A physioacoustic model of the infant cry and its use for medical diagnosis and

prognosis
Howard L. Golub

Citation: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 65, S25 (1979);
View online: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2017179
View Table of Contents: http://asa.scitation.org/toc/jas/65/S1
Published by the Acoustical Society of America

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 and thus should not be represented in the phonological under-
lying representations of the English lexicon.
I18. The effects of antagonistic gestures on temporal and amplitude
parametersof anticipatorylabial coarticulation.H. M. Sussmanand
J. R. Westburya• (Department of Linguistics, University of Texas,
Austin, TX 78712)
An attribute of the speech production system is the ability to
anticipate articulatory targets. This study investigated how the
presenceand proximity of prior antagonisticversusneutral phonetic
gestures affected anticipatory coarticulation for lip rounding. EMG
activity was recorded from orbicularis otis superior (OOS)--
the agonistfor lip rounding; and risoris (RIS) the antagonist,for
three subjects repeating the tokens /kikstu/, /kakstu/, /tiku/, and
tuki/. Comparing a three-member cluster to a single consonant
enabled us to test the notion of time-locked anticipatory coarticula-
tion. Temporal onset values of OOS with respect to/u/onset and in
relation to cluster duration revealed earlier relative OOS onset for
the neutral/kakstu/environment versus the antagonistic lip spread
environment in/kikstu/. All subjects revealed greater OOS ampli-
tude as measured by averaged integrated EMG for /kikstu/
versus /kakstu/. Anticipatory coarticulation was found to be non-
time locked and a function of number of intervening segments.
Lip movement was measured and onset of lip protrusion pre-
ceded OOS onset illustrating the operation of elastic recoil of the
lip in moving from a prior spread position to a protrusion.
a• Also Research Laboratory of Electronics, M.I.T., Cambridge,
MA.
I19. Mandible movement for /s/-defective and normal children. K.
Wilcox, R. Daniloff, and M. I. Stephens• (Department of
Audiologyand SpeechSciences,PurdueUniversity, West Lafayette,
IN 47907)
Using a linear impedance-pneumographtaped to the mandible,
the mandibular movements for normal and 3 differing types of/s/-
misarticulating children were measured as they spoke sentences
containing /s/ in a wide variety of cluster and vowel contexts,
with varying stressand juncture, at two differing tempii of produc-
tion. Simultaneous audio/jaw displacement recordings reveal that
the /s/-defective children, if anything, are somewhat less context
sensitive in their /s/-target positions than are normals, and their
abnormal mandible targets for /s/ are as stable as those for
normal speaking children. Results are discussed in terms of
current speculationsconcerningdefective articulation development.
• Department of Communication Disorders, Northern Illinois Uni-
versity, DeKalb, IL.
I20. Manifestationsof rhythm and stressin physiologicalmeasure-
ments of jaw activity in speech. M. Stone (Department of Hearing
and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
20742)
This study examined the effects of stresslevel on jaw movement.
Jaw displacementwas measuredby a straingaugetransducerduring
the production of normal, whispered and fast repetitions of five
nonsensesyllablephrases.Jaw velocity was extracted by an analog
differentiator. Jaw velocity was compared to the perceived levels of
stressof the nonsensesyllables at the two rates of speech and while
whispering. Jaw velocity was found to be significantly related to
stresslevel. Three levels of stress--unstressed, stressed,and promi-
nently stressedor beat syllables--were distinguishedon the basis
of differences in opening vowel velocity. [Work supported by
NIH Grant DE-03631.]
S25 J. Acoust.Soc. Am., Vol. 65, Suppl. No. 1, Spring 1979
121. Mandible position and stress. I. D. Condax (Department of
Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822)
In English, a stress-timedlanguage, each stressedvowel is asso-
ciated with a downward excursion of the jaw, whereas unstressed
vowels are not [O. Fujimura, ASA paper (June, 1977)]. Fijian has
been assumed to be syllable-timed [C. Hockett, Manual of
Phonology, 59 (1955)] and described as stress-timed [A. J. Schutz,
Hawaii Working Papers in Linguistics, 8.2.86 (1976)]. Meaning-
ful Fijian sentences where segmental influences on vowel duration
were minimized were studied. All low vowels showed a downward
excursion of the jaw, large for stressed [a] in lexical words,
moderate or small for unstressed[a] in lexical words, and small for
unstressed [a] in particles. The durations between the onsets of the
vowels measuredacousticallywere proportionalto the magnitudeof
the downwardexcursionof the jaw. Thus the necessityfor making
a separatejaw movement for nearly every syllable may contribute
to keeping the syllable durations more uniform than in English,
but substantiallyless than identical for similar syllables with differ-
ent stress.This finding may account for the differencesin descrip-
tionsof Fijiah regardingits statusas stress-or syllable-timed.
122. Cues for interpreting early child speech. K. L. Landahl (De-
partment of Linguistics, Brown University, Providence, RI
02912)
A word spoken in isolation often shows more precision in its
production than that same word spoken in a longer utterance. Ar-
ticulatory imprecision in speech probably occurs because speech
interpretationinvolves contextual cues. This situation suggeststhe
following questionswith regard to child speech:(1) Are the child's
words phonetically stable whether produced in isolation or in a
longer utterance? (2) To what extent do adults use context versus
acoustic cues in listening to child speech?Data were derived by
presenting a taped conversation with adults and an 86-week-old
child to six subjects: the child's parents, two linguists, and two
non-linguists.These subjectseach heard four different versions of
this material: the child's words only, excised by use of a com-
puter editing system; the child's utterances only; the entire tape;
and the entire tape with written notes of the non-linguistic
context. Subjects were asked to identify forms which they con-
sidered to correspondto words in the adult language.
I23. Modeling children's vocal tracts. Ursula G. Goldstein (Re-
search Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, Cambridge, MA 02139)
Several researchers have noted that a child's vocal tract is not
simply a smaller version of an adult man's vocal tract, but that the
ratio of pharynx-cavity length to oral-cavity length is substantially
different. In order to study the acoustical implications of this
difference, a static articulatory vocal-tract model is being developed
with dimensionsthat can be varied for male and female speakers
over all age ranges. The model has parameters specifying the
position of an elliptical tongue body relative to the angle of the
jaw, similar to the model developed by Mermelstein for adult men
[P. Mermelstein, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 53, 1070-1082 (1973)]. Other
parameters specify positions of tongue tip, lips, and hyoid bone.
The sizes of the various parts of the vocal tract are specifiedby
growth curves which express anatomical distances as a function of
age. The growth curves were obtained by performing least-squares
fitting of two- through six-parameter curves to measurements
reported in the medical literature. This research has implications
for a better understandingof infant phoneticcapabilities,articulatory
configurationsused by women and children, and vowel normaliza-
tion. [Work supported in part by the National Institutes of Health.]
124. A physioacousticmodel of the infant cry and its use for medical
diagnosisand prognosis.Howard L. Golub (Research Laboratory of
50th AnniversaryMeeting S25
Electronics and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Com-
puter Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,
MA 02139)
A total of 98 infant pain cries were recorded during the three-
day blood test (P.K.U. heel stick) in order to test some of the
important aspects of a cry production model. The infants ranged
in age from 2-4 days; 20 were judged to be medically ab-
normal, 23 were questionable, and 55 were normal. The model was
developed by utilizing the adult acoustic theory of speech pro-
duction modified by physiological and anatomical hypotheses for
neonates. The most important hypothesis concerns the control
strategies of muscles involved in cry production. It is postulated
that neonates control their muscles, especially the smaller muscles
of the larynx, in a quantal fashion. Based on this model, a
number of acoustic parameters were selected, and were extracted
from the recorded cries using digital techniques. The parameters
included formants and F0 vs time, timing and intensity informa-
tion, determination of laryngeal mode, and nasalization. Relevant
statistical analysis was performed to determine class ranges for
each parameter of the model and to compare data from different
medical classes. It is hoped that this model and the correspond-
ing computer analysis will help to facilitate the use of the infant
cry for medical purposes. [Work supported by NIH.]
I25. Oral sensory and temporal articulatory changes as a result of
lateral auditory interruptions during speech.M. A. Crary (Depart-
ment of Speech and Hearing, Central Michigan University, Mt.
Pleasant, MI 48859), D. Fucci, L. Petrosino, and Z. S. Bond (School
of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH
45701)
Lingual vibrotactile thresholds were obtained for 10 normal sub-
jects under four different conditions: (1) bilateral auditory masking
during reading, (2) right ear auditory masking during reading, (3) left
ear auditory masking during reading, (4) no auditory masking
during reading. Baseline thresholds were obtained prior to any ex-
posure to masking. To investigate changes in the articulatory
patterns of the subjects under masking conditions, four acoustic
measurements were obtained from a test word embedded in a
stimulus sentence: (1) stop closure duration, (2) voice onset time,
(3) vowel duration, (4) duration of final stop closure. The different
types of auditory disruptions during speech production resulted in
a decrease in lingual sensitivity as well as temporal reorganiza-
tion of articulatory speech patterns. Although fluctuations were
observed in speech segment measurements during masking condi-
tions, laterality of masking appears to have no effect on temporal
articulatory speech patterns.
I26. Long-term compensationfor upper-lip immobility. R. J. Hanson
(Department of Speech, University of California, Santa Barbara,
CA 93106) and L. L. D'Antonio (Speech and Hearing Sciences
S26 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 65, Suppl. No. 1, Spring 1979
Program U.C.S.F./U.C.S.B., University of California, San Fran-
cisco, CA 94143)
Previous
studies
of short-term
arti•ulatory
dynamics
havedem-
onstrated that the lips, jaw and tongue act together in a co-
ordinated, synergistic manner and that restraints on one articulator
require compensation by others to preserve acoustic contrasts
lB. LindblomandJ. Sundberg,
J. Acoust.Soc.Am.50, 1166-1179
(1971); C. Riordan, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 62, 998-1002 (1977)].
It has also been shown that the lower lip may move independently
of the jaw when required by competing articulatory demands [H.
Sussman, P. MacNeilage, and R. Hanson, J. Speech Hear. Res.
16, 397-420 (1973)]. The present study explores the possibility
that lip and jaw independence may be used to preserve acoustic
contrasts in long-term articulatory compensation for anatomical
abnormalities. The lip and jaw movements of two subjects with
surgically repaired cleft lip and palate were studied using frame-by-
frame, pellet-tracking analysis of a 60 frame/s x-ray film and acoustic
analysis of a simultaneous audio recording. Subjects repeated
/oCVCo/utterances (where C =/p, m/and V =/i, u, a, a:/) and the
data were analyzed from the point of maximal closure for the first
consonant, through the vowel to the same point in the second con-
sonant. Results indicate that while the subjects did approximate
normal acoustic targets: (1) the upper lip remains immobile; (2) the
lower-lip moves with greater velocity and to a greater extent than
expected; and (3) jaw movement was relatively unaffected. These
results can presumably be attributed to the anatomical abnormalities
and surgical history of the subjects which rendered the upper-lip an
ineffective articulator and caused the lower lip to compensatewith
faster and larger movements.
I27. Supraglottalair pressureduring a valsalva maneuver. W. S.
Brown, Jr., and R. E. McGlone (IASCP, 63 ASB, University of
Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611)
Supraglottal air pressure (P•o) is defined as the build-up of air
pressure within the oral cavity as a result of articulatory resistance
to pulmonic air flow. Two major assumptions are inherent in this
definition; (1) a column of air moves through the vocal tract sup-
plied by a pulmonic source; (2) Pie results directly from a partial/
complete resistance to this air column. The present study was a
test of these two assumptions.Subjects repeated VCV syllables con-
taining the cognate pairs /p,b/, /t,d/, and /s,z/ during a valsalva
maneuver (absence of pulmonic air flow). Peak measures of Pie
were obtained from the consonant productions. Results indicated
that even in the absence of pulmonic air flow, the oral pressures
generated were similar to those recorded for normal speech. More-
over, the voice-voiceless distinction typical of normal speech was
observed for the valsalva productions. These results indicate
that we may need to re-evaluate present descriptions of Pie,
especially in terms of the role of the pulmonic air source. Also,
it may be that Pie is not merely a result of laryngeal/articulatory
resistance, but is phoneme specific.
50th Anniversary Meeting S26