Maëva GARNIER | Grenoble University (original) (raw)

Papers by Maëva GARNIER

Stuttering is characterized by respiratory, laryngeal and articulatory peculiarities, especially ... more Stuttering is characterized by respiratory, laryngeal and articulatory peculiarities, especially when the to-be-produced speech is complex. This study examined the glottal behaviour in people who stutter (PWS) during production of simple bilabial (/p/, /b/, /m/) and complex (/pR/, /bR/) onsets. It was hypothesized that the glottal behavior of PWS presented idiosyncrasies, compared to people who do not stutter (PNS) and that these were modulated by the complexity of the onset. Producing semi-spontaneous speech with embedded target words, acoustic and EGG data were collected from 4 PWS and 4 PNS. From the perceptually fluent productions, duration of bilabial occlusion, intensity, open quotient (OQ), difference in intensity, pitch and laryngeal OQ between occlusion-phase and following vowel were measured. No significant differences in glottal behavior were found between PWS and PNS. However, compared to PNS, PWS devoiced voiced consonants significantly more, which motivates a larger-sc...

For most singers, being able to sing more loudly, or to sing with less effort and strain, or a co... more For most singers, being able to sing more loudly, or to sing with less effort and strain, or a combination of both is a desirable goal. One way of achieving increased acoustic efficiency is to tune the resonances of the vocal tract to the fundamental frequency of the note sung and/ or to one of its higher harmonics. To what extent do they do that? This presentation reviews recent studies by the authors on resonance tuning in singing. We use a technique that measures the acoustic impedance spectrum of the tract (roughly speaking its frequency response) during singing. The most widespread tuning strategy is to match the first vocal tract resonance to the fundamental of the note sung, a technique practiced by many sopranos, whether trained or not, and also by lower voices on closed vowels towards the top of their ranges. Tuning of the first resonance to the second harmonic is practised by altos in belting and in Bulgarian singing. Much less consistently, male singers sometimes tune tha...

This work originates from the observation that some people are more likely than others to develop... more This work originates from the observation that some people are more likely than others to develop voice disorders when they often have to communicate in adverse conditions such as noisy environments. This thesis aims at understanding what induces these differences, in order to prevent vocal straining. To account for these differences in sensibility, previous studies have essentially focused on the variability in physiological constitutions as well as on the environmental factors people subject to vocal straining are confronted with. The work presented here rather explores the hypothesis that these differences could also result from an adaptation behaviour of the speaker to the particular communicative situation. Firstly, we examined how the different acoustic and articulatory speech modifications can be interpreted as indicators of communicative strategies adopted by the speaker to emerge from the ambient noise, to facilitate the audiovisual perception of phonetic units, to enhance ...

Ce travail part de l'observation que certaines personnes sont plus susceptibles que d'aut... more Ce travail part de l'observation que certaines personnes sont plus susceptibles que d'autres de developper des troubles de la voix lorsqu'elles sont amenees a communiquer frequemment dans des conditions perturbees telles que des environnements bruyants. Le but de cette these est de comprendre l'origine de ces differences afin de prevenir le forcage vocal. Jusqu'a maintenant, l'explication de ces differentes sensibilites a ete principalement cherchee du cote de la variabilite des constitutions physiologiques et des facteurs environnementaux auxquels sont confrontees ces personnes. Au cours de ce travail, nous allons plutot explorer l'hypothese que ces differences puissent egalement provenir du comportement d'adaptation du locuteur a la situation de communication. C'est pourquoi nous avons tout d'abord examine en quoi les differentes modifications acoustiques et articulatoires peuvent etre interpretees en terme de strategies de communication vis...

The neural correlates of inner language are still illdefined. Several varieties need further exam... more The neural correlates of inner language are still illdefined. Several varieties need further examination: deliberate monologal or dialogical inner speech and unbidden inner language during mind wandering. Using fMRI, we probed varieties of inner speech along dialogicality and intentionality in 24 healthy participants, during five tasks: speech perception, monological self voice inner speech, monological other voice inner speech, dialogical other voice inner speech, and mind wandering with verbal episodes. Results are interpreted within a predictive control account in which intentional inner speech is viewed as deriving from multisensory goals, transformed into motor commands. Efference copies of the inhibited motor commands are converted into predicted percepts (inner voice). Based on the comparison between the five tasks we report the neural correlates of dialogicality and intentionality in inner speech.

The upper limit of the useful range for many sopranos is around C6 or ‘high C’. Others can extend... more The upper limit of the useful range for many sopranos is around C6 or ‘high C’. Others can extend their range well above this. This study investigated how sopranos use the resonances of their vocal tracts in the high and very high ranges. Twelve sopranos (4 non experts, 4 advanced, 4 professionals) produced glissandi up to their highest note (from 1000 to 2300 Hz). Later, they sustained pitches on [a] vowels, from A4 (~440 Hz) to their highest sustainable note, while the frequencies (R1 and R2) of the first two vocal tract resonances were measured by broadband excitation at the mouth. Adjustment of R1 near to f 0 (R1:f 0 tuning) was observed below C6 for both expert and nonexpert singers. Experts began this tuning at lower pitches. Some singers also exhibited R2:2f 0 adjustment over the lower part of the R1:f 0 tuning range. In the very high range (above C6), the singers used one of two strategies. Some extended the R1:f 0 tuning as far as E6 or F#6. Others adjusted R2 near f 0 over...

Twelve sopranos (4 non experts, 4 advanced, 4 professionals) produced glissandi up to their highe... more Twelve sopranos (4 non experts, 4 advanced, 4 professionals) produced glissandi up to their highest note (from 1000 to 2300 Hz). Later, they sustained pitches on [a] vowels, from A4 (~440 Hz) to their highest sustainable note. Between C5 and G5, all singers demonstrated a significant decrease in amplitude of the electroglottograph signal with increasing pitch, together with a change in waveform. This modification in glottal contact was either continuous, over a few tones range, or discontinuous, accompanied on glissandi by a pitch jump. Two singers could vary the pitch of this transition and therefore presented an overlap range over which they could produce either a 'full head' or a 'fluty' quality. Transition from one quality to the other on the same note was discontinuous and accompanied by a pitch jump. No other significant modification in glottal contact was observed at higher pitch. The frequencies (R1 and R2) of the first two vocal tract resonances were measure...

Cet article propose une revue de la litterature sur le forcage vocal ainsi qu'une nouvelle de... more Cet article propose une revue de la litterature sur le forcage vocal ainsi qu'une nouvelle definition du forcage vocal comme strategie d'adaptation inefficace face a une situation de communication perturbee. Nous presentons les implications methodologiques de cette nouvelle definition pour l'etude de la parole produite dans des environnements bruyants, au niveau du moyen d'immersion dans le bruit, de la presence d'un interlocuteur, de l'instant des mesures. Deux etudes acoustiques et articulatoires illustrent par leur protocole et leurs resultats cette conception de la parole dans le bruit comme strategie individuelle d'adaptation.

Background in performance. In the field of lyrical singing, an extensive terminology is dedicated... more Background in performance. In the field of lyrical singing, an extensive terminology is dedicated to voice quality description. Among the many terms, some are used with consistent meaning by virtually all voice specialists, whereas others, which are more metaphorical or aesthetic, have multiple meanings despite their frequent use. The descriptors used by voice specialists deal not only with perceived sound, but also with the production of sound. Background in acoustics. Acousticians do not have a specific vocabulary for describing vocal sounds. They often make use of terms related to timbre. Many studies conducted on the determination of physical criteria for voice-quality description imply a listening focused on voice spectral content and transient phenomena. Aims. Perception of voice quality is subjective and depends on the listener's own experiences and expectations. However, a consensus on its verbal description can be found, in a similar way that a technical vocabulary exis...

This study aims at characterizing the acoustic and articulatory modifications that occur in speec... more This study aims at characterizing the acoustic and articulatory modifications that occur in speech in noisy environments, and at examining them as compensatory strategies. Audio, EGG and video signals were recorded for a female native speaker of French. The corpus consisted of short sentences with a subject-verb-object (SVO) structure. The sentences were recorded in three conditions: silence, 85dB white noise, and 85dB cocktail party noise. Labial parameters were extracted from the video data. The analyses enabled us to examine the effect of the type of noise and to show that hyper-articulation concerns lip aperture and spreading rather than lip pinching. The analysis of the relationship between acoustic and articulatory parameters shows that this speaker especially adapts to noise not only by talking louder or increasing vowel recognition cues but also by increasing spectral emergence.

The wide range of the singing voice, from below C2 (65 Hz) to above F6 (1397 Hz), requires a numb... more The wide range of the singing voice, from below C2 (65 Hz) to above F6 (1397 Hz), requires a number of strategies that can involve different mechanisms of laryngeal vibration and various adjustments of the vocal tract resonances. The adjustments are made because a vocal tract resonance can boost the radiation of a voice harmonic when it falls close to a resonance frequency. Here we report how singers with different voice categories tune their vocal tract resonances. For the lower voices, the lowest resonance R1 is sometimes tuned to a high harmonic, while high voices consistently tune R1 to the fundamental over a range of about C5 to C6 (523 to 1046 Hz). The second resonance, R2, can be simultaneously tuned to the second harmonic in the pitch range C5 to F5 (523 to 700 Hz). At the very highest pitches, sopranos can no longer increase R1 sufficiently and must then switch to adjusting R2 so its frequency is close to that of the fundamental.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether speech in noisy environments consists of global ... more The purpose of this study was to examine whether speech in noisy environments consists of global acoustic and articulatory modifications or if there are some changes specific to units within the utterance. Changes on a more local level could be interpreted as a controlled intelligibility enhancement of specific speech cues such as cues to word segmentation or prosodic phrasing. Audio and video signals were recorded for a female native speaker of French in three conditions: silence, 85dB white noise, and 85dB “cocktail party” noise. The corpus consisted of 33 short sentences with a subject-verb-object (SVO) structure. Labial parameters were extracted from the video data. A controlled intelligibility enhancement in noise was observed for some cues to word segmentation and utterance structure.

Le but de cette etude est de caracteriser les modifications acoustiques et articulatoires en envi... more Le but de cette etude est de caracteriser les modifications acoustiques et articulatoires en environnement bruyant et a les examiner en tant que strategies compensatoires. Nous avons enregistre les signaux Audio, EGG et video d'une locutrice francaise. Le corpus consistait en 33 phrases courtes de structure Sujet-Verbe-Object (SVO). Les phrases etaient enregistrees dans 3 conditions : silence, 85dB de bruit blanc, 85dB de bruit "cocktail party" . Des parametres labiaux ont ete extraits des donnees video. Les analyses nous ont permis d'examiner l'effet du type de bruit et de montrer que l'hyper-articulation concerne davantage l'ouverture et l'etirement des levres que leur pincement. L'analyse des relations entre les parametres acoustiques et articulatoires montre que cette locutrice s'adapte au bruit pas seulement en parlant plus fort ou en renforcant les indices de reconnaissance des voyelles, mais aussi en ameliorant l'emergence spectrale.

In this study we explore how acoustic and lip articulatory characteristics of bilabial consonants... more In this study we explore how acoustic and lip articulatory characteristics of bilabial consonants and three extreme French vowels vary in Lombard speech. In the light of several theories of segments perception we have shown that formant modifications should decrease the audio intelligibility of vowels in noise. On the contrary, modification in lip articulation should improve the visual intelligibility of vowels and bilabial consonants. This is not in agreement with previous studies which reported a global increased intelligibility of Lombard speech especially in the audio domain and not a lot in the visual one [1-3]. Thus, more detailed research is needed about the segmental and prosodic contribution to the increased intelligibility of Lombard speech Index Terms: Lombard speech, production, audiovisual cues.

IntroductionThe goal of this study is to describe precisely orofacial muscle activities during la... more IntroductionThe goal of this study is to describe precisely orofacial muscle activities during labial stop consonant production (/p/, /b/), as a function of the vowel context and level of articulatory effort. This work raises several methodological problems: First, the high muscle density of the lip region raises some concerns with the use of surface electromyography to investigate lip movements, since there may be some signal crosstalk between the different pairs of electrodes positioned on different lip muscles. Second, for the production of a labial stop consonant the precise lip movement during the closing and opening gestures is crucial for speech acoustics. We propose to decompose these gestures into several basic phases, lip closing, lip compression and lip opening, during which the precise muscle coordination will be investigated.Material and methodsFour adult subjects without speech disorders were recorded in laboratory conditions while producing the logatoms /lepa/, /leba/...

Most of the scientific research on singing voice has focused on classical and operatic singing. W... more Most of the scientific research on singing voice has focused on classical and operatic singing. While music theatre and contemporary voice are growing in popularity within Western musical culture, less is known about safe and effective training methods, aesthetics and vocal health for students of these vocal styles. A number of recent developments in voice science for this style, collectively known as Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) offer evidence-based research to assist teachers in finding their way through the maze of conflicting information and opinion. In particular, voice qualities such as ‘belt', ‘mix' and ‘legit' that are used in music theatre vocal styles involve very different laryngeal behaviours and vocal tract adjustments compared with those used by classical singers. The differences are greatest around the transition area between the two main laryngeal mechanisms, perceptually described as ‘chest' or ‘head' registers. The findings so far suggest...