Lee Jaewook, Ali Hussnain, Ziaei Ali, Tobey Emily A, Hansen John H L
Center for Robust Speech Systems-Cochlear Implant Lab (CRSS-CIL), Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 West Campbell Road, Richardson, Texas 75080, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2017 Apr;141(4):2788. doi: 10.1121/1.4979927.
The Lombard effect is an involuntary response speakers experience in the presence of noise during voice communication. This phenomenon is known to cause changes in speech production such as an increase in intensity, pitch structure, formant characteristics, etc., for enhanced audibility in noisy environments. Although well studied for normal hearing listeners, the Lombard effect has received little, if any, attention in the field of cochlear implants (CIs). The objective of this study is to analyze speech production of CI users who are postlingually deafened adults with respect to environmental context. A total of six adult CI users were recruited to produce spontaneous speech in various realistic environments. Acoustic-phonetic analysis was then carried out to characterize their speech production in these environments. The Lombard effect was observed in the speech production of all CI users who participated in this study in adverse listening environments. The results indicate that both suprasegmental (e.g., F0, glottal spectral tilt and vocal intensity) and segmental (e.g., F1 for /i/ and /u/) features were altered in such environments. The analysis from this study suggests that modification of speech production of CI users under the Lombard effect may contribute to some degree an intelligible communication in adverse noisy environments.
伦巴德效应是说话者在语音交流中处于噪声环境时所经历的一种非自主反应。已知这种现象会导致语音产生变化，如强度增加、音高结构、共振峰特征等，以便在嘈杂环境中提高可听度。尽管对听力正常的听众已有充分研究，但伦巴德效应在人工耳蜗（CI）领域却很少受到关注（即便有也极少）。本研究的目的是分析语后聋成年人工耳蜗使用者在不同环境背景下的语音产生情况。总共招募了六名成年人工耳蜗使用者，让他们在各种现实环境中进行自发语音。然后进行声学语音分析，以描述他们在这些环境中的语音产生特征。在参与本研究的所有人工耳蜗使用者于不利听力环境下的语音产生中都观察到了伦巴德效应。结果表明，在这种环境下，超音段特征（如基频、声门频谱倾斜度和发声强度）和音段特征（如/i/和/u/的F1）都会发生改变。本研究的分析表明，在伦巴德效应下人工耳蜗使用者语音产生的改变可能在一定程度上有助于在不利嘈杂环境中的可懂度交流。
