Voice Disorders Impact Listeners, too
Connie Porcaro, Ph.D., and Jacqueline Veraguas, Ph.D., both in the department of communication sciences and disorders, College of Education, are collaborators on a recent study to determine any differences in the ability to be correctly understood when speaking, for those with healthy voices compared to those who have voice disorders, such as breathiness, hoarseness, loss of voice or a “croaky” voice.
The results, published in the Journal of Voice, showed that people with voice disorders were 10 times more likely to be heard incorrectly versus speakers with healthy voices. Their findings impact people in professions that rely heavily on the voice, such as teachers, air traffic controllers, attorneys, members of the clergy and performers.
What Are You Looking At?
In a first-of-its-kind study, FAU neuroscientists Elan Barenholtz, Ph.D., and Michael J. Kleiman, Ph.D., co-authored a study that found participants are more comfortable looking directly at a speaker’s mouth, which has previously been found to be optimal for communicating thoughts into speech, when they think no one is watching them.
The research, published in the journal Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, demonstrates that social factors impact behavior during verbal interactions, according to the authors.
Barenholtz is an associate professor of psychology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, member of the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, co-director of the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Lab, co-founder of the Rubin and Cindy Gruber Sandbox, an artificial intelligence lab on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, and assistant director of FAU’s Center for the Future Mind. Kleiman, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at FAU.
Kudos to New NAI Members
Faculty members were recently inducted into the FAU chapter of the National Academy of Inventors. The chapter, one of more than 50 university chapters across the country, was established to recognize inventors for their accomplishments in research and commercialization, and to enhance the visibility of scientific innovated at FAU.
Inductees are:
Behnaz Ghoraani, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science
Kenneth Dawson-Scully, an associate professor, in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Howard Prentice, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical science in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Emmanuelle Tognoli, Ph.D., a research associate professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences
Lawrence Toll, Ph.D., a professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
