RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESES: Charismatic leaders use vocal behavior to persuade their audience, achieve goals, arouse emotional states, and convey personality traits and leadership status. This study investigates voice fundamental frequency (f0) and sound pressure level (SPL) in female and male French, Italian, Brazilian, and American politicians to determine which acoustic parameters are related to cross-gender and cross-cultural common vocal abilities, and which derive from culture-, gender-, and language-specific vocal strategies used to adapt vocal behavior to listeners' culture-related expectations. STUDY DESIGN: Speech corpora were collected for two formal communicative contexts (leaders address followers or other leaders) and one informal communicative context (dyadic interaction), based on the persuasive goals inherent in each context and on the relative status of the listeners and speakers. Leaders' acoustic voice profiles were created to show differences in f0 and SPL manipulation with respect to speakers' gender and language in each communicative context. RESULTS: Cross-gender and cross-language similarities in manipulation of average f0 and in f0 and SPL ranges occurred in all communicative contexts. Patterns of f0 manipulation were shared across genders and cultures, suggesting this dimension might be biologically based and is exploited by leaders to convey dominance. Ranges for f0 and SPL seemed to be affected by the communicative context, being wider or narrower depending on the persuasive goal. Results also showed language- and speaker-specific differences in the acoustic manipulation of f0 and SPL over time. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are consistent with the idea that specific charismatic leaders' vocal behaviors depend on a fine combination of vocal abilities that are shared across cultures and genders, combined with culturally- and linguistically-filtered vocal strategies.
Asunto(s)
Habla , Voz , Brasil , Femenino , Humanos , Lenguaje , Masculino , Sonido , Acústica del LenguajeRESUMEN
Determining the starting point of frication is a complex task involving aerodynamic factors dependent on adjustments controlling articulatory and laryngeal structures and on the regulation of air pressure. This study investigates the aerodynamic characteristics of the onset and offset of Belgian French fricative consonants using direct measurements of subglottal (Ps) and intraoral (Po) air pressure. Results show a higher difference between Ps and Po at the onset of voiced fricative consonants when compared to their voiceless counterparts. This accounts for the need for high air velocity through the glottal and consonantal constrictions for voiced fricatives. The offset of voiced fricatives is also characterized by a relatively large difference between Ps and Po, still lower for voiceless equivalents.
Asunto(s)
Fonética , Acústica del Lenguaje , Medición de la Producción del Habla/métodos , Adulto , Femenino , Humanos , MasculinoRESUMEN
PURPOSE: The authors' general aim is to use biomechanical models of speech articulators to explore how possible variations in anatomical structure contribute to differences in articulatory strategies and phone systems across human populations. Specifically, they investigated 2 issues: (a) the link between lip muscle anatomy and variability in lip gestures and (b) the constraints of coupled lip/jaw biomechanics on jaw posture in labial sounds. METHOD: The authors used a model coupling the jaw, tongue, and face. First, the influence of the orbicularis oris (OO) anatomical implementation was analyzed by assessing how changes in depth (from epidermis to the skull) and peripheralness (proximity to the lip horn center) affected lip shaping. Second, the capability of the lip/jaw system to generate protrusion and rounding, or labial closure, was evaluated for different jaw heights. RESULTS: Results showed that a peripheral and moderately deep OO implementation is most appropriate for protrusion and rounding; a superficial implementation facilitates closure; protrusion and rounding require a high jaw position; and closure is achievable for various jaw heights. CONCLUSIONS: Models provide objective information regarding possible links between anatomical and speech production variability across humans. Comparisons with experimental data will illustrate how motor control and cultural factors cope with these constraints.
Asunto(s)
Simulación por Computador , Maxilares/fisiología , Labio/fisiología , Modelos Biológicos , Habla/fisiología , Adulto , Fenómenos Biomecánicos , Músculos Faciales/fisiología , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Movimiento/fisiología , Medición de la Producción del Habla , Lengua/fisiologíaRESUMEN
MRI techniques have been used to describe velum opening of French vowels. Data based on 18 joined axial slices of 4 mm thickness were recorded with four subjects. Differences in velum opening are calculated from areas measured in the tract between the lowered velum and the back pharynx wall. Results show that for all subjects, the back vowel [symbol: see text] has the smallest opening, while some variations are observed for the other vowels.
Asunto(s)
Imagen por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Paladar Blando/anatomía & histología , Paladar Blando/fisiología , Fonación/fisiología , Fonética , Femenino , Francia , Humanos , Masculino , Movimiento/fisiologíaRESUMEN
This paper describes the real-time MRI technique and its use for the study of speech production. The two major problems, (i) the simultaneous recording of the MR images and the speech signal and (ii) the synchronisation of the images and of the speech signal, are addressed. Measurement accuracy on real-time images is evaluated by comparison with similar measurements on static MR images.