Vocal Communication Workshop (VoCoGro)
29 October 2018
UMCG Rode Zaal

‘Vocal Communication’ Workshop (VoCoGro), will take place on Monday, October 29, 2018 at the UMCG. The workshop will serve as a kick-off event for Deniz’s VICI grant, “It takes two to communicate: Voice perception and linguistic content,” and Terrin’s VENI grant, “More than words: Uncovering the effects of talkers’ voices on real-life speech perception by cochlear implant users.” Many outstanding researchers will give lectures on vocal communication in humans, animals, and robots.

Join us for a day full of wonderful scientific discussions.

Confirmed speakers include:
Jan Wouters, University of Leuven, Belgium
Carolyn McGettigan, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Khiet Truong, University of Twente, Netherlands
Marco Gamba, University of Torino, Italy
Anara Sandygulova, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan
Roger K. Moore, University of Sheffield, UK
Ella Z. Lattenkamp, Max Planck Institute, NL

Event Details:
Date: Monday, 29 October 2018
Time: 9:30-17:00
Location: Rode Zaal, UMCG, Groningen, Netherlands

To sign up:
https://vocogro.nl/2018/

For further information please contact:
Dr. Terrin Tamati, t.n.tamati@umcg.nl

Organizing Committee:
Terrin Tamati
Etienne Gaudrain
Leanne Nagels
Floor Arts
Deniz Başkent

The degree and time course of benefit for cochlear implantation for patients with single-sided deafness depends on the point of reference

Dr. John Galvin
House Ear Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Date: 22 June 2018, FRIDAY
Time: 10:00 hr (PLEASE NOTE DIFFERING TIME)
Location: UMCG, KNO Colloquium P3.210
Broadcasting link:  https://tinyurl.com/22-06-18-AudSeminar

The effects of attention and visual input on noninvasive electrophysiological indices of natural speech processing at different hierarchical levels

Date: 25 May 2018, FRIDAY, 10:00 hr
Location: UMCG, Onderwijscentrum, Lokaal 04

Broadcasting link: https://tinyurl.com/25-05-18-AudSeminar

Dr. Edmund Lalor
University of Rochester

Abstract
How the human brain extracts meaning from the dynamic patterns of sound that constitute speech remains poorly understood. This is especially true in natural environments where the speech signal has to be processed against a complex mixture of background sounds. In this talk I will outline efforts over the last few years to derive noninvasive indices of natural speech processing in the brain. I will discuss how these indices are affected by attention and visual input and how attentional selection and multisensory integration can be “decoded” from EEG data. I will outline work showing that EEG and MEG are sensitive not just to the low-level acoustic properties of speech, but also to higher-level linguistic aspects of this most important of signals. This will include demonstrating that these signals reflect processing at the level of phonetic features. And, based on our most recent work, it will also include evidence that EEG is exquisitely sensitivity to the semantic processing of natural, running speech in a way that is very strongly affected by attention and intelligibility. While showcasing these findings, I will outline a number of paradigms and methodological approaches for eliciting noninvasive indices of speech-specific processing that should be useful in advancing our understanding of receptive speech processing in particular populations.

Action-oriented predictive processing: grasping the aural world 

Date: 27 June 2017, 14:00
Location: UMCG, room P3.270 (near KNO Department)

Broadcasting link: https://tinyurl.com/27-06-2017-Auditory-Seminar

Dr. Robert Harris
Lifelong Learning in Music
Hanze University of Applied Sciences
Prince Claus Conservatoire

Neural entrainment to speech modulates speech intelligibility ?

Date: 23 June 2017, 15:00
Location: UMCG, Panoramazaal, U4.123

Broadcasting link: https://tinyurl.com/23-06-2017-Auditory-Seminar2

Dr. Lars Riecke
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience
Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience
University of Maastricht

Speech entrainment, the alignment of neural activity to the slow temporal fluctuations (envelope) of acoustic speech input, is ubiquitous in current theories of speech processing. Associations between speech entrainment and acoustic speech signal, behavioral listening task, and speech intelligibility have been observed repeatedly. However, a methodological bottleneck has prevented clarifying whether speech entrainment functionally contributes to speech intelligibility. Here, we addressed this issue by experimentally manipulating speech entrainment in the absence of systematic acoustic and task-related changes with a novel approach that involves stimulating listeners with transcranial currents carrying speech-envelope information. Results from two experiments involving a cocktail party-like scenario and a listening situation devoid of acoustic envelope information show consistently an effect on listeners’ speech-recognition performance, demonstrating a causal role of speech entrainment for speech intelligibility. This finding supports entrainment-based theories of speech comprehension and suggests that transcranial stimulation with speech envelope-shaped currents can be utilized to modulate speech comprehension.