{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,20]],"date-time":"2026-02-20T08:58:22Z","timestamp":1771577902317,"version":"3.50.1"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,5]]},"group-title":"Neuroscience","reference-count":91,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,5]],"date-time":"2024-08-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1722816000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,13]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Alterations to sensory feedback can drive robust adaptive changes to the production of consonants and vowels, but these changes often have no behavioral relevance or benefit to communication (e.g., making \u201chead\u201d more like \u201chad\u201d). This work aims to align the outcomes of adaptation with changes known to increase speech intelligibility \u2013 specifically, adaptations that increase the acoustic contrast between vowels in running speech. To this end, we implemented a vowel centralization feedback perturbation paradigm that pushes all vowels towards the center of vowel space, making them sound less distinct from one another. Speakers across the adult lifespan adapted to the centralization perturbation during sentence production, increasing the global acoustic contrast among vowels and the articulatory excursions for individual vowels. These changes persisted after the perturbation was removed, including after a silent delay, and showed robust transfer to words that were not present in the sentences. Control analyses demonstrated that these effects were unlikely to be due to explicit pronunciation strategies and occurred in the face of increasingly more rapid and less distinct production of familiar sentences. Finally, sentence transcription by crowd-sourced listeners showed that speakers\u2019 vowel contrast predicted their baseline intelligibility and that experimentally-induced increases in contrast predicted intelligibility gains. These findings establish the validity of a sensorimotor adaptation paradigm to implicitly increase vowel contrast and intelligibility in connected speech, an outcome that has the potential to enhance rehabilitation in individuals who present with a reduced vowel space due to motor speech disorders, such as the hypokinetic dysarthria associated with Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/jats:p>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Significance statement<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>During speech production, humans learn from perceived errors by adjusting their speech to compensate, a process known as sensorimotor adaptation. Here we leveraged sensorimotor adaptation to cause an increase in the distinctiveness of speech sounds. Specifically, speakers rapidly and implicitly learned vowel-specific articulation changes during sentence production, with positive effects on their intelligibility. This study is important for models of sensorimotor integration across all motor domains, as it demonstrates the simultaneous learning of multiple opposing transformations in the course of continuous movement. Our findings show that sensorimotor adaptation can be successfully applied to drive changes relevant to a vital ecological behavior: intelligible communication.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1101\/2024.08.04.606537","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,6]],"date-time":"2024-08-06T03:25:52Z","timestamp":1722914752000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Increased vowel contrast and intelligibility in connected speech induced by sensorimotor adaptation"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2144-5837","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sara D.","family":"Beach","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sophie A.","family":"Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2610-2884","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Benjamin","family":"Parrell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6085-1371","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Caroline A.","family":"Niziolek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1152\/jn.00363.2021"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0023830909336575"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/00220345830620010401"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/10.0011394"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0149-7634(02)00063-5"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.6","unstructured":"Boersma, P. , & Weenink, D. (2019). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. (Version 6.0.47) [Computer software]. http:\/\/www.praat.org\/"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0167-6393(96)00063-5"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.8","unstructured":"Burnham, D. K. , Joeffry, S. , & Rice, L. (2010). Computer-and human-directed speech before and after correction. In Proceedings of the 13th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 14-16 December 2010, Melbourne, Australia (pp. 13\u201317)."},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.9","unstructured":"Cai, S. , Boucek, M. , Ghosh, S. , Guenther, F. H. , & Perkell, J . (2008). A system for online dynamic perturbation of formant trajectories and results from perturbations of the Mandarin triphthong \/iau\/. Proceedings of the 8th International Seminar on Speech Production, 65\u201368."},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/jshd.2404.330"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0130"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3726\/b15982"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, T. , Lammert, A. C. , & Parrell, B. (2021). Modeling sensorimotor adaptation in speech through alterations to forward and inverse models. In Interspeech (pp. 3201\u20133205).","DOI":"10.21437\/Interspeech.2021-1746"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/oxfordjournals.aje.a009713"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1152\/jn.00662.2018"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/2020_JSLHR-19-00422"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/jshr.1202.246"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.wocn.2014.10.003"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.1480421"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-444-52901-5.00022-8"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0167-6393(92)90045-9"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2007\/087)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.4991021"},{"issue":"1","key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.24","first-page":"1865038","article-title":"Does sensory function decline independently or concomitantly with age? Data from the Baltimore longitudinal study of aging","volume":"2016","year":"2016","journal-title":"Journal of Aging Research"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41531-018-0055-3"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.73694"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.279.5354.1213"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2010\/09-0184)"},{"issue":"Suppl","key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.29","first-page":"1","article-title":"Manual for program outline for rehabilitation of aural casualties both military and civilian","volume":"48","year":"1944","journal-title":"Transactions of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.30","first-page":"227","volume":"17","author":"IEEE Recommended Practice for Speech Quality Measurements","year":"1969","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Audio and Electroacoustics"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jml.2015.05.004"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.32","unstructured":"Johnson, K . (2004). Massive reduction in conversational American English. In Spontaneous speech: Data and analysis. Proceedings of the 1st Session of the 10th International Symposium, p. 29\u201354."},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.specom.2007.05.001"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0023830911417802"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1159\/000261726"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.2773986"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1159\/000318881"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kim, K. S. , Hinkley, L. B. , Dale, C. L. , Nagarajan, S. S. , & Houde, J. F . (2023). Neurophysiological evidence of sensory prediction errors driving speech sensorimotor adaptation. bioRxiv.","DOI":"10.1101\/2023.10.22.563504"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.1635842"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2001\/043)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3758\/MC.38.8.1137"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2012\/11-0154)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/2015_JSLHR-S-15-0216"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/2020_JSLHR-19-00001"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2018.07.030"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.46","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/17549507.2016.1193899"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lindblom, B . (1990). Explaining phonetic variation: A sketch of the H&H theory. In: Hardcastle, W.J. , Marchal, A . (eds) Speech Production and Speech Modelling. NATO ASI Series, vol 55. Springer, Dordrecht.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-94-009-2037-8_16"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1058-0360(2008\/025)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.3278606"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.50","first-page":"498","article-title":"Montreal forced aligner: Trainable text-speech alignment using kaldi","volume":"2017","year":"2017","journal-title":"Interspeech"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3758\/s13428-020-01514-0"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/mds.25588"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.53","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.brainres.2016.06.013"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.54","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.3035829"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.55","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2008\/041)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.56","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/17549507.2021.1876166"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.57","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5281\/ZENODO.13839"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.58","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0167-6393(98)00005-3"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.59","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/2015_ajslp-14-0113"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.60","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1152\/jn.00466.2020"},{"issue":"4","key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.61","first-page":"1627","article-title":"Economy of effort in different speaking conditions","volume":"112","year":"2002","journal-title":"I. A preliminary study of intersubject differences and modeling issues. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.62","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/jshr.2904.434"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.63","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1474-4422(04)00854-3"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.64","unstructured":"Polsterer, K. M. (2024). Characterising auditory-motor adaptation of vowel production across age. https:\/\/aburlab.web.rug.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/KPolsterer_ThesisArchive.pdf"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.65","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.2217714"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.66","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/10.0003440"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.67","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Robbins, J. , Levine, R. , Wood, J. , Roecker, E. B. , & Luschei, E . Age effects on lingual pressure generation as a risk factor for dysphagia. Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 50(5), M257\u2013M262.","DOI":"10.1093\/gerona\/50A.5.M257"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.68","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1523\/JNEUROSCI.6020-10.2011"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.69","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-neuro-080317-062245"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.70","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2007\/064)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.71","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2009\/08-0184)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.72","first-page":"557","article-title":"Lexical and contextual predictability: Confluent effects on the production of vowels","volume":"10","year":"2010","journal-title":"Laboratory Phonology"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.73","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/17549507.2021.1943522"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.74","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jvoice.2010.01.009"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.75","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1749-818X.2008.00112.x"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.76","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.wocn.2007.02.002"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.77","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.4983342"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.78","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2004\/020)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.79","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/2022_JSLHR-22-00287"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.80","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/1092-4388(2013\/12-0259)"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.81","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2007.09.054"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.82","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tourville, J. A. , Cai, S. , & Guenther, F . (2013). Exploring auditory-motor interactions in normal and disordered speech. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 19(1).","DOI":"10.1121\/1.4800684"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.83","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/braincomms\/fcac303"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.84","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1044\/jshr.3903.494"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.85","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Uchanski, R. M . (2005). Clear Speech. The Handbook of Speech Perception, 207\u2013235.","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470757024.ch9"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.86","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"van Bergem, D. R. , & Koopmans-van Beinum, F. J. (1989). Vowel reduction in natural speech. In First European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology.","DOI":"10.21437\/Eurospeech.1989-239"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.87","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1121\/1.2773966"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.88","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1159\/000052649"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.89","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jcomdis.2014.06.005"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.90","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zeng, Y. , Niziolek, C. A. , & Parrell, B. (2023). Simultaneous acquisition of multiple auditory-motor transformations reveals supra-syllabic motor planning in speech production. PsyArXiv.","DOI":"10.31234\/osf.io\/ceqan"},{"key":"2025021506550823000_2024.08.04.606537v2.91","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/00146965-200312000-00001"}],"container-title":[],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1101\/2024.08.04.606537","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,15]],"date-time":"2026-01-15T06:48:51Z","timestamp":1768459731000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/biorxiv.org\/lookup\/doi\/10.1101\/2024.08.04.606537"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,5]]},"references-count":91,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2024.08.04.606537","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,5]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}