A new paper by Escera and colleagues just published online in Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research

The paper entitled The Potential Effect of Forbrain as an Altered Auditory Feedback Device, co-authored by Escera, López-Caballero and Gorina-Careta has just published online in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.

In this study, Escera and colleagues demonstrated with a double-blind controlled design that Forbrain modifies the input voice according to a Baxandall equalizer (figure 1 from the paper; see below), and that this altered auditory feedback via the device’s bone conductor alters the voice of the speaker (see figure 3 from the paper; see below).

Figure 1 from Escera et al. (2018)
Figure 1 from Escera et al. (2018)

 

Figure 3 from Escera et al. (2018)
Figure 3 from Escera et al. (2018)

 

The full abstract reads as follows:

Purpose. The purpose of the present study was to run a proof of concept on a new commercially available device, Forbrain®, to test whether it can modulate the speech of its users.

Method. Participants were instructed to read aloud a text of their choice during three experimental phases: baseline, test and post-test, while wearing a Forbrain® headset. Critically, for half of the participants (Forbrain group) the device was turned on during the test phase, whereas for the other half (control group) the device was kept off. Voice recordings were analyzed to derive six quantitative measures of voice quality over each of the phases of the experiment.

Results. A significant Group X Phase interaction was obtained for the smoothed cepstral peak prominence, a measure of voice harmony, and for the trendline of the long term average spectrum, a measure of voice robustness, this latter surviving Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons.

Conclusions. The results of the present study indicate the effectiveness of Forbrain® in modifying the speech of its users. It is suggested that Forbrain® works as an AAF device. It may hence be used as a clinical device in speech therapy clinics, yet further studies are warranted to test its usefulness in clinical groups.

Reference:

Escera, C., López-Caballero, F., & Gorina-Careta. N. (2018). The Potential Effect of Forbrain as an Altered Auditory Feedback Device. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, March 19, 2018. doi:10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-17-0072.