Neuroscience

Can a newborn's brain discriminate speech sounds?

People's ability to perceive speech sounds has been deeply studied, specially during someone's first year of life, but what happens during the first hours after birth? Are babies born with innate abilities to perceive speech ...

Medical research

Study explains 'cocktail party effect' in hearing impairment

Plenty of people struggle to make sense of a multitude of converging voices in a crowded room. Commonly known as the "cocktail party effect," people with hearing loss find it's especially difficult to understand speech in ...

Neuroscience

How the brain controls our speech

Speaking requires both sides of the brain. Each hemisphere takes over a part of the complex task of forming sounds, modulating the voice and monitoring what has been said. However, the distribution of tasks is different than ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

How important is speech in transmitting coronavirus?

Normal speech by individuals who are asymptomatic but infected with coronavirus may produce enough aerosolized particles to transmit the infection, according to aerosol scientists at the University of California, Davis. Although ...

Neuroscience

Playing sports might sharpen your hearing

(HealthDay)—Playing sports may improve the brain's ability to process sounds, a finding that could lead to new therapies for people who struggle with hearing, researchers report.

Neuroscience

Speech development starts in the womb

New parents are always thrilled when their offspring finally speaks its first words—usually at the age of 12 to 18 months. What parents often don't know is that the regions of the brain that recognise and process speech ...

Neuroscience

How the brain distinguishes between voice and sound

Is the brain capable of distinguishing a voice from the specific sounds it utters? In an attempt to answer this question, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, – in collaboration with the University ...

Neuroscience

Synthetic speech generated from brain recordings

A state-of-the-art brain-machine interface created by UC San Francisco neuroscientists can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract—an anatomically detailed computer ...

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