Spectrotemporal Modulation Sensitivity in Speech and Melody Processing Among Mandarin Speakers

Auteurs

Lyu B, Li Y, Albouy P, Morillon B, Zatorre RJ, Du Y

Les auteurs en lien sont membres de l'INS.

Équipes

D-CAP

Résumé

Objectives: Spectrotemporal acoustical markers enable humans to distinguish between speech and song across diverse cultures. Prior research revealed an asymmetric sensitivity in auditory processing: melody perception is more susceptible to spectral degradation, whereas speech sentence perception is more affected by temporal degradation. However, these findings have primarily been based on non-tonal languages, raising questions about how tonal languages, such as Mandarin, might influence these sensitivity patterns. This study investigates how Mandarin speakers process spectrotemporal features in speech and melody, addressing whether tonal language experience modulates the asymmetric spectrotemporal modulation sensitivity patterns observed in non-tonal languages. Design: Twenty-five Mandarin-speaking participants were recruited in the main experiment to discriminate speech or melody content of Mandarin songs under conditions of varying spectral or temporal degradation. An additional 25 participants in the control experiment listened to degraded hummed melodies or spoken sentences under similar degradation conditions. Results: Consistent with findings in non-tonal language speakers, M

Objectives: Spectrotemporal acoustical markers enable humans to distinguish between speech and song across diverse cultures. Prior research revealed an asymmetric sensitivity in auditory processing: melody perception is more susceptible to spectral degradation, whereas speech sentence perception is more affected by temporal degradation. However, these findings have primarily been based on non-tonal languages, raising questions about how tonal languages, such as Mandarin, might influence these sensitivity patterns. This study investigates how Mandarin speakers process spectrotemporal features in speech and melody, addressing whether tonal language experience modulates the asymmetric spectrotemporal modulation sensitivity patterns observed in non-tonal languages. Design: Twenty-five Mandarin-speaking participants were recruited in the main experiment to discriminate speech or melody content of Mandarin songs under conditions of varying spectral or temporal degradation. An additional 25 participants in the control experiment listened to degraded hummed melodies or spoken sentences under similar degradation conditions. Results: Consistent with findings in non-tonal language speakers, M

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