SLHS FINAL

1. Difference Between Volumes and Capacities

  • Volumes are discrete, individual amounts of air in the lungs.

  • Capacities are combinations of volumes that reflect functional limits.

Definitions:

  • Tidal Volume (TV): Air inhaled or exhaled during a normal breath.

  • Inspiratory Reserve Volume (IRV): Extra air inhaled beyond a normal breath.

  • Expiratory Reserve Volume (ERV): Extra air exhaled beyond a normal breath.

  • Residual Volume (RV): Air remaining in the lungs after maximal exhalation.

  • Total Lung Capacity (TLC): Total air the lungs can hold (TV + IRV + ERV + RV).

  • Vital Capacity (VC): Maximum air exhaled after maximal inhalation (TV + IRV + ERV).

2. Speech vs. Life Breathing

Feature

Life Breathing

Speech Breathing

Inhale/exhale time

Equal

Quick inhale, long exhale

Volume used

~10% VC

~20–25% VC

Muscle use

Passive (mostly)

Active control

Purpose

Gas exchange

Speech production

3. Inhalation/Exhalation & Boyle’s Law

  • Inhalation: Diaphragm contracts → lung volume ↑ → pressure ↓ → air flows in.

  • Exhalation: Diaphragm relaxes → lung volume ↓ → pressure ↑ → air flows out.

  • Boyle’s Law: Pressure and volume are inversely related.

4. One Laryngeal Bone

  • Hyoid Bone: Only bone in the larynx, sits at the top and supports tongue and larynx.

5. Nine Laryngeal Cartilages

  • Unpaired: Thyroid, Cricoid, Epiglottis.

  • Paired: Arytenoids, Corniculates, Cuneiforms (2 of each).

  • Total = 9.

6. Vocal Fold Layers

  • Five layers: Epithelium, Superficial, Intermediate, Deep Lamina Propria, Vocalis muscle.

7. Myoelastic Aerodynamic Theory

  • Voice is produced by interaction of muscle force (myo), tissue elasticity (elastic), and airflow (aerodynamic). Vocal folds vibrate due to subglottic pressure and Bernoulli effect.

8. Harmonics

  • Given a fundamental frequency (F₀) and amplitude:

    • Harmonics = F₀ × 2, 3, 4, etc.

    • Amplitudes decrease as harmonic number increases.

9. Finding Fundamental Frequency

  • F₀ = Greatest common divisor of the component frequencies in a harmonic sound.

10. Changing Vocal Pitch

  • Change tension and length of vocal folds via cricothyroid and thyroarytenoid muscles.

11. Pitch Differences Between Speakers

  • Higher pitch: Shorter, thinner vocal folds (usually females, children).

  • Aging: Pitch lowers in women and raises in men due to hormonal changes.

12. Source-Filter Theory

  • Source: Vocal fold vibration (voiced); constriction noise (unvoiced).

  • Filter: Vocal tract shapes sound.

  • Sound = Source × Filter

13. Measuring Voice

  • Spectrograms, acoustic analysis (Praat), electroglottography, aerodynamic measures, perceptual ratings.

14. Formants

  • Resonant frequencies of the vocal tract.

  • F1 = tongue height; F2 = tongue advancement.

15. Active vs. Passive Articulators

  • Active: Move (tongue, lips).

  • Passive: Don’t move (alveolar ridge, teeth, hard palate).

16. Producing Vowels

  • F1: Affected by tongue height.

  • F2: Affected by tongue frontness/backness.

17. F1 & F2 Relationship

  • Inversely related.

  • Not identical across all speakers but patterns are similar.

18. Acoustic vs. Articulatory Vowels

  • High tongue = low F1, front tongue = high F2.

  • Acoustic data aligns with tongue placement.

19. Speaker Differences in Formants

  • Vocal tract length, shape, and age/sex differences.

20. Articulation

  • Shaping sound into speech using articulators.

  • Purpose: Clear, accurate communication.

21. Vowel vs. Consonant Production

  • Vowels: Open vocal tract, voiced.

  • Consonants: Constriction, may be voiced or voiceless.

22. Manner, Place, Voicing

  • Manner: How airflow is modified (e.g., stop, fricative).

  • Place: Where articulation occurs.

  • Voicing: Vocal fold vibration (voiced/voiceless).

23. Types of Consonants

  • Stops: Full closure (p, b).

  • Nasals: Air through nose (m, n).

  • Fricatives: Narrow constriction (f, s).

  • Affricates: Stop + fricative (ch, j).

  • Approximants: Close but not turbulent (l, r).

  • Glides: Move articulators (w, j).

24. Tongue Tip & Lip in Vowels

  • Lip rounding affects F2.

  • Tongue tip/lip position shape vowel resonance.

25. Assimilation

  • One sound becomes more like a nearby sound.

26. Coarticulation

  • Overlap in articulation of sounds.

  • Affects how we produce/perceive speech smoothly.

27. Lack of Segmentability

  • Speech is continuous; hard to isolate individual sounds.

28. Prosody Components

  • Intonation, stress, rhythm, pitch, loudness, duration.

29. Conduction vs. Transduction

  • Conduction: Moving sound through structures.

  • Transduction: Converting energy (sound → neural signals).

30. Outer Ear

  • Functions: Amplify sound, localization.

  • Landmark: Tympanic membrane (eardrum).

31. Resonant Frequency Calculation

  • Depends on length of vocal tract/ear canal. λ = 4L for open-closed tubes.

32. Middle Ear Structures & Functions

  • Ossicles (malleus, incus, stapes): Conduct/amplify sound.

  • Tympanic membrane: Vibrates to incoming sound.

33. Eustachian Tube

  • Equalizes pressure between middle ear and atmosphere.

34. Impedance Matching

  • Overcomes resistance from air to fluid.

  • Necessary for efficient energy transfer.

35. Amplification vs. Attenuation

  • Amplification: Lever action of ossicles, area difference.

  • Attenuation: Acoustic reflex protects inner ear from loud sounds.

36. Interaural Differences

  • ITD (Timing): Helps locate low-frequency sounds.

  • ILD (Level): Helps locate high-frequency sounds.

37. Cochlear Chambers

  • Scala vestibuli, scala media, scala tympani.

38. Organ of Hearing

  • Organ of Corti on basilar membrane in scala media.

  • Sensory cells: Hair cells.

39. Cochlear Movement

  • Traveling wave pattern.

  • High freq = base, low freq = apex.

40. Tonotopic Organization

  • Base = high freq; apex = low freq.

  • Maintained throughout auditory pathway.

41. Inner vs. Outer Hair Cells

  • Inner: Send sound info to brain.

  • Outer: Amplify and fine-tune response.

42. Cochlear Transduction Events

  • Stapes vibrates → fluid moves → basilar membrane moves → hair cells bend → neurotransmitter release → auditory nerve activated.

43. Auditory Nerve Origin

  • From hair cells in the cochlea.

44. Central Auditory System

  • Brainstem, midbrain, thalamus, auditory cortex.

45. Brainstem/Midbrain Structures

  • Cochlear nucleus, superior olivary complex, inferior colliculus.

46. Afferent vs. Efferent Fibers

  • Afferent: To brain (sound info).

  • Efferent: From brain (modulate sensitivity).

47. Auditory Cortex

  • Located in temporal lobe.

  • Organized tonotopically.

48. Sound Aspects to Cortex

  • Frequency, intensity, timing.

  • Encoded by place, firing rate, and phase locking.

49. Neural vs. Acoustic Speech Match

  • Strong match. Equal loudness curves show sensitivity to mid frequencies (speech range).

50. Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down

  • Bottom-up: Acoustic signal drives perception.

  • Top-down: Use of context/experience.

51. Talker Normalization

  • Adjust perception based on speaker characteristics.

  • Use: Acoustic info + linguistic knowledge.

52. Categorical Perception

  • Perceiving sounds in categories.

  • Tasks: Identification, discrimination.

53. CP in Languages

  • Different across languages.

  • English/Spanish CP: Listeners tuned to native contrasts.

54. Motor Theory

  • Speech perceived via motor gestures.

  • Speech is special; not like general sound perception.

55. Auditory Theories

  • Rely on general auditory processing.

  • Speech processed similarly to other complex sounds.