Development of [j] in young, midwestern, American children.
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Beginning at the age of about 14 months, eight children who lived in a rhotic dialect region of the United States were recorded approximately every 2 months interacting with their parents. All were recorded until at least the age of 26 months, and some until the age of 31 months. Acoustic analyses of speech samples indicated that these young children acquired [inverted r] production ability at different ages for [inverted r]'s in different syllable positions. The children, as a group, had started to produce postvocalic and syllabic [inverted r] in an adult-like manner by the end of the recording sessions, but were not yet showing evidence of having acquired prevocalic [inverted r]. Articulatory limitations of young children are posited as a cause for the difference in development of [inverted r] according to syllable position. Specifically, it is speculated that adult-like prevocalic [inverted r] production requires two lingual constrictions: one in the mouth, and the other in the pharynx, while postvocalic and syllabic [inverted r] requires only one oral constriction. Two lingual constrictions could be difficult for young children to produce. (+info)
Cross-modal source information and spoken word recognition.
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In a cross-modal matching task, participants were asked to match visual and auditory displays of speech based on the identity of the speaker. The present investigation used this task with acoustically transformed speech to examine the properties of sound that can convey cross-modal information. Word recognition performance was also measured under the same transformations. The authors found that cross-modal matching was only possible under transformations that preserved the relative spectral and temporal patterns of formant frequencies. In addition, cross-modal matching was only possible under the same conditions that yielded robust word recognition performance. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that acoustic and optical displays of speech simultaneously carry articulatory information about both the underlying linguistic message and indexical properties of the talker. (+info)
Call recognition in the bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana: generalization along the duration continuum.
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Male bullfrogs emit multicroak, quasiharmonic advertisement calls that function in mate attraction and neighbor recognition. The degree of variability of acoustic features in these calls can influence perceptual decisions by conspecific receivers. Analysis of duration of individual croaks in spontaneous advertisement calls of a sample of males shows considerable intraindividual variability in this feature, even within short chorusing bouts. The influence of this intraindividual variability on behavior was examined in a series of evoked calling experiments. When presented with synthetic calls whose croak durations varied over the range of the natural variability in this feature, males responded similarly to intermediate and long duration croaks, but significantly less to short duration croaks. When presented with playbacks of calls with croak durations outside the natural range of variability, males again responded significantly less to shorter durations. The response gradient for duration is thus asymmetrical, with stimuli at the shorter end of the continuum evoking fewer responses than stimuli at the longer end. This asymmetry may be related to the biological demands of rejecting perception of heterospecific advertisement calls, and of mediating appropriate responses to conspecific aggressive calls. The shape of the response gradient for duration may reflect a process of stimulus generalization. (+info)
North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) ignore ships but respond to alerting stimuli.
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North Atlantic right whales were extensively hunted during the whaling era and have not recovered. One of the primary factors inhibiting their recovery is anthropogenic mortality caused by ship strikes. To assess risk factors involved in ship strikes, we used a multi-sensor acoustic recording tag to measure the responses of whales to passing ships and experimentally tested their responses to controlled sound exposures, which included recordings of ship noise, the social sounds of conspecifics and a signal designed to alert the whales. The whales reacted strongly to the alert signal, they reacted mildly to the social sounds of conspecifics, but they showed no such responses to the sounds of approaching vessels as well as actual vessels. Whales responded to the alert by swimming strongly to the surface, a response likely to increase rather than decrease the risk of collision. (+info)
Classification of natural textures in echolocation.
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Through echolocation, a bat can perceive not only the position of an object in the dark; it can also recognize its 3D structure. A tree, however, is a very complex object; it has thousands of reflective surfaces that result in a chaotic acoustic image of the tree. Technically, the acoustic image of an object is its impulse response (IR), i.e., the sum of the reflections recorded when the object is ensonified with an acoustic impulse. The extraction of the acoustic IR from the ultrasonic echo and the detailed IR analysis underlies the bats' extraordinary object-recognition capabilities. Here, a phantom-object playback experiment is developed to demonstrate that the bat Phyllostomus discolor can evaluate a statistical property of chaotic IRs, the IR roughness. The IRs of the phantom objects consisted of up to 4,000 stochastically distributed reflections. It is shown that P. discolor spontaneously classifies echoes generated with these IRs according to IR roughness. This capability enables the bats to evaluate complex natural textures, such as foliage types, in a meaningful manner. The present behavioral results and their simulations in a computer model of the bats' ascending auditory system indicate the involvement of modulation-sensitive neurons in echo analysis. (+info)
Bile duct changes in rats reinfected with Clonorchis sinensis.
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This study describes an evaluation of the sonographic, cholangiographic, pathological, and immunological findings, and the protective effect shown by rats reinfected with Clonorchis sinensis. Eight experimental rat groups were, namely, a normal control, a primary infection control, a reinfection I (reinfection 7 week after treatment following 3-week infection), a reinfection II (reinfection 2 week after treatment following 8-week infection), a reinfection III (exploration of the intrahepatic bile ducts 1 week after reinfection 4 week after treatment following 4-week infection), a superinfection, a secondary infection control, and an infection following immunization group. Sonographic and cholangiographic findings showed moderate or marked dilatation of the bile duct confluence in the primary infection control, reinfection II, and secondary infection control groups. Juvenile worms survived in the intrahepatic bile ducts 1 week after reinfection following treatment in the reinfection III group. It was concluded that reinfecting juvenile worms found during the first week following reinfection failed to survive or grow further. Anatomical, pathophysiological, or immunological changes may induce protection from reinfection in rats. (+info)
Sound generation in the searobin (Prionotus carolinus), a fish with alternate sonic muscle contraction.
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The Northern searobin (Prionotus carolinus) contracts its paired sonic muscles alternately rather than simultaneously during sound production. This study describes this phenomenon and examines its effect on sound production by recording sound and EMGs during voluntary and electrically stimulated calls. Sounds produced by a single twitch resulted in a two-part sound representing contraction and relaxation sounds. The relaxation sound of one twitch coincides with the contraction sound of the next twitch of that muscle. Maximum amplitude of evoked sounds occurs between 100 Hz and 140 Hz, approximately half the fundamental frequency of a voluntarily calling fish. The muscle is capable of following electrical stimulation at frequencies of up to 360 Hz. Rapid damping and response over a wide frequency range indicate that the swimbladder is a highly damped, broadly tuned resonator. A consequence of alternate contraction is a 3.3 dB loss in acoustic pressure due to the contraction of a single sonic muscle at a time. This decrease in amplitude is offset by a doubling of fundamental frequency and a constructive interaction between the sides of the bladder, resulting in increased amplitude of each unilaterally produced sound. The alternate contraction of the bilateral sonic muscles represents a novel solution to the inherent trade-off between speed and force of contraction in rapidly contracting sonic muscles. (+info)
Pacific and Atlantic herring produce burst pulse sounds.
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The commercial importance of Pacific and Atlantic herring (Clupea pallasii and Clupea harengus) has ensured that much of their biology has received attention. However, their sound production remains poorly studied. We describe the sounds made by captive wild-caught herring. Pacific herring produce distinctive bursts of pulses, termed Fast Repetitive Tick (FRT) sounds. These trains of broadband pulses (1.7-22 kHz) lasted between 0.6 s and 7.6 s. Most were produced at night; feeding regime did not affect their frequency, and fish produced FRT sounds without direct access to the air. Digestive gas or gulped air transfer to the swim bladder, therefore, do not appear to be responsible for FRT sound generation. Atlantic herring also produce FRT sounds, and video analysis showed an association with bubble expulsion from the anal duct region (i.e. from the gut or swim bladder). To the best of the authors' knowledge, sound production by such means has not previously been described. The function(s) of these sounds are unknown, but as the per capita rates of sound production by fish at higher densities were greater, social mediation appears likely. These sounds may have consequences for our understanding of herring behaviour and the effects of noise pollution. (+info)