Tag Archive for 'Speech'

Global distribution of MSIs across 9,179 language varieties from the ASJP database. Color of dots represents the MSI of the language, with redder dots indicating higher and bluer dots indicating lower indices. The fill color of land areas represents the mean annual temperature. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad384.

Climate Plays Role in Shaping Evolution of Human Languages, New Study Reveals

Dec 5, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Sounds of human languages can be affected by various factors of the natural environment. One such factor is the mean annual temperature. In new research,...

EchoSpeech requires just a few minutes of user training data before it will recognize commands and can be run on a smartphone. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1145/3544548.3580801.

EchoSpeech: Artificial Intelligence-Equipped Eyeglasses Can Read Silent Speech

Apr 10, 2023 by News Staff

EchoSpeech, developed by Cornell University researchers, uses speakers and microphones mounted on a glass-frame and emits inaudible sound waves towards...

Choanate vertebrates’ acoustic communication ancestral state reconstruction analysis: tree includes 1,800 choanatian species assigned either with the character presence or absence of acoustic communication; pie charts at ancestral nodes indicate likelihood of each character state; colors in the spectrograms represent sound intensity, with warm colors representing high intensity and cold colors (i.e. blue) representing low intensity or absence of sounds. Image credit: Jorgewich-Cohen et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33741-8.

Acoustic Communication May Have Appeared as Early as 407 Million Years Ago

Oct 26, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Acoustic communication, broadly distributed among vertebrates, plays a fundamental role in parental care, mate attraction and various other behaviors....

Cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult humans. Image credit: D.L. JackieLou.

Cats Know When Their Owners are Talking to Them, Study Suggests

Oct 25, 2022 by News Staff

A study performed on a cohort of 16 companion cats suggests that cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult...

The larynx is an organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. Image credit: OpenStax College / CC BY 3.0.

Simplified Voice Box Enabled Complex Humans Speech, New Research Suggests

Aug 12, 2022 by News Staff

Human speech and language are highly complex, consisting of a large number of sounds. The human larynx (voice box) has acquired the capability to create...

Mother-pup pair of the greater sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx bilineata) in their daytime roost. The pup (dark fur color) is holding on to the mother’s belly (light fur color). Image credit: Michael Stifter.

Bat Pups Babble Like Human Infants, Researchers Find

Aug 20, 2021 by News Staff

Babbling is a production milestone in infant speech development. Evidence for babbling in non-human mammals is scarce. In a new study, researchers from...

Neanderthals consumed plants, too. Image credit: University of Utah via kued.org.

Study: Neanderthals Had Capacity to Produce Human-Like Speech

Mar 2, 2021 by News Staff

Neanderthals evolved the auditory capacities to support a vocal communication system as efficient as modern human speech, according to new research led...

Mother Bats Use ‘Baby Talk’ to Speak to Their Offspring, New Study Shows

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

A special form of vocal feedback in humans, infant-directed speech — also known as motherese or ‘baby talk’ — facilitates language learning...

Root-Gutteridge et al show that the ability to spontaneously recognize both the same phonemes across different speakers, and cues to identity across speech utterances from unfamiliar speakers, is present in domestic dogs and thus not a uniquely human trait. Image credit: Anja Gh.

Dogs Understand Spoken Words Better than We Thought

Dec 9, 2019 by News Staff

Dogs are able to listen to different people saying the same word and recognize it as the same word, ignoring the differences between speakers, and can...

A group of gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) on sands at Stiffkey, Norfolk, UK. Image credit: Duncan Harris / CC BY 2.0.

Study: Gray Seals Can Copy Human Speech and Songs

Jun 25, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Current Biology, gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) can copy human speech and songs using the same sound...

A brain-machine interface created Anumanchipalli et al can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract. Image credit: University of California San Francisco.

Speech Synthesized from Brain Signals

Apr 29, 2019 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists at the University of California San Francisco used brain signals recorded from epilepsy patients to program a computer to mimic...

Paleolithic edge-to-edge bite (top) and a modern overbite/overjet bite (bottom) and how ‘f’ sounds are produced in a biomechanical model. Image credit: Timea Bodogan / Scott Moisik.

Post-Neolithic Diet-Induced Dental Changes Led to Introduction of ‘F’ and ‘V’ Sounds

Mar 18, 2019 by News Staff

A class of speech sounds that is now present in nearly half of the world’s languages — labiodentals, produced by positioning the lower lip against...

Newborns have innate skills needed to pick out words. Image credit: Cheryl Holt.

Study: Newborn Babies Have Innate Skills to Pick Out Individual Words

Jan 31, 2019 by News Staff

Humans are born with operational language processing and memory capacities and can use at least two types of cues to segment otherwise continuous speech,...

Advance marks critical step toward brain-computer interface systems that hold immense promise for those with limited or no ability to speak. Image credit: Kai Kalhh.

Experimental Brain-Computer Interface Translates Brain Signals into Recognizable Speech

Jan 30, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Columbia University has developed a speech brain-computer interface system that translates brain signals into intelligible, recognizable...

Romeo et al suggest talking with children from early age could promote language skills regardless of socioeconomic status. Image credit: Sasin Tipchai.

Study: Adult-Child Conversations Strengthen Language Regions of Developing Brain

Aug 22, 2018 by News Staff

Children who are regularly engaged in conversation by adults may have stronger connections between Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas — brain regions...

Dr. Dunn and Dr. Smaers report a positive correlation between vocal repertoire size and the relative size of cortical association areas in non-human primates. Image credit: Herbert Aust.

Primate Study Offers Important Insight into Evolution of Human Speech

Aug 14, 2018 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience has found a link between vocal repertoire and relative size of key regions of the brain. Dr....

According to the study, you are more likely to remember something if you read it out loud. Image credit: Pexels.

Reading Text Aloud Improves Long-Term Memory, New Study Finds

Dec 5, 2017 by News Staff

A new study has found that speaking text aloud helps to get words into long-term memory. Dubbed the ‘production effect,’ the study determined that...

Indianapolis Zoo’s Orangutan Mimics Human Speech

Jul 28, 2016 by News Staff

Rocky, an eleven-year-old male orangutan living at Indianapolis Zoo, offers clues to how human speech evolved, according to new research led by Durham...

Babies are able to learn abstract relations before the first year of life. Image credit: Kang Heungbo.

Infants Need Free Tongue Movement to Distinguish Speech Sounds, Say Scientists

Oct 13, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr Alison Bruderer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, has discovered a direct link between tongue...

A family group of geladas (Dave Watts / CC BY 2.0)

Geladas’ Lip-Smacking Resembles Human Speech, Says U.S. Researcher

Apr 9, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

According to a study published in the journal Current Biology, the vocal lip-smacks that wild gelada monkeys (Theropithecus gelada) use in friendly encounters...