Typologie d'actualités: speech

The nature of speech representations in the “literate brain”

We are pleased to announce the latest article published by Chotiga Pattamadilok (LPL) , Shuai Wang (LPL, ILCB) , Deirdre Bolger (ILCB) and Anne-Sophie Dubarry (CRPN). This study was carried out using the EGI recording system of the Laboratoire Parole et Langage (LPL):

Reference: Chotiga Pattamadilok, Shuai Wang, Deirdre Bolger, Anne-Sophie Dubarry. Learning to read transforms phonological into phonographic representations. Scientific Reports, 2025, 15, ⟨10.1038/s41598-025-88650-9⟩.

Full-text article: https://hal.science/hal-04975350v1

Abstract:
The ability to understand speech in one's native language is considered universal. This assumption implies that literate and illiterate people recognize spoken words in the same way. Our study provides new neurophysiological evidence against this assertion, showing that the speech representations stored in the “phonological” lexicon of literate people are contaminated by orthographic features. This observation calls into question the universality of spoken word recognition models that have been built exclusively on the basis of results obtained from literate participants.

 

Photo credits:
1) lil_foot_ / Pixabay
2) EGI system / LPL

How to assess the risk of virus transmission through speech?

As early as spring 2020, several members of the LPL and La Conception Hospital were working on the risks of spreading the SARS-Cov-2 virus, particularly when dealing with swallowing disorders or dysphonia. Based on this initial work, the SpeedVel study was financed and carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the Institut Universitaire des Systèmes Thermiques et Industriels in Marseille, to analyze droplets emitted in oral communication situations, in order to better assess the risk of contamination.

We are pleased to announce the publication of detailed results from the SpeedVel project in the journal Language Resources et Evaluation:

Reference: Francesca Carbone, Gilles Bouchet, Alain Ghio, Thierry Legou, Carine André, Muriel Lalain, Caterina Petrone, Antoine Giovanni. Investigating Droplet Emission During Speech Interaction. Language Resources and Evaluation, 2024, ⟨10.1007/s10579-024-09789-x⟩. ⟨hal-04385770v2⟩

Abstract & full-text article: https://hal.science/hal-04385770

Credits: SpeedVel / LPL

The maths of speech!

The LPL has been invited one more time at the Maths Fair, a popular science event organized by the association “Maths for everyone”, in partnership with the CIRM. The fair, which invites primary, secondary and high school students to discover mathematics from a different angle, was held on Thursday, May 11 in the town of Rognac (34 booths in total).

This event offers conferences, numerous stands and activities provided by provided by researchers, teachers and students aiming to promote mathematics.

The LPL booth was about “The maths of speech” and was animated by Alain Ghio and Audrey Fokeer, a master student in language sciences and currently an intern at the LPL. They presented to the public the functioning of speech, with demonstrations with Coke bottles to understand the phenomena of geometry and resonance. Examples of the sounds of Tanzania’s languages or of patients with voice disorders were also discussed. Finally, they offered a demonstration of an automatic online transcription system which – despite the noise – is working better and better.

As a reminder, in 2019, Alain Ghio and Gilles Pouchoulin had already participated in the same fair in Aix-en-Provence.

Credits: A. Ghio and A. Fokeer

 

The Carnot Cognition Institute validates the funding of the PATY project

We are pleased to announce that Alain Ghio, research engineer at the LPL, has just obtained funding for the research project “Processing platform for atypical speech (PATY)”, under the coordination of Jérôme Farinas from the Institute of Research in Computer Science of Toulouse (IRIT). This project was submitted as part of a call for proposals from the Carnot Cognition Institute of which the LPL is a member. It aims to make accessible the latest research and development results around atypical speech (pathologies, regional accents, etc.) and to create a tool combining several methods of analysis and automatic processing. The platform produced could then be valued by the research community specializing in cognition and speech processing as well as in various health or industrial sectors.