Gestures and speech converge during spoken language production. Although the temporal relationship of gestures and speech is thought to depend upon factors such as prosodic stress and word onset, the effects of controlled alterations in the speech signal upon the degree of synchrony between manual gestures and speech is uncertain. Thus, the precise nature of the interactive mechanism of speech-gesture production, or lack thereof, is not agreed upon or even frequently postulated. In Experiment 1, syllable position and contrastive stress were manipulated during sentence production to investigate the synchronization of speech and pointing gestures. An additional aim of Experiment 2 was to investigate the temporal relationship of speech and pointing gestures when speech is perturbed with delayed auditory feedback (DAF). Comparisons between the time of gesture apex and vowel midpoint (GA-VM) for each of the conditions were made for both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. Additional comparisons of the interval between gesture launch midpoint to vowel midpoint (GLM-VM), total gesture time, gesture launch time, and gesture return time were made for Experiment 2. The results for the first experiment indicated that gestures were more synchronized with first position syllables and neutral syllables as measured GA-VM intervals. The first position syllable effect was also found in the second experiment. However, the results from Experiment 2 supported an effect of contrastive pitch effect. GLM-VM was shorter for first position targets and accented syllables. In addition, gesture launch times and total gesture times were longer for contrastive pitch accented syllables, especially when in the second position of words. Contrary to the predictions, significantly longer GA-VM and GLM-VM intervals were observed when individuals responded under provided delayed auditory feedback (DAF). Vowel and sentence durations increased both with (DAF) and when a contrastive accented syllable was produced. Vowels were longest for accented, second position syllables. These findings provide evidence that the timing of gesture is adjusted based upon manipulations of the speech stream. A potential mechanism of entrainment of the speech and gesture system is offered as an explanation for the observed effects.

This investigation examined the comprehension of complex language in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) soldiers, who have been diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury upon return from deployment. This experiment used the sentence structure known as a garden path sentence, where the ambiguity of the sentence leads the mind down the path to the wrong interpretation, to test the language comprehension skills of veterans diagnosed with mTBI and controls. Accuracy and reaction time were measured by answering comprehension questions about both garden path sentences and non-garden path sentences. Results demonstrated that the subjects with mTBI had difficulty with complex language which did not contain strong pragmatic cues, but that reaction times were not significantly different compared to the control subjects.

The current study investigated the effect of interferon-á (IFN-á) on the cochlear cell line to shed light on the mechanisms by which interferon alpha may affect hearing. HEI-OC1 cell line and real time-PCR were used to determine the expression of those genes that might be involved in these mechanisms. Dose- (20, 40, & 80 U/ml) and time-dependent experiment-1 did not show significant alteration in gene expression associated with the stimulations of the IFN-á receptors. Therefore, a second experiment was planned. A 3 X 4 factorial design, consisting of three treatment conditions (0, 200 & 2000U/ml) and four time-points (6, 12, 24 & 48 Hrs), was employed. The results of experiment-2 revealed that significant differential expression of inflammatory genes, immune response genes and apoptotic genes is found in a dose- and time-dependent manner. This outcome indicates that IFN-á treatment led to initiation of an inflammatory response, an immune response and apoptosis of the cochlear cells, which was confirmed by a reduction in cell viability. The immune response was the most pronounced response; whereas inflammatory the apoptotic responses were transient. Therefore, the current in-vitro study indicates that the inflammatory response, the immune response and apoptosis might be the underlying mechanisms involved in the hearing impairment previously reported in patients under IFN-á therapy. These results imply that pre-treatment hearing evaluation as well as close monitoring of hearing function in patients undergoing long-term high-dose of IFN-á therapy are necessary to avoid or to minimize its adverse effect on hearing. The results also indicate that there is a need for further investigation of other markers that might be involved in signaling pathways of IFN-á, including markers for intrinsic pathway of apoptosis and antiapoptotic markers as well as markers for necrosis. This information might open an avenue for therapeutic intervention that can protect the inner ear from the ototoxic effect of some medications in general and IFN-á in particular and treat some immune-mediated inner ear disorders. In addition, this information might help in identifying novel diagnostic markers for vulnerability, severity, and outcomes of any cochlear pathology.

Introduction: Speech-language pathology is a relatively new clinical discipline in Taiwan. There is a paucity of standardized assessment tools available in Mandarin Chinese. For example, there is one standardized test for aphasia, the Concise Chinese Aphasia Test (CCAT). Because no single assessment tool can serve all assessment purposes, it is important to develop new assessment tools to meet various clinical needs. One test that is culturally neutral, provides easy translation and has a long history of successful psychometric development is the Revised Token Test (RTT). This test has been computerized (Computerized-RTT CRTT) and was selected for translation and validation in Mandarin Chinese. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the concurrent validity of the translated CRTT by comparing the performance of normal participants and persons with aphasia (PWA) on this test, to their performance on the CCAT. Method and Procedures: The translation of the CRTT (CRTT-Mandarin) was first validated. This translation was recorded auditorily by a native speaker and the recording was assessed for articulatory and prosodic accuracy. The CCAT and the CRTT-Mandarin were administered to 11 PWA, and 19 normal individuals. All participants were native Chinese speakers, between 38 and 80 years of age, and without premorbid history of speech, language, hearing or learning disorders. Participants were assigned the CRTT-Mandarin and the CCAT randomly and all participants finished the two tests within ten days. Results: Statistical analyses revealed significant differences between groups on the overall and subtest scores of the CRTT-Mandarin. Correlation coefficients computed between the CRTT-Mandarin overall and between subtest scores and each of the CCAT subtest and overall scores were low and nonsignificant for both participant. However, when the groups were combined, the correlations were predominantly high (>.70) and significant (p<.05). Discussion: The CRTT-Mandarin distinguished comprehension performance between PWA and normal controls. This finding, along with the high correlations between the CRTT-Mandarin and the CCAT, provide preliminary concurrent validity for the CRTT-Mandarin. Small sample sizes are a substantive limitation of the study. Future work will establish additional concurrent validity, reliability, sensitivity, specificity, and other psychometric data for the test using larger sample sizes.

Introduction: Eating and drinking are essential components of everyday life. Adequate nutrition and hydration need to be maintained for growth and development. Many social gatherings/events revolve around eating and drinking. When something goes wrong with any part of eating or drinking it is called dysphagia. Children right through to adults and the elderly can have problems with eating and drinking. Problems eating or drinking in children could impact the family and create more stress for parents. Methods: Data from three scales including the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, The Functional Status II(R) and the Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Family Impact Scale-Revised were provided and analyzed. Data were analyzed using a Pearson product-moment correlation. Demographic information was provided as well. Students t-tests were done on groups of participants to assess if there was a difference in means. Spearman rank correlations were done to determine relationships between ranked groups, such as income bracket, and each of the scales. Pearson product-moment correlations were done on continuous groups and the three scales to determine relationships. Results: A significant correlation of was found between the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form and the Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Impact Scale-Revised. An inverse significant correlation was found between the Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Family Impact Scale-Revised and the Functional Status II(R). Results revealed a significant inverse relationship between the Parenting Stress Index Short Form and the Functional Status II(R). A difference in reported scores was found on the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form of children with feeding tubes and children without feeding tubes. Scores from parents of children with feeding tubes on the Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Disorders Family Impact Scale-Revised differed versus those without a feeding tube.

The understanding of the relationship between attention and normal language processing can provide insight into the underpinnings of language disorders. Dual-task experiments can be used to understand the allocation of attention during different stages of word production. The central bottleneck model posits that while the central (response selection) stage of any cognitive task is being carried out, the same stage of any other task cannot be simultaneously carried out. The central bottleneck model permits the testing of specific hypotheses about the attentional requirements of particular elements of competing tasks. One purpose of the current study was to determine if the process of lemma selection can be said to require central attention. A secondary aim of this study was to determine whether name agreement is a variable that can be used to index lemma selection. A preliminary study was conducted to construct a set of pictures with high and low name agreement that were balanced on important confounding variables. The main experiment was a dual-task experiment involving tone identification and picture naming. Name agreement effects were examined in the dual-task experiment. The effects were investigated in relation to the central bottleneck model, word production models, and the semantic picture-word interference effect. Low name agreement due to multiple correct names was employed. Tone identification was the primary task, while picture naming was the secondary task. Average picture naming reaction times were significantly longer for low than for high name agreement condition across levels of stimulus onset asynchrony. The results are consistent with a locus of the name agreement effect at the central, response selection stage of the central bottleneck model.

Effects of Repetition on Phonation Threshold Pressure Task Performance Christina A. Dastolfo, M.S. University of Pittsburgh, 2011 ABSTRACT Purpose: Phonation threshold pressure (PTP) is a widely used measure to evaluate vocal fold structure and function. Although concerns have been expressed about PTPs vulnerability to shifts as a function of practice, to date no study has addressed this question systematically. The present study addresses that gap at a preliminary, exploratory level. Methods: Nineteen vocally healthy women between 19-27 yrs were recruited into the study. Participants were screened for normal vocal function and self-reported normal learning abilities. Each participant performed a standard PTP task at her 80%ile pitch across 5 practice blocks on two consecutive study days under the same experimental conditions. Results: All participants improved both PTP and PTP standard deviation (SD) values from first to best block in the study, without any specific interventions. Statistical analyses confirmed participants as a group improved in average PTP performance from first to best block within and across experimental days. Individual data showed changes ranged from 0.67 5.42 cm H20 (mean = 2.42 cm H20). Improvements in SDs were also significant, ranging from 0.28-2.39 cm H20 improvement shown by individual data. Conclusions: The data suggest caution is warranted in the interpretation of PTP changes subsequent to research and clinical interventions, and provide initial estimates of changes that may occur with task repetition alone. Results from the present study provide motivation for further systematic work on repetition effects on PTP performance.

Wright et al. (2007) tested Persons with Aphasia (PWA) using three N-Back tasks featuring different types of linguistic information phonological, semantic, and syntactic -- to determine whether Verbal Working Memory (VWM) is a single, united resource. The current study tested three PWA with the same tasks, as well as an additional vision-focused task, to expand on this previous research; two groups of cognitively normal individuals were tested using the same protocol to provide a baseline for comparison. Results from the unimpaired groups indicated no effects of aging, and significant differences in performance across all types of information except phonological and visual cues. Results from PWA were inconclusive. The N-Back task, however, was found to cause misleading patterns in accuracy scores for some tests; sensitivity scores are suggested as a better measure of performance on this testing paradigm.

This study profiled auditory steady-state response amplitudes in children (i.e., six to nine years of age) and in adults (i.e., 18 to 35 years of age) over a wide range of repetition rates, specifically a range well embracing component waves of conventionally stimulated and recorded transient auditory evoked responses. Response amplitudes were measured at repetition rates from 0.75 to 80 Hz. Repetition rates of 10 Hz or less have received little attention in the context of the ASSR approach which is speculated to provide technical advantages, if not additional information, to the more traditional transient protocols, at least for some applications as follows: (1) to permit characterization of subject age-dependent amplitudes; (2) to allow an exploratory examination of the effects of repetition rate on response amplitude during natural sleep, to demonstrate if results differed from those obtained when subjects were awake, and (3) to explore the use of both the fundamental and harmonics in the characterization of the response amplitude versus the typical measure of amplitude in transient analysis. Planned comparisons were conducted to evaluate the amplitude differences observed between the age groups (i.e., children and adults) and between arousal conditions (i.e., adults awake and adults asleep) across modulation frequencies. The results of this study show that the amplitude was largest at the two lowest modulation frequencies for both adults and children. Furthermore, response amplitudes for children were significantly higher than those for adults at all modulation frequencies up to 5 Hz. Response amplitudes for adults during sleep also were significantly higher than those responses of adults while awake at 0.75 and 1.25 Hz. Good reliability overall was observed for these response measures in both adults and children. An amplitude measure defined as the harmonic sum yielded results paralleling the profile of response amplitudes as a function of repetition rate that may be extracted from the literature, although with some differences, the significance of which remains to be determined. Of pragmatic importance is that this profile could be determined without subjective wave identification and/or interpretation and thus by a method that is inherently more objective than conventional, transient AEP tests.

<p>Recent progress in professional policy and legislation at the federal level in the field of forensic science constructs a transformation of new outcomes for future experts. An exploratory and descriptive qualitative methodology was used to critique and examine Digital and Multimedia Science (DMS) as a justified forensic discipline. Chapter I summarizes Recommendations 1, 2, and 10 of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Report 2009 regarding disparities and challenges facing the forensic science community. Chapter I also delivers the overall foundation and framework of this thesis, specifically how it relates to DMS. Chapter II expands on Recommendation 1: &ldquo;<i>The Promotion and Development of Forensic Science</i>,&rdquo; and focuses chronologically on professional policy and legislative advances through 2014. Chapter III addresses Recommendation 2: &ldquo;<i>The Standardization of Terminology in Reporting and Testimony</i>,&rdquo; and the issues of legal language and terminology, model laboratory reports, and expert testimony concerning DMS case law. Chapter IV analyzes Recommendation 10: &ldquo;<i>Insufficient Education and Training</i>,&rdquo; identifying legal awareness for the digital and multimedia examiner to understand the role of the expert witness, the attorney, the judge and the admission of forensic science evidence in litigation in our criminal justice system. Finally, Chapter V studies three DME specific laboratories at the Texas state, county, and city level, concentrating on current practice and procedure. </p>