Speech Preparation Research Articles

Effortful control and resiliency exhibit different patterns of cardiac autonomic control

Effortful control (EC) and ego-resiliency (often shortened to resiliency) may similarly encode adaptability to stress. Differentiation of these traits in terms of autonomic control may highlight each construct's relative mechanisms in stress regulation. In the current study, 84 subjects self-reported levels of EC and resiliency and then were exposed to 3 mental stressors (mental arithmetic, speech preparation, verbal fluency), during which heart rate variability (HRV) was assessed to index cardiac vagal influences. Interbeat intervals (IBIs) were also collected, while pre-ejection period (PEP) and left ventricular ejection time (LVET) were assessed as sympathetic indices. Multiple regression was used to explore the extent to which autonomic control was moderated by each EC and resiliency. Results indicate that EC was related to concordance between IBI and HRV, along with negative emotion. Resiliency was more associated with coherence between IBI and PEP, and with positive emotion. Findings suggest that regulatory processes play a role in EC's adaptability to stress, while resiliency may involve approach motivation in stress control.

Parent support is less effective in buffering cortisol stress reactivity for adolescents compared to children

The goal of the present study was to investigate developmental differences in the effectiveness of parent support to alleviate hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stress responses of children (ages 9-10, N = 40) and adolescents (ages 15-16, N = 41). We experimentally manipulated the provision of parent support during the speech preparation period before a modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and examined its effect on levels of salivary cortisol secreted in response to this laboratory stressor. Analyses revealed a significant interaction of condition and age group such that social support from the parent (versus a stranger) significantly eliminated the cortisol stress response in children, but had no effect on the response among adolescents.

Listen to Yourself: The Medial Prefrontal Cortex Modulates Auditory Alpha Power During Speech Preparation.

How do we process stimuli that stem from the external world and stimuli that are self-generated? In the case of voice perception it has been shown that evoked activity elicited by self-generated sounds is suppressed compared with the same sounds played-back externally. We here wanted to reveal whether neural excitability of the auditory cortex-putatively reflected in local alpha band power--is modulated already prior to speech onset, and which brain regions may mediate such a top-down preparatory response. In the left auditory cortex we show that the typical alpha suppression found when participants prepare to listen disappears when participants expect a self-spoken sound. This suggests an inhibitory adjustment of auditory cortical activity already before sound onset. As a second main finding we demonstrate that the medial prefrontal cortex, a region known for self-referential processes, mediates these condition-specific alpha power modulations. This provides crucial insights into how higher-order regions prepare the auditory cortex for the processing of self-generated sounds. Furthermore, the mechanism outlined could provide further explanations to self-referential phenomena, such as "tickling yourself". Finally, it has implications for the so-far unsolved question of how auditory alpha power is mediated by higher-order regions in a more general sense.

Implementing Psychophysiology in Clinical Assessments of Adolescent Social Anxiety: Use of Rater Judgments Based on Graphical Representations of Psychophysiology

Social stressor tasks induce adolescents' social distress as indexed by low-cost psychophysiological methods. Unknown is how to incorporate these methods within clinical assessments. Having assessors judge graphical depictions of psychophysiological data may facilitate detections of data patterns that may be difficult to identify using judgments about numerical depictions of psychophysiological data. Specifically, the Chernoff Face method involves graphically representing data using features on the human face (eyes, nose, mouth, and face shape). This method capitalizes on humans' abilities to discern subtle variations in facial features. Using adolescent heart rate norms and Chernoff Faces, we illustrated a method for implementing psychophysiology within clinical assessments of adolescent social anxiety. Twenty-two clinic-referred adolescents completed a social anxiety self-report and provided psychophysiological data using wireless heart rate monitors during a social stressor task. We graphically represented participants' psychophysiological data and normative adolescent heart rates. For each participant, two undergraduate coders made comparative judgments between the dimensions (eyes, nose, mouth, and face shape) of two Chernoff Faces. One Chernoff Face represented a participant's heart rate within a context (baseline, speech preparation, or speech-giving). The second Chernoff Face represented normative heart rate data matched to the participant's age. Using Chernoff Faces, coders reliably and accurately identified contextual variation in participants' heart rate responses to social stress. Further, adolescents' self-reported social anxiety symptoms predicted Chernoff Face judgments, and judgments could be differentiated by social stress context. Our findings have important implications for implementing psychophysiology within clinical assessments of adolescent social anxiety.

P 156. Deficient speech motor preparation in stuttering

Introduction Persistent developmental stuttering (PDS) is a speech fluency disorder that affects 1% of the population, predominantly males. Its etiology is unclear and likely multifactoral, with contributions from intrinsic factors pertaining to brain anatomy and neurophysiology, particularly abnormal right-hemispheric lateralization of blood flow in motor and premotor areas. Clinically, a major feature of stuttering is the paroxysmal inability to smoothly sequence articulatory gestures, resulting in frustraneous partial repetitions of the initial gestures. Objectives Attempting to further clarify the pathophysiology of the intermittent losses of motor control, we investigated changes in motor cortex excitability in the transition phase between articulatory gestures. We therefore studied speech-related modulation of excitability in the motor representation of the tongue. Materials and methods Thirteen fluent speakers and 13 adults who stutter were asked to build compound verbs with the verbal prefix “auf”. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over the primary motor cortex during the transition phase between a fixed labiodental articulatory configuration towards various articulatory configurations at five different latencies after transition onset. Bilateral electromyography was recorded from self-adhesive electrodes placed on the upper top of the tongue. Off-line, we extracted the motor evoked potential amplitudes and normalized these amplitudes to the individual baseline excitability during pronouncing of the prefix. Results Fluent-speaking control subjects showed a gradual increase of motor evoked potential amplitudes before the target articulatory gesture in the left motor cortex, and to a much lesser extent after stimulation of the right motor cortex. By contrast, stuttering adults lacked any premovement facilitation in the left motor cortex, but showed some premovement facilitation in the right motor cortex. Conclusion For decades theories of speech production postulate that the selection and the execution of speech units arise from facilitation of target units & inhibition of others. We present the first measurement of motor unit facilitation during speaking in real time. Excitability tuning of layer V pyramidal cell populations is quantified by MEP recordings from the tongue. Such data can guide the much needed integration of psycholinguistic and motor control approaches to speech production at a neurobiological level. Excitability tuning was absent in adults afflicted with PDS, indicating that the internal, speech-related signals triggering motor cortex facilitation were insufficient in strength or timing. This corroborates a disconnection hypothesis of speech-related brain areas in individuals suffering from PDS.

Is blunted cardiovascular reactivity in depression mood-state dependent? A comparison of major depressive disorder remitted depression and healthy controls

Prior work has repeatedly demonstrated that people who have current major depression exhibit blunted cardiovascular reactivity to acute stressors (e.g., Salomon et al., 2009). A key question regards the psychobiological basis for these deficits, including whether such deficits are depressed mood-state dependent or whether these effects are trait-like and are observed outside of depression episodes in vulnerable individuals. To examine this issue, we assessed cardiovascular reactivity to a speech stressor task and a forehead cold pressor in 50 individuals with current major depressive disorder (MDD), 25 with remitted major depression (RMD), and 45 healthy controls. Heart rate (HR), blood pressure and impedance cardiography were assessed and analyses controlled for BMI and sex. Significant group effects were found for SBP, HR, and PEP for the speech preparation period and HR, CO, and PEP during the speech. For each of these parameters, only the MDD group exhibited attenuated reactivity as well as impaired SBP recovery. Reactivity and recovery in the RMD group more closely resembled the healthy controls. Speeches given by the MDD group were rated as less persuasive than the RMD or healthy controls' speeches. No significant differences were found for the cold pressor. Blunted cardiovascular reactivity and impaired recovery in current major depression may be mood-state dependent phenomena and may be more reflective of motivational deficits than deficits in the physiological integrity of the cardiovascular system.

Atypical Caudate Anatomy in Children Who Stutter

A temporal motor defect in speech preparation and/or planning may contribute to the development of stuttering. This defect may be linked to a dysfunctional cortical-subcortical network at the level of the striatum. To determine whether structural differences exist and whether group differences are associated with stuttering severity or manual laterality, the caudate was measured in 14 children who stutter (CWS) and in a control group of right-handed boys, ages 8-13 years. There was a statistically significant hemisphere by group effect for caudate volume. CWS had reduced right caudate volume and atypical leftward asymmetry compared to controls. Nine of the 13 CWS with atypical caudate asymmetry had atypical manual laterality. These anomalies may represent a vulnerability that perturbs speech planning/preparation and contributes to inefficiencies in action-perception coupling that may be an indicator of stuttering susceptibility. These results suggest that right-handed boys who stutter may have a defect in the feedforward cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical networks.

Resting vagal control and resilience as predictors of cardiovascular allostasis in peacekeepers

The body's adaptive reaction to a stressful event, an allostatic response, involves vigorous physiological engagement with and efficient recovery from stress. Our aim was to investigate the influence of individual predispositions on cardiac responses to and recovery from a standardized psychosocial stress task (Trier Social Stress Task) in peacekeepers. We hypothesized that those individuals with higher trait resilience and those with higher resting vagal control would be more likely to present an allostatic response: a vigorous cardiac response to stress (i.e., reduction in interbeat intervals and heart rate variability (HRV)) coupled with a significant cardiac recovery in the aftermath. Fifty male military personnel with a mean age of 25.4 years (SD ± 5.99) were evaluated after returning from a peacekeeping mission. Electrocardiogram recordings were made throughout the experimental session, which consisted five conditions: basal, speech preparation, speech delivery, arithmetic task, and recovery. Mean interbeat intervals and HRV were calculated for each condition. An Ego-Resilience Scale and resting vagal control assessed individual predispositions. Stress tasks reduced interbeat intervals (tachycardia) and HRV in comparison with basal, with return to basal in the aftermath (p < 0.001, for all comparisons). Resilience and resting vagal control correlated positively with cardiac parameters for both stress reactivity and recovery (r ≥ 0.29; p < 0.05). In conclusion, peacekeepers showing higher trait resilience and those with higher resting vagal control presented a more adaptive allostatic reaction characterized by vigorous cardiac response to stress (i.e., tachycardia and vagal withdrawal) and efficient cardiac recovery after stress cessation.

Systolic Blood Pressure Reactivity During Submaximal Exercise and Acute Psychological Stress in Youth

Studies in youth show an association between systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity to acute psychological stress and carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT). Submaximal exercise produces similar cardiovascular responses as acute psychological stress and may be a valuable tool to assess SBP reactivity in youth. However, it has not yet been determined whether SBP reactivity during submaximal exercise in youth is associated with CIMT, as it is during psychological stress. Fifty-four adolescents aged 13-16 years completed 3 visits. On one visit, adolescents completed three, 4-minute stages of increasing intensity on a treadmill. On another visit, adolescents completed measures of acute psychological stress reactivity (star tracing, speech preparation, speech). On a third visit, adolescents completed an ultrasound scan to measure CIMT. SBP reactivity during lower- (β = 0.29, P = 0.03) and higher-intensity (β = 0.31, P = 0.02) submaximal exercise was associated with greater CIMT. SBP reactivity during higher-intensity submaximal exercise was positively associated with SBP reactivity during star tracing (β = 0.34, P = 0.01), speech preparation (β = 0.37, P = 0.007), and speech (β = 0.41, P = 0.003). Greater SBP reactivity during submaximal exercise in healthy adolescents was associated with greater CIMT, similar to SBP reactivity during acute psychological stress. Adolescents who had greater SBP reactivity during exercise also demonstrated greater SBP reactivity during the psychological stress tasks. Given that exercise testing can be standardized for comparison across studies, submaximal exercise tests may be a valuable tool to assess SBP reactivity in youth.

Speech Preparation and Articulation Time in Bilinguals and Men

The current study investigated the relationship between word utterance preparation time and word articulation duration in young adults. In a stratified sample, 40 monolinguals’ (20 males and 20 females) and 40 bilinguals’ (20 males and 20 females) word pronunciation of English words vs. derived, scrambled non-words as well as the hesitation before speaking were measured in milliseconds. Positive effects of bilingualism were found as these speakers showed significantly faster articulation of new non-words than their monolingual counterparts. Sex differences showed that independently of the number of languages men were able to speak, they needed more speech preparation time than women, but no difference in the duration of their word articulation time was observed. Preparation and articulation were correlated in monolingual speakers, but not in bilingual speakers. This suggests that the phonological loop was circumvented in bilingual speakers. We presume that bilinguals map multi-lingual phonology and were thus not saving time during preparation for articulation, but they appeared to have benefited from knowing multiple fine motor mouth movements of various languages during articulation itself. Future research may benefit from controlling the psychological factor of confidence when preparing to speak.

Teaching Public Speaking in a Blended Learning Environment

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide new environment for learning and teaching. Today, apart from a fully face-to-face or online environment, blended learning promises opportunities for teaching and learning to be done in both environments. This paper reports results from an analysis of data collected from students at a Malaysian university. An end-of-semester survey was completed by 40 students taking a Public Speaking course. The survey was conducted to understand students’ reactions towards the use of wiki in a blended learning environment. The survey data are being used to inform decisions on the course delivery structure and about adoption of new digital technologies for learning and teaching. Findings from the study indicate that the students found that using wiki facilitated their speech preparation process specifically in receiving feedback and improving speech delivery. Although some had reservation about publishing their speeches publicly on wiki, they understood that it was to their benefit. Therefore using wiki in a blended learning environment was found to be advantageous to the Public Speaking course.

Enhancing Peer Feedback and Speech Preparation: The Speech Video Activity

Courses: Basic Course, Public Speaking, Hybrid Objectives: Students will execute a small group activity designed to improve the quality of their presentations through peer feedback and video “drafting” and to enhance the creative possibilities for their informative speeches

Passion and Preparation in the Basic Course: The Influence of Students' Ego-Involvement with Speech Topics and Preparation Time on Public-Speaking Grades

Authors of basic public-speaking course textbooks frequently encourage students to select speech topics in which they have vested interest, care deeply about, and hold strong opinions and beliefs. This study explores students' level of ego-involvement with informative and persuasive speech topics, examines possible ego-involvement predictors of students' speech grades, and investigates the influence of preparation time and process activities on public-speaking grades. Results reveal that students' ego-involvement is positively related to their speech success; however, the explanation is more complex than those offered by basic public-speaking course textbooks. Pedagogical implications and areas for future research are discussed.

Recovering by Means of Meditation: The Role of Recovery Experiences and Intrinsic Motivation

The effectiveness of meditation as a tool to recover from stress has already been widely established. However, less is known about the potential psychological mediating and moderating mechanisms affecting its effectiveness. The present study aimed to advance insight in this respect by examining the mediating role of the recovery experiences “relaxation”, “mastery”, and “detachment”, and by studying the moderating role of intrinsic motivation. To this purpose, after completion of a stress‐inducing speech preparation task, 100 participants were randomly assigned to either a 15‐minute guided imagery meditation exercise or to a 15‐minute radio interview on meditation. Subjectively experienced stress and serenity were included as measures of (recovery from) stress. These measures were completed after the speech preparation task and after the meditation exercise/radio interview. Results showed that participants who meditated reported a larger increase in serenity and decrease in subjectively experienced stress than those who listened to the radio fragment. Furthermore, it turned out that this superior effect of meditation could be partly explained by the mediating effects of “relaxation” and “mastery” (but not “detachment”). The recovery effects of meditation were also stronger for participants who were highly intrinsically motivated for this activity. Altogether, results of this study provide insight into the underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms that explain the effectiveness of meditation as a recovery activity.

The Trier Social Stress Test Protocol for Inducing Psychological Stress

This article demonstrates a psychological stress protocol for use in a laboratory setting. Protocols that allow researchers to study the biological pathways of the stress response in health and disease are fundamental to the progress of research in stress and anxiety. Although numerous protocols exist for inducing stress response in the laboratory, many neglect to provide a naturalistic context or to incorporate aspects of social and psychological stress. Of psychological stress protocols, meta-analysis suggests that the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is the most useful and appropriate standardized protocol for studies of stress hormone reactivity. In the original description of the TSST, researchers sought to design and evaluate a procedure capable of inducing a reliable stress response in the majority of healthy volunteers. These researchers found elevations in heart rate, blood pressure and several endocrine stress markers in response to the TSST (a psychological stressor) compared to a saline injection (a physical stressor). Although the TSST has been modified to meet the needs of various research groups, it generally consists of a waiting period upon arrival, anticipatory speech preparation, speech performance, and verbal arithmetic performance periods, followed by one or more recovery periods. The TSST requires participants to prepare and deliver a speech, and verbally respond to a challenging arithmetic problem in the presence of a socially evaluative audience. Social evaluation and uncontrollability have been identified as key components of stress induction by the TSST. In use for over a decade, the goal of the TSST is to systematically induce a stress response in order to measure differences in reactivity, anxiety and activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) or sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis during the task. Researchers generally assess changes in self-reported anxiety, physiological measures (e.g. heart rate), and/or neuroendocrine indices (e.g. the stress hormone cortisol) in response to the TSST. Many investigators have adopted salivary sampling for stress markers such as cortisol and alpha-amylase (a marker of autonomic nervous system activation) as an alternative to blood sampling to reduce the confounding stress of blood-collection techniques. In addition to changes experienced by an individual completing the TSST, researchers can compare changes between different treatment groups (e.g. clinical versus healthy control samples) or the effectiveness of stress-reducing interventions.

Maternal Anxiety, Behaviors, and Expectations During a Behavioral Task: Relation to Children’s Self-Evaluations

This study examined the associations between maternal anxiety, behaviors, and expectations and children's self-evaluations of distress, coping, and performance during a stressful performance evaluation task. Seventy-five mothers (38 clinically anxious and 37 nonanxious) along with one of their children aged 6-14 (52.0% female; 78.7% Caucasian) were videotaped while preparing the child to deliver a speech about themselves. Child and parent assessments were obtained before and after the speech, and independent coders rated maternal behavior during the speech preparation. Maternal anxiety and behaviors accounted for a greater proportion of variance in children's self-evaluations than did maternal expectations, such that children of mothers who reported higher task anxiety and demonstrated more overcontrol and anxious behavior during the task evaluated themselves more negatively. These findings extend the literature by providing information about the relative associations between maternal factors and children's self-evaluations within the context of an in vivo stressful situation.

Modulation of sensory and motor cortex activity during speech preparation

Previous studies have shown that speaking affects auditory and motor cortex responsiveness, which may reflect the influence of motor efference copy. If motor efference copy is involved, it would also likely influence auditory and motor cortical activity when preparing to speak. We tested this hypothesis by using auditory event-related potentials and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex. In the speech condition subjects were visually cued to prepare a vocal response to a subsequent target, which was compared to a control condition without speech preparation. Auditory and motor cortex responsiveness at variable times between the cue and target were probed with an acoustic stimulus (Experiment 1, tone or consonant-vowels) or motor cortical TMS (Experiment 2). Acoustic probes delivered shortly before targets elicited a fronto-central negative potential in the speech condition. Current density analysis showed that auditory cortical activity was attenuated at the beginning of the slow potential in the speech condition. Sensory potentials in response to probes had shorter latencies (N100) and larger amplitudes (P200) when consonant-vowels matched the sound of cue words. Motor cortex excitability was greater in the speech than in the control condition at all time points before picture onset. The results suggest that speech preparation induces top-down regulation of sensory and motor cortex responsiveness, with different time courses for auditory and motor systems.

Stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity and atherogenesis in adolescents

ObjectiveTo examine the association between cardiovascular reactivity to a set of psychological stressors and carotid artery intima-media thickness, a marker of subclinical cardiovascular disease in healthy adolescents. MethodsParticipants were 25 boys and 23 girls age 14.2±0.9 years who were measured for heart rate (HR), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure reactivity to mirror-tracing, reaction time, speech preparation and ad lib speech tasks and for common carotid artery intima-media thickness. Sequential regression analyses were used to establish the incremental increase in R2(Rinc2) for the prediction of intima-media thickness due to cardiovascular reactivity independent of age, BMI percentile, sex, socioeconomic status, and resting HR or BP. ResultsSBP reactivity while preparing (β=0.0019, Rinc2=0.09) and giving the speech (β=0.0014, Rinc2=0.10) and an aggregate reactivity score based on all 4 tasks (β=0.0026, Rinc2=0.11) independently predicted (p≤0.05) mean carotid artery intima-media thickness. Neither DBP reactivity nor HR reactivity during any task were independent predictors of intima-media thickness. ConclusionStress-induced cardiovascular reactivity, and especially SBP reactivity, is associated with carotid intima-media thickness and the early pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. The use of an aggregate stress reactivity index provides a more reliable reflection of trait SBP reactivity to psychological stress and increases the confidence that youth with greater cardiovascular stress reactivity may indeed have greater progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease.

Map Your Way to Speech Success! Employing Mind Mapping as a Speech Preparation Technique

Course: Public Speaking Objective: Students will learn how to create a colorful and organized mind map using their typed speech outline to use as they prepare their speech

Speech motor program maintenance, but not switching, is enhanced by left-hemispheric deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease

Speech reaction time (SRT) was measured in a response priming protocol in 12 participants with Parkinson's disease (PD) and hypokinetic dysarthria “on” and “off” left-hemispheric deep brain stimulation (DBS). Speech preparation was measured during speech motor programming in two randomly ordered speech conditions: speech maintenance and switching. Double blind testing was completed in participants with DBS of globus pallidus pars interna (GPi) (n = 5) or subthalamic nucleus (STN) (n = 7). SRT was significantly faster in the maintenance vs switch task, regardless of DBS state. SRT was faster in the speech maintenance task “on” stimulation, while there was no difference in speech switching “on” and “off” DBS. These data suggest that left-hemispheric DBS may have differential effects on aspects of speech preparation in PD. It is hypothesized that speech maintenance improvements may result from DBS-induced cortical enhancements, while the lack of difference in switching may be related to inhibition deficits mediated by the right-hemisphere. Alternatively, DBS may have little influence on the higher level motor processes (i.e., motor planning) which it is believed the switch task engaged to a greater extent than the maintenance task.