Individuals with Congenital Amusia Show Degraded Speech Perception but Preserved Statistical Learning for Tone Languages

Autor/inn/en	Zhu, Jiaqiang; Chen, Xiaoxiang; Chen, Fei; Wiener, Seth
Titel	Individuals with Congenital Amusia Show Degraded Speech Perception but Preserved Statistical Learning for Tone Languages
Quelle	In: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65 (2022) 1, S.53-69 (17 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Chen, Fei) ORCID (Wiener, Seth)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1092-4388
Schlagwörter	Congenital Impairments; Perceptual Impairments; Adults; Mandarin Chinese; Speech; Auditory Perception; Incidental Learning; Foreign Countries; China + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Perceptual handicaps; Wahrnehmungsstörung; Speaking; Sprechen; Auditive Wahrnehmung; Akustische Wahrnehmung; Akustik; Inzidentelles Lernen; Ausland
Abstract	Purpose: Individuals with congenital amusia exhibit degraded speech perception. This study examined whether adult Chinese Mandarin listeners with amusia were still able to extract the statistical regularities of Mandarin speech sounds, despite their degraded speech perception. Method: Using the gating paradigm with monosyllabic syllable-tone words, we tested 19 Mandarin-speaking amusics and 19 musically intact controls. Listeners heard increasingly longer fragments of the acoustic signal across eight duration-blocked gates. The stimuli varied in syllable token frequency and syllable-tone co-occurrence probability. The correct syllable-tone word, correct syllable-only, correct tone-only, and correct syllable-incorrect tone responses were compared respectively between the two groups using mixed-effects models. Results: Amusics were less accurate than controls in terms of the correct word, correct syllable-only, and correct tone-only responses. Amusics, however, showed consistent patterns of top-down processing, as indicated by more accurate responses to high-frequency syllables, high-probability tones, and tone errors all in manners similar to those of the control listeners. Conclusions: Amusics are able to learn syllable and tone statistical regularities from the language input. This extends previous work by showing that amusics can track phonological segment and pitch cues despite their degraded speech perception. The observed speech deficits in amusics are therefore not due to an abnormal statistical learning mechanism. These results support rehabilitation programs aimed at improving amusics' sensitivity to pitch. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: slhr@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01