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In Parkinson’s disease (PD), the effects of both Ldopa and subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) are known to change cost-valuation. However, this was mostly studied through reward-effort task involving distal movements, while axial effort, less responsive to treatments, have been barely studied. Thus, our objective was to compare the influence of both Ldopa and STN-DBS on cost-valuation between two efforts modalities: vowel production (as an example of axial movement) and hand squeezing (as an example of distal movement). Twelve PD patients were recruited to participate in this study. The task consisted in deciding whether to accept or reject trials based on a reward-effort trade-off. Participants performed two blocks with hand squeezing, and two with vowel production, in the four treatment conditions (LdopaOn/Off; STN-DBS On/Off). We found that STN-DBS changed the ratio difference between hand and phonation efforts. Vowel production effort was estimated easier to perform with STN-DBS alone, and harder when associated with Ldopa. The difference between hand and phonation efforts was correlated with quality of life in Off/Off and On Ldopa alone conditions, and with impulsive assessment On STN-DBS alone. We highlighted that STN-DBS could introduce an imbalance between the actual motor impairments and their subjective costs. With this finding, we also suggest paying particular attention to the different treatment effects that should be expected for axial and distal movement dysfunctions.

Resume Objectifs Elaborer un protocole experimental permettant d’etudier l’effort vocal genere par l’introduction d’obstacles a la communication et etudier la relation entre celui-ci et certains traits de personnalite. Materiel et methodes Le protocole experimental consistait en un jeu interactif dans lequel le sujet devait donner au premier examinateur des consignes pour qu’il realise differentes positions (situation de communication semi-dirigee). La situation controle etait realisee sans contrainte de communication puis il etait introduit une contrainte de distance (augmentation de la distance interpersonnelle) et une contrainte temporelle (generation d’un stress de performance en placant le sujet en competition avec les autres). Les parametres vocaux etudies comprenaient l’intensite vocale et la frequence fondamentale en milieu de voyelle, sur 3 phonemes cibles. Chaque sujet etait soumis au test de personnalite NEO FFI-R. Resultats L’etude a porte sur 41 femmes âgees de 18 a 52 ans. L’intensite et la frequence fondamentale augmentaient significativement lors de l’introduction des contraintes (p Conclusions Ce protocole ecologique permet d’etudier l’impact d’obstacles physiques mais aussi emotionnels. Le lien entre effort vocal et traits de personnalite n’a pas ete demontre. Une etude avec des effectifs superieurs serait necessaire afin de caracteriser le continuum entre effort vocal et forcage vocal pour une meilleure prise en charge orthophonique des dysphonies dysfonctionnelles.

Facilitated communication (FC) belongs to augmentative and alternative methods of communication. Currently, FC is very rarely and unofficially used with people suffering from verbal/communicative disorders or neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual deficiency or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). FC consists of physical support exerted by a facilitator at the hand/wrist/forearm/elbow of a patient/participant, aimed at helping him/her to point at pictures/words, and sometimes to type letters/words on a keyboard. Given most of (but not all) validation studies using control procedures failed to confirm that ASD participants themselves were authoring the messages via FC, this method has been massively disputed and rejected. However, firm and definitive conclusions for/against the validity of FC requires more robust demonstrations, particularly when considering the motor participation of both protagonists. We present here a case report investigating the motor contribution of both protagonists during a typing process using the non-invasive technique of accelerometry. A 17-year-old boy diagnosed with congenital deafness, ASD, and developmental delay, and his facilitator, were equipped with small accelerometers fixed on their index finger, aimed at transforming index acceleration along the three spatial axes into electric signals. Typing on a PC keyboard was performed under three support conditions: hand support, forearm support, elbow support, plus a solo-typing condition. Accelerometric signals and video data were recorded during four FC sessions. We measured and compared the typing speed, the number/percentage of acceleration peaks produced by the participant or by the facilitator first, and those of “signal under detection threshold” in the facilitator, the time offset between acceleration peaks of both protagonists, and the difference of the amount of acceleration between them, across the different support conditions. Results indicate that in the hand support, most of the time, acceleration motions of the participant's index finger preceded those of the facilitator's index finger. Then, the more distal the physical support (i.e., farer from the participant's hand), the slower the speed of typing, the higher the percentage of “signal under detection threshold” in the facilitator, the bigger the motor contribution from the participant. Altogether, in all the support conditions, the participant's authorship or, at least, co-authorship on the messages seems warranted. Finally, accelerometry seems relevant to objectivize authorship or co-authorship in FC and delineate various forms of FC.

International audience; Objective. To analyze the range of values of the contact pressure between the membranous vocal folds with Reinke’s edema and to compare it to those observed in the absence of such a lesion.Methods. Two human larynges were separately tested on the experimental bench, one of them with a bilateral loose swelling of the vocal folds. Once in a glottal prephonatory configuration, airflow was increased until achievement of self-sustained oscillations while recording aerodynamic, acoustic, electroglottographic data, and contact pressure between the folds.Results. We observed well-documented variations in acoustical parameters, as the decrease of the fundamental frequency and the increase of the phonation threshold pressure. The results of the study also point to a significant increase in the amplitude of the contact pressure in presence of the Reinke’s edema, and a lower degree of harmonicity of the produced sounds.Conclusion. This is the first report of ex vivo study of a larynx with Reinke’s edema. It highlights the increase in the contact pressure during phonation, which possibly contributes to sustain the lesion once it appeared.

International audience; Despite ongoing research, many aspects of dogs' vocal communication are not yet fully understood, including how they convey information about items. The aim of the present exploratory study was to determine whether dogs vocalize differently toward their owner and food in an unsolvable task where food is inaccessible and to characterize the acoustic composition of canine vocalizations. In Savalli et al. (2014; 2016), food was placed in an inaccessible location with the dog present. Next, with the owner present, the communicative modalities of the dogs were recorded, including their vocalizations. Only 21.6 % of the fifty-one dogs vocalized (11 dogs out of 51; 189 vocalizations); 32.27% of the vocalizations were whines and whine-related, and 67.72% were barks and bark-related. Vocalizations may thus be a secondary modality of communication or, more likely, most of the dogs had previously learned from their owners not to vocalize in food-request situations by lack of reinforcement. We characterized four types of whines and five types of barks, respectively making up 1/3 and 2/3 of the vocalizations recorded. No other type of vocalization was found. We found firstly that the majority of the vocalizations (67.7%) were directed at the owner. Secondly, whines were rarely directed at food. Thirdly, though fundamental frequency (F0) and duration did not statistically differ for each type of vocalization, whether directed at the target or at the owner, we found a tendency of specific sub-unit of a bark to have a higher F0 and lower duration when dogs gazed at the target compared when the gazed at the owner. This type of vocalizations was thus not used similarly according to the target viewed, indicating that dogs employ different types of vocal coding to call for attention. Given the small number of dogs who vocalized in this study, future studies will involve a larger group of dogs who will be tested outdoors with an inaccessible toy to enable more vocalizations. This exploratory study opens perspectives in understanding needs expressed by dogs.

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Preclinical studies of psychiatric disorders use animal models to investigate the impact of environmental factors or genetic mutations on complex traits such as decision-making and social interactions. Here, we introduce a method for the real-time analysis of the behaviour of mice housed in groups of up to four over several days and in enriched environments. The method combines computer vision through a depth-sensing infrared camera, machine learning for animal and posture identification, and radio-frequency identification to monitor the quality of mouse tracking. It tracks multiple mice accurately, extracts a list of behavioural traits of both individuals and the groups of mice, and provides a phenotypic profile for each animal. We used the method to study the impact of Shank2 and Shank3 gene mutations—mutations that are associated with autism—on mouse behaviour. Characterization and integration of data from the behavioural profiles of Shank2 and Shank3 mutant female mice revealed their distinctive activity levels and involvement in complex social interactions. A method that combines a depth-sensing camera and machine learning can track the movements of up to four mice in real time and for several days, extracting both individual and group behavioural traits.

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International audience; Objectives To develop an experimental protocol to study the vocal effort generated by introducing barriers to communication, and its relationship with certain personality traits. Material and methods The experimental protocol consisted of an interactive game in which the subject gave an investigator instructions to adopt various body positions (semi-directed communication situation). The Control situation included no constraints on communication. Then a Distance Constraint (increased distance between subject and investigator) and a Time Constraint (generation of performance stress by putting the subject in competition with others) were introduced. The vocal parameters studied comprised vocal intensity and fundamental frequency in the middle of the vowel of 3 target phonemes. Subjects also took the NEO FFI-R personality test. Results The study included 41 women aged between 18 and 52 years. Vocal intensity and fundamental frequency increased significantly with the introduction of the constraints ( P < 0.05), intensity passing from 75.5 dB to 81.8 dB and frequency from 249.4 Hz to 335.8 Hz. No correlations were found between these changes and results for the various personality traits. Conclusions This ecological protocol enables the impact of both physical and emotional obstacles to communication to be studied. No correlations between vocal effort and personality traits emerged. A larger-scale study would be necessary to analyze the continuum between vocal effort and vocal forcing, to improve speech therapy for dysfunctional dysphonia.

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L’objectif de ce travail est d’etudier les evenements physiologiques et articulatoires ayant lieu durant les pauses silencieuses dans differents types de discours. Pour ce faire, un enregistrement audio a ete realise a partir d’une locutrice qui avait pour tâche de lire un texte a deux reprises et de decrire une image. Les donnees acoustiques etaient synchronisees avec un articulographe electromagnetique (EMA) afin d’observer les eventuels deplacements des articulateurs dans la cavite buccale durant les pauses et avec une ceinture respiratoire qui permettait de deceler les prises de souffle. Ce dispositif a permis d’observer un certain nombre de mouvements durant les pauses, qui sont notamment dus a la retention des derniers sons de la sequence sonore precedant la pause et/ou a l’anticipation des sons a venir.

International audience; Objective and Hypothesis: Vocal effort in loud voice is produced with increased subglottal pressure during vowels and increased supraglottal pressure during consonants. In the paper, our main objective is to check whether it was supported by a parallel increase in the airflow resistance of the laryngeal articulator and of the supralaryngeal articulator, here the lips. Study Design and Method: For this comparison, our choice fell on the fricative consonants, as their production allows perfectly synchronous air pressure and airflow measurements. Also, the calculation of the real instantaneous aerodynamic resistance is possible with fricatives-as it is with vowels-whereas it is not possible with plosives. The present feasibility study on a healthy subject is based on direct subglottal and intraoral pressures and airflow measured for /f/ or /v/ and from the contiguous vowel produced in VCVCV non sense words at different levels of intensity. Results and Conclusion: The results support that the airflow resistances at the lips and that at the larynx are quite parallel. The airflow resistance at the lips during labial fricative production could provide a good picture of the laryngeal resistance during the production of continuous speech. This suggests clinical applications using both non invasive inferred measurements of subglottal pressure variation and direct non inferred airflow measurements from more natural speech production tasks.

International audience; Introduction: The objective was to study the behavior of the larynx during shouted voice production,when the larynx is exposed to extremely high subglottic pressure. Materials and methods: The study involved electroglottographic, acoustic, and aerodynamic analyses of shouts produced at maximum effort by three male participants. Results and discussion: Under a normal speaking voice, the voice sound pressure level (SPL) is proportional to the subglottic pressure. However, when the subglottic pressure reached high levels, the voice SPL reached a maximum value and then decreased as subglottic pressure increased further. Furthermore, the electroglottographic signal sometimes lost its periodicity during the shout, suggesting irregular vocal fold vibration.

Place: Germany; INTRODUCTION: The objective of this paper was to identify the determining factors of the glottal prephonatory configuration from the point of view of the resulting muscular actions (i.e., arytenoids adduction, membranous vocal fold adduction, and tension). MATERIALS AND METHODS: 21 human non-embalmed excised larynges (12 females and 9 males) were studied. Experiment A (11 larynges) studied four conditions of adduction of the vocal folds and arytenoids. Experiment B (10 larynges) studied the effect of cricothyroid approximation on the vocal fold length and the cricothyroid angle. RESULTS: Experiment A: The mean glottal area significantly decreased from 41.2 mm(2) mean with no adduction, to 10.2 mm(2) mean with arytenoid adduction, to 9.2 mm(2) with membranous vocal fold adduction, and down to 1.1 mm(2) with the combination of arytenoid and membranous adduction. The effect of the task was statistically significant. Experiment B: The length of vocal folds increased from 13.61 mm median to 14.48 mm median, and the cricothyroid angle decreased of 10.05 median along with cricothyroid approximation. DISCUSSION: The results of experiment A emphasize the sub-division of adductor intrinsic muscles in arytenoids adductors (i.e., LCA and IA), and membranous vocal fold adductor (i.e., TA). The results of experiment B quantify the effect of cricothyroid approximation on the vocal folds length. The implications of these results can be useful in both clinical practice and experimental studies.

International audience; This study builds on a specific characteristic of letters of the Roman alphabet-namely, that each letter name is associated with two visual formats, corresponding to their uppercase and lowercase versions. Participants had to read aloud the names of single letters, and event-related potentials (ERPs) for six pairs of visually dissimilar upper- and lowercase letters were recorded. Assuming that the end product of processing is the same for upper- and lowercase letters sharing the same vocal response, ERPs were compared backward, starting from the onset of articulatory responses, and the first significant divergence was observed 120 ms before response onset. Given that naming responses were produced at around 414 ms, on average, these results suggest that letter processing is influenced by visual information until 294 ms after stimulus onset. This therefore provides new empirical evidence regarding the time course and interactive nature of visual letter perception processes.

Since the 19th century, it has been known that response latencies are longer for naming pictures than for reading words aloud. While several interpretations have been proposed, a common general assumption is that this difference stems from cognitive word-selection processes and not from articulatory processes. Here we show that, contrary to this widely accepted view, articulatory processes are also affected by the task performed. To demonstrate this, we used a procedure that to our knowledge had never been used in research on language processing: response-latency fractionating. Along with vocal onsets, we recorded the electromyographic (EMG) activity of facial muscles while participants named pictures or read words aloud. On the basis of these measures, we were able to fractionate the verbal response latencies into two types of time intervals: premotor times (from stimulus presentation to EMG onset), mostly reflecting cognitive processes, and motor times (from EMG onset to vocal onset), related to motor execution processes. We showed that premotor and motor times are both longer in picture naming than in reading, although than in reading, although articulation is already initiated in the latter measure. Future studies based on this new approach should bring valuable clues for a better understanding of the relation between the cognitive and motor processes involved in speech production.

It is hypothesized that real time objective measurement of the subglottic pressure could contribute to the choice of the implant's size (IS) in medialization thyroplasty (MT). A prospective study was conducted with patients with glottal insufficiency. Patients had a MT using a Montgomery implant(®) (Boston medical, Boston, USA). Peak direct subglottic pressure (PDSGP) was measured intraoperatively using a catheter inserted in the cricothyroid membrane. The implant's choice was based on the results of PDSGP measured prior and after placement of the implant and was compared to the surgeon's and patient's perception and fiber optic estimation of the glottis aperture. Six patients were included in the first part of the study. The PDSGP could be measured in all the patients without increasing the surgical time or patients' discomfort. The mean PDSGP before and after the placement of the implant was 15.2 (SD = 5) and 10.6 (SD = 4) cmH(2)O, respectively. In the second part of the study, five patients were included. The PDSGP varied with the size of the implant and the implant with the lowest pressure was chosen in 4/5 patients. Peroperative measurement of PDSGP is easy, feasible and might allow a more objective choice of the IS in MT. Level of evidence 2c.

In a previous article, (Ries, Legou, Burle, Alario, & Malfait, 2012), we reported that articulatory processes contribute to the well-established finding that response latencies are longer for picture naming than for word reading. We based this conclusion on the observation that picture naming, as compared with word reading, lengthened not only the interval between stimulus onset and the initiation of lip muscle activation (premotor time), but also the interval between lip muscle activation and vocal response onset (motor time). However, on the basis of our subsequent work in this area, we believe that our original definition of premotor time (and, consequently, of motor time) was suboptimal. On a sizable number of trials, this led to the detection of lip muscle activation (as inferred from surface EMG) that was apparently unrelated to the articulation of the vocal response. Therefore, we believe it is preferable to operationalize premotor time as the interval between stimulus onset and the muscle activation that occurred closest in time to vocal response onset. After reestimating premotor times according to this new definition, we no longer found an effect of our task contrast on the motor time interval. The present article explains the caveats regarding our previous analysis.

This study had two objectives. The first was to analyse the impact of Parkinson's disease (PD) on the duration of CV syllables and their components in different positions within phrases in French; the second was to examine the distribution of final lengthening (FL) on syllable sub-components. Two main tendencies emerged: (1) PD patients produced normal FL, and (2) FL influenced vowels more than consonants. These findings suggest that PD speakers had no difficulty with FL and that there is a progressive lengthening across the sub-constituents of the final syllable. More fundamentally, these results indicate that the syntactic function of prosody is intact in PD patients, at least during the early and mild stages of the disease.

International audience; Objective: Subglottal pressure is often considered as a clue of vocal abuse, and this parameter is supposed to beat the origin of the phonotraumatism. This study is based on experiments on excised human larynges. Theobjective of this study was to analyze the contact pressure between the vocal folds during phonation and itsrelation with subglottal pressure until very high values.Material and methods: 7 human excised larynges were set on the experimental test-bench. The vocal foldadduction was determined before the tests, using concomitant arytenoid adduction and membranous vocal foldmedialization with Montgomery implants. The subglottal pressure (SGP) increased from 0 to 200 hPa. Thecontact pressure was measured with a pressure sensor placed between the vocal folds, the tracheal airflow andsubglottal pressure were measured 1 cm under the glottis, the electroglottography (EGG) was recorded, as wellas the audio signal (microphone distance: 15cm from the larynx).Results: At the phonation threshold, contact pressure appeared at the same time as the first activity of EGG,before the onset of the glottal cycle, then rapidly increased until a plateau. The maximal values of the contactpressure were very variable between the larynges (range: 0,7-12kPa). This contact pressure was not proportionalto the subglottal pressure.Discussion: These results question the role of subglottal pressure as the main factor of phonotrauma in vocalabuse when glottal configuration is constant. The adduction forces between vocal folds may be more relevant butvery difficult to measure in patients.

International audience; Abstract The glottal geometry is a key factor in the aerosol delivery efficiency for treatment of lung diseases. However, while glottal vibrations were extensively studied during human phonation, the realistic glottal motion during breathing is poorly understood. Therefore, most current studies assume an idealized steady glottis in the context of respiratory dynamics, and thus neglect the flow unsteadiness related to this motion. This is particularly important to assess the aerosol transport mechanisms in upper airways. This article presents a clinical study conducted on 20 volunteers, to examine the realistic glottal motion during several breathing tasks. Nasofibroscopy was used to investigate the glottal geometrical variations simultaneously with accurate airflow rate measurements. In total, 144 breathing sequences of 30s were recorded. Regarding the whole database, two cases of glottal time-variations were found: “static” or “dynamic” ones. Typically, the peak value of glottal area during slow breathing narrowed from 217 ± 54 mm2 (mean ± STD) during inspiration, to 178 ± 35 mm2 during expiration. Considering flow unsteadiness, it is shown that the harmonic approximation of the airflow rate underevaluates the inertial effects as compared to realistic patterns, especially at the onset of the breathing cycle. These measurements provide input data to conduct realistic numerical simulations of laryngeal airflow and particle deposition.

To describe the mental architecture between stimulus and response, cognitive models often divide the stimulus-response (SR) interval into stages or modules. Predictions derived from such models are typically tested by focusing on the moment of response emission, through the analysis of response time (RT) distributions. To go beyond the single response event, we recently proposed a method to fractionate verbal RTs into two physiologically defined intervals that are assumed to reflect different processing stages. The analysis of the durations of these intervals can be used to study the interaction between cognitive and motor processing during speech production. Our method is inspired by studies on decision making that used manual responses, in which RTs were fractionated into a premotor time (PMT), assumed to reflect cognitive processing, and a motor time (MT), assumed to reflect motor processing. In these studies, surface EMG activity was recorded from participants' response fingers. EMG onsets, reflecting the initiation of a motor response, were used as the point of fractionation. We adapted this method to speech-production research by measuring verbal responses in combination with EMG activity from facial muscles involved in articulation. However, in contrast to button-press tasks, the complex task of producing speech often resulted in multiple EMG bursts within the SR interval. This observation forced us to decide how to operationalize the point of fractionation: as the first EMG burst after stimulus onset (the stimulus-locked approach), or as the EMG burst that is coupled to the vocal response (the response-locked approach). The point of fractionation has direct consequences on how much of the overall task effect is captured by either interval. Therefore, the purpose of the current paper was to compare both onset-detection procedures in order to make an informed decision about which of the two is preferable. We concluded in favour or the response-locked approach.

The aim of this study was to rank vocal exercises using semi-occluded vocal tracts (SOVT) as a function of their effect on subglottal pressure (SGP) and on transglottal pressure (TGP). Direct measurements were performed in two healthy females. The correct realization of vocal exercises was controlled by maintaining a constant airflow at the phonation onset. TGP varied from 1.8 to 5.9 hPa among SOVT, in the same range as phonation threshold pressure values. SGP varied among subjects from 19.4 for 2-mm straw to 3.2 hPa for closed vowel. SOVT could be ranked in voice rehabilitation from the greatest to the smallest effects on SGP as following: 1) 2-mm straw; 2) 5-mm straw and fricative /v/; 3) 8-mm straw and nasals /m/ and /n/; 4) vowel /i/.

Objectif Cette etude vise a quantifier l’effet de controle musculaire de la configuration dans la glotte sur des larynx humains excises. L’etude comporte deux parties : le controle de l’adduction et le controle de la tension des plis vocaux. Materiel et methodes Tous les larynx ont ete preleves a l’etat frais sur des sujets autopsiques indemnes de lesion laryngee a l’examen. Dix larynx ont ete etudies dans le cadre de l’adduction. L’adduction a ete obtenue par approximation des arytenoides (action des muscles inter-arytenoidien et crico-arytenoidien lateral) et/ou par medialisation de la partie membraneuse des plis vocaux (action du muscle thyro-arytenoidien). L’aire de la glotte a ete mesuree dans chaque situation. Dix autres larynx ont ete etudies dans la partie portant sur la tension (action du muscle crico-thyroidien). Les variations de l’angle crico-thyroidien et de la longueur des plis vocaux ont ete correlees avec l’approximation crico-thyroidienne. Resultats Concernant l’adduction, l’aire glottique a diminue de 41,2 mm2 sans adduction, a 10,2 mm2 avec l’adduction arytenoidienne, a 9,2 mm2 avec la medialisation des plis vocaux, et 1,1 mm2 en combinant les adductions arytenoidienne et membraneuse. La partie portant sur la tension a montre que la longueur des cordes vocales augmente jusqu’a + 1,3 mm moyenne et l’angle de crico-thyroidien diminue jusqu’a −9,62° en moyenne avec le rapprochement crico-thyroidien jusqu’a 25 mm. Conclusion Cette etude apporte une meilleure connaissance, quantitative, de l’action des muscles intrinseques du larynx. Ces donnees serviront de base pour la methodologie des etudes a venir concernant la phonation.

International audience; OBJECTIVES:Whispered voice is investigated from the energetic point of view. Our hypothese is that whispered voice, and mainly the forced whispers are very similar to vocal effort, for non acoustic vocal parameters, and body movements.DESIGN:Two experiments are combined. The first experiment focused on the laryngeal aspects, mainly the subglottal pressure, and also the electroglottography. The second experiment analyzed the body movements associated with loud whispered voice.RESULTS:No electroglottograhic wave was observed during the two experiments. The vocal intensity was always lower during whispered voice than during comfortable voice (p < 0.001). In experiment 1, subglottal pressure was significantly higher during forced whisper than during the other conditions (p < 0.001). In experiment 2, the amplitude of the trunk movements in the sagittal plane were greater during loud whisper than during comfortable voice (p < 0.001).CONCLUSION:Whispered voice can be close to vocal loading, especially the loud whispered voice.; Etudes expérimentales préliminaires de la voix chuchotée : pression sous-glottique et étude posturale 1 Preliminary experimental studies of whispered voice: subglottal pressure and postural aspects Résumé Objectifs : cette étude propose de décrire les aspects éner-gétiques de la voix chuchotée, en la mettant en relation avec les éléments qui caractérisent l'effort vocal. L'hypothèse de travail est qu'il existe des similitudes entre la voix chuchotée, en parti-culier la voix chuchotée forte et l'effort vocal. Méthodes : Deux expérimentations sont combinées pour répondre à l'hypothèse de travail. L'une, centrée sur le niveau laryngé, étudiait l'électroglottographie et la pression sous-glottique réelle (expérience 1) ; l'autre analysait les modifications posturales associées à la voix chuchotée (expérience 2). Résultats : dans les deux expériences, aucune onde électroglottographique n'a été mise en évidence au cours de la production de voix chucho-tée. L'intensité de la voix chuchotée était plus faible que celle de la voix parlée (p < 0.0001). Dans l'expérience 1, la pression sous-glottique était significativement supérieure en voix chuchotée forcée que dans les autres productions (p < 0.0001). Dans l'expérience 2, les mouvements du tronc dans le plan sagittal (flexion vers l'avant) étaient significativement plus importants au cours de la production de voix chuchotée qu'au cours de la voix parlée (p < 0.001). Conclusion : la voix chuchotée dite forcée présente de nombreuses similitudes avec l'effort vocal, à l'inverse de la voix chuchotée «silencieuse». Summary Objectives: Whispered voice is investigated from the energetic point of view. Our hypothese is that whispered voice, and mainly the forced whispers are very similar to vocal effort, for non acoustic vocal parameters, and body movements. Design: Two experiments are combined. The first experiment focused on the laryngeal aspects, mainly the subglottal pressure, and also the electroglottography. The second experiment analyzed the body movement associated with loud whispered voice. Results: No electroglottograhic wave was observed during the two experiments. The vocal intensity was always lower during whispered voice than during comfortable voice (p< 0.001). In experiment 1, subglottal pressure was significantly higher during forced whisper than during the other conditions (p< 0.001). The amplitude of the trunk movements in the sagittal plane were greater during loud whisper than during comfortable voice (p< 0.001). Conclusion: Whispered voice can be close to vocal loading, especially the loud whispered voice.

Subglottal pressure is a key parameter for human phonation, essential for starting and maintaining vocal-fold oscillations. Yet, it is not easy to measure, and most studies estimate it from intra-oral-pressure burst during plosive-vowel sequences. In this study, the variations of aerodynamic subglottal pressure as a function of glottal properties are assessed in the case of singing-voice productions. The EVA2 device was used to record simulaneously audio and electroglottographic (EGG) signals , sound pressure level (SPL) and subglottal pressure (Psg). Subglottal pressure was measured directly by tracheal ponction between the cricoid cartilage and first tracheal ring. Fundamental frequency and contact duration time (closed and open quotients) were measured on EGG signals. The results on the case of one trained singer (co-author) is presented here, who is able to sing using both laryngeal mechanisms. The singer's comfortable vocal range is explored by tones, on crescendos and decrescendos produced at a sustained pitch. The singer's voice range profile is shown in a traditional way (f0 in Hz - SPL in dB ), but also as a function of subglottal pressure (f0 in Hz - Psg in Pa). In the two main laryngeal mechanisms, the upper limit raises as a linear function of the logarithm of fundamental frequency. The lower limit, which corresponds also to phonatory threshold pressure necessary for starting the laryngeal-vibrator oscillations, raises with fundamental frequency in M2, in agreement with the literature. Yet, in M1, agreement is found only for the lower pitches (below F3 - 174 Hz), as phonatory threshold pressure decreases with fundamental frequency between F3 and F4. The dynamic variations of Psg as a function of f0, closed quotient, and SPL, which are measured on crescendos and decrescendos, illustrate the non-linear behaviour of the laryngeal vibrator., La pression aérodynamique sous-glottique est un paramètre essentiel de la phonation humaine, puisqu'elle permet la mise en auto-oscillation et l'entretien de la vibration glottique. Sa mesure n'est pas chose aisée. Rare sont les études qui s'appuient sur des mesures directes, la plupart utilisant une estimation à partir de la pression intra-orale lors de séquences plosive-voyelle. Dans cette étude, nous avons observé les variations de la pression sous-glottique aérodynamique en fonction des propriétés glottiques, dans le cas de productions vocales chantées. Les données ont été acquises en milieu hospitalier avec le dispositif EVA2 qui permet d'enregistrer simultanément de façon synchrone le son, l'intensité SPL, le signal EGG et la pression sous-glottique (Psg). Celle-ci est mesurée directement à l'aide d'une ponction trachéale effectuée entre le cartilage cricoidien et le premier anneau de la trachée. Les paramètres glottiques analysés sont la fréquence fondamentale et le temps de contact (quotients ouvert et fermé - Qc). Ils sont mesurés à partir des signaux électroglottographiques enregistrés simultanément. Nous présentons ici les résultats dans le cas d'un chanteur entrainé, qui maîtrise les deux principaux mécanismes laryngés. L'étendue vocale confortable du chanteur est explorée ton par ton, à l'aide de crescendos et decrescendos sur une note tenue. Les profils vocaux du chanteur dans les deux mécanismes sont présentés de façon traditionnelle (f0 - intensité vocale en dB SPL) mais également en fonction de la pression sous-glottique (f0 - Psg). Dans les deux mécanismes laryngés, la limite supérieure augmente de façon linéaire avec le logarithme de la fréquence fondamentale. La limite inférieure, qui correspond également au seuil de pression phonatoire nécessaire pour la mise en auto-oscillation du vibrateur laryngé, croit avec la fréquence fondamentale en M2, comme attendu dans la littérature. Par contre, les mesures en M1 ne sont en accord avec la littérature que pour les basses fréquences (en-dessous de F3 - 174 Hz), car on observe une diminution de la pression de seuil phonatoire de F3 à F4. L'étude sur les crescendos-decrescendos des variations dynamiques de Psg en fonction de f0, Qc et SPL illustre le caractère non-linéaire du vibrateur laryngé.

Diaporama powerpoint (handout presentation) disponible au lien suivant: http://anae-revue.over-blog.com/ext/http://lpl-aix.fr/~speechdbs2010 - Site de l'ANR DesphoApady: http://despho-apady.univ-avignon.fr/; International audience; A multidisciplinary team composed of phoneticians, clinicians, computer science engineers and automatic speech processing want to 1) identify and quantify reliable markers which are characteristic of different types of dysarthric speech profile, and could be followed in time (severity evaluation, disease progression, and treatment efficacy) ; 2) select reliable and robust French acoustic phonetic criteria able to distinguish normal and dysarthric speech, and different dysarthria types. The acoustic evaluation based on semi-automatic extraction of selected acoustic parameters (patients vs controls) is compared with : 1) perceptual evaluation of selected speech dimensions 2) expert annotation of the impaired part of speech by 10 expert judges for 30 patients with ALS dysarthria, 30 patients with ataxic dysarthria and 30 patients with Parkinsonian one. Assumption that an acoustico-phonetic description of dysarthric speech has to be apprehended in a comprehensive fashion according to the multiple dimensions of speech production that can be impaired, but also by a systematic testing of all potentially informative acoustic criteria for every dysarthric speakers. Observing type and range of variations due to motor control deficit can help for a comprehensive model of speech variation for normal speakers. A better understanding of the variations that permit to consider a dysarthric speech as deviant could provide insights to the boundary between normal and pathological speech.

ISBN: 2-9517408-6-7 - Domaines: Phonetic Databases, Phonology, Person Identification; International audience; This paper presents the rationale, objectives and advances of an on-going project (the DesPho-APaDy project funded by the French National Agency of Research) which aims to provide a systematic and quantified description of French dysarthric speech, over a large population of patients and three dysarthria types (related to the parkinson's disease, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis disease, and a pure cerebellar alteration). The two French corpora of dysarthric patients, from which the speech data have been selected for analysis purposes, are firstly described. Secondly, this paper discusses and outlines the requirement of a structured and organized computerized platform in order to store, organize and make accessible (for selected and protected usage) dysarthric speech corpora and associated patients' clinical information (mostly disseminated in different locations: labs, hospitals, ...). The design of both a computer database and a multi-field query interface is proposed for the clinical context. Finally, advances of the project related to the selection of the population used for the dysarthria analysis, the preprocessing of the speech files, their orthographic transcription and their automatic alignment are also presented.

International audience; Introduction: Postural aspects of vocal effort are unusually described in the literature whereas they are extensively managed in speech therapy. Objectives: This study aims to determine whether body movement is a side-effect of vocal effort or an integrant part of global communication effort behaviour. The answer to this question is mainly based on the correlations between the movement and the phonation.Design: This experimental study involved healthy subjects. They had to communicate to a listener during exposure to three situations where the environmental obstacles were increasing.Results: Vocal parameters such as sound pressure level, fundamental frequency, closed quotient and words duration all increased with increasing difficulty of communication (ie. increasing vocal effort). All body segments movement increased their amplitude and duration with increasing vocal effort. Vocal and kinematic characteristics were significantly correlated.Conclusion: The close correlation of movement and vocal production during vocal effort definitely excludes that the movement is a consequence of the latter. Posture and voice are coordinated in the action of communication and each body segment seems to play a different role in the vocal effort behaviour.

International audience; Speech production is probably the most complex neuromotor activity of the human behavior. It involves a large number of muscles with particularly precise movements, characterized by a lot of motor units whose synchronization must be controlled perfectly to create the speech sound. This acoustical signal is the result of different mechanisms involving respiration, phonation and articulation controlled by cognitive processes. Dysarthria refers not only to a deficit in articulation per se, but encompasses disturbances in the control of voice quality, speech rhythm, loudness, segmental articulation, pitch, fluency, etc. Even though associations between deviant acoustic-phonetic dimensions and certain types of dysarthria have been made in clinical practice and in the clinical literature, descriptions of dysarthria are often based on perceptual assessments as done in the precursory studies of Darley [1]. It is true that perceptual analysis is still considered as the “gold standard” and a patient is declared dysarthric because he is perceived dysarthric [2]. However, instrumental analysis is more and more recommended to provide complementary information for the assessment and to objectively quantify descriptions of the speech patterns [3,4]. A review of acoustic studies of dysarthric speech is available in [3]. It reports that “the great majority (of studies) focuses on a small set of measures and typically a very small number of subjects”.The goal of acoustic analysis is to correlate speech deviances with neurological disturbance. This reverse process is not simple because the relationship between a neuromotor dysfunction and the speech signal is not direct. Some dysfunctions have no acoustical impact, some acoustical information are not directly linked with a dysfunction. Moreover, individual compensation mechanisms can blur the speech analysis.As speech is the result of complex processes, we have proposed for several years to proceed not only to acoustical analysis (which is the end of the speech production chain), but to use multisensor data acquisition systems for speech production investigation [5]. We present in this contribution several techniques which allow to observe and to measure more directly the phenomena linked to the organs dynamic. Aerodynamics sensors (oral airflow, nasal airflow, subglottal pressure) can be interesting to assess phonation and articulation as robust indicators of organs movements (laryngeal leakage, velum leakage, lips aperture) or physiological mechanisms (pneumophonatory coordination, velo-pharyngeal port activity). Electrophysiological techniques are also efficient in term of functional assessment: electroglottography for phonation, electromyography, electropalatography for articulation. The use of electrokynesiography (ie: electro-magneto-articulography) can be finally the best way to observe the movement disorders but the complexity of such a system is actually the biggest obstacle.

Dysarthria; database; phonetics; variability of speech; National audience; Une première partie du projet est donc consacrée à la mise en place et à la structuration d'une base de données informatisée de parole pathologique. Actuellement, celle- ci est alimentée par les enregistrements de plus de mille patients dysarthriques collectés par C. Chevrie-Muller entre 1965 et 1997. A terme, la structure de cette base de données, permettant un accès sécurisé à différentes informations sur les locuteurs et les types de matériaux linguistiques, sera un outil extrêmement utile pour toute étude sur les dysfonctionnements de la parole et de la voix, et facilitera ainsi le contrôle de l'homogénéité/hétérogénéité clinique des locuteurs qui est central dans ce type d'étude.

International audience; Introduction: The objective of the study was to assess how posture and vocal acoustics are modified when one needs to communicate despite environmental obstacles (i.e. vocal effort performance).Method: 20 healthy young women participated to this study. They had to communicate numbers to a listener. Environmental obstacles were the distance between the subject and the auditor, and the noise. Segmental posture modifications were recorded and analyzed using the numerical infra-red system for movement analysis SMART®. Vocal acoustics and electroglottography were also recorded and analyzed using the EVA® system.Results: The study showed the presence of objective postural modifications during vocal effort. Their amplitude increased when the environmental obstacles to communications increased, and they anticipated the vocal production.Discussion: The vocal effort concept and its relation with the posture, the voice and the subject’s feeling are reviewed on the basis of these results. Laryngeal effort is not isolated, but belongs to a global behavioral strategy which aims to improving the efficiency of the communication.; Introduction : L’objectif de l’étude était d’évaluer les modifications posturales et vocales au cours d’une tâche de communication en environnement défavorable (effort vocal).Matériels et méthodes : Cette étude expérimentale a analysé le comportement vocal et postural de 20 femmes de 20 à 43 ans indemnes de problèmes posturaux, vocaux ou auditifs. Les sujets devaient dicter des nombres à un auditeur. Les conditions défavorables à la communication étaient la distance entre le sujet et l’auditeur, et le bruit ambiant. Les modifications posturales segmentaires ont été enregistrées à l’aide du système numérique infrarouge d’analyse du mouvement SMART®. Les modifications vocales étaient évaluées par des paramètres acoustiques objectifs et par électroglottographie à l’aide de la station EVA®.Résultats : L’étude a montré l’existence de modifications posturales contemporaines de l’effort vocal. Ces modifications posturales sont d’autant plus amples que l’environnement est plus défavorable (donc que l’effort vocal est plus important), et le mouvement anticipe la production vocale.Discussion : Le concept de forçage vocal et ses relations avec la posture, la voix et le ressenti du sujet sont revus sur la base de ces résultats. L’effort laryngé n’est pas seul impliqué dans l’effort vocal, il fait partie d’une stratégie comportementale globale visant à améliorer l’efficacité de la communication.

International audience