets aligned to (subsyllabic) moras. Their experiments involved perception of synthetic stimuli: manipulated peaks or troughs (corresponding to pitch targets) connected by line-trajectories. In the present study, the stimuli created are intended to be more naturalistic. The hypothesis is that not only peaks and troughs but also the trajectories between them are informative to and important for perception. Manipulations involve realignment of the peaks and troughs, with concomitant compression or expansion of the original trajectory between them. Native Thai speakers categorize the manipulated tone and give a goodness rating. Preliminary data indicate that some categorizations (e.g., manipulated rising perceived as high) can be explained by information present in the trajectory, and not in the peak/trough. However, theories that advocate movements (i.e., trajectories) as perceptual cues [e.g., Xu (2004)] cannot account for some goodness ratings observed in these experiments. Hence, it appears that a combination of the peak/trough information, as well as the trajectory, is employed in tone perception. Work supported by Dr. Luigi Burzio and Dr. Colin Wilson.