# The Effect of Masking Noise on Oral Cancer Speech Acoustics and Kinematics

Teja Rebernik, Bence M Halpern, Thomas B Tienkamp, Roel Jonkers, Aude Noiray, Rob J J H van Son, Michiel W M van den Brekel, Max J H Witjes, Martijn Wieling

► To cite this version:

Teja Rebernik, Bence M Halpern, Thomas B Tienkamp, Roel Jonkers, Aude Noiray, et al.. The Effect of Masking Noise on Oral Cancer Speech Acoustics and Kinematics. 8th International Conference on Speech Motor Control, Aug 2022, Groningen, Netherlands. 2022. [hal-04915173](https://hal.science/hal-04915173v1)

HAL Id: hal-04915173

https://hal.science/hal-04915173v1

Submitted on 27 Jan 2025

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>
THE EFFECT OF MASKING NOISE ON ORAL CANCER SPEECH ACOUSTICS AND KINEMATICS

Teja Rebernik<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="2" />, Bence M. Halpern<fnref n="2" />,<fnref n="3" />,<fnref n="4" />, Thomas B. Tienkamp<fnref n="1" />, Roel Jonkers<fnref n="1" />, Aude Noiray<fnref n="5" />,<fnref n="6" />, Rob J. J. H. van Son<fnref n="2" />,<fnref n="3" />, Michiel W. M. van den Brekel<fnref n="2" />,<fnref n="3" />, Max J. H. Witjes<fnref n="7" />, Martijn Wieling<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="6" />

**Introduction** When speaking, adults predominantly rely on their feedforward system and can produce relatively unimpaired speech even in the absence of auditory and somatosensory feedback (Schliesser & Coleman, 1968). If auditory or somatosensory feedback are consistently altered, speakers adapt their feedforward maps to produce speech in line with their acoustic and articulatory targets. However, relatively little is known about long-term speech motor adaptation in adulthood if such a change in feedback becomes permanent. The goal of the study is to investigate the functioning of the feedforward mechanism in adults who had undergone a partial glossectomy and/or mandibulectomy. It is known that these procedures limit tongue flexibility and movement (e.g., Bressmann et al., 2004), which also has an impact on speech. We aim to decipher how these speakers develop a new speaking strategy, and how adaptable the speech motor control system is in adulthood.

**Methods** We collected data from 12 native Dutch speakers above 50 years of age who have undergone surgical treatment for oral cancer with stage 3 or 4 tumours (six female) as well as seven control speakers (three female). Participants produced both unique sentences and target words embedded in carrier phrases. Their speech productions were recorded acoustically, using a Sennheiser ME 66 shotgun microphone, and kinematically, using a VOX-EMA electromagnetic articulograph (see Rebernik et al., 2021, for accuracy assessment). For the current analysis, each speaker produced ten repetitions of five real words (/sok/, /fok/, /bi:t/, /bu:t/ and /ba:t/) embedded in the following carrier phrase ‘Hij heeft tamme target word gezegd’ (‘He said target word’). Half of the repetitions were produced while the participant was wearing headphones through which pink noise was played at a comfortable volume, masking their auditory feedback.

For our acoustic analysis, we manually extracted the first and second formants of the corner vowels /a, i, u/ and calculated the triangular vowel space area (tVSA). For our kinematic analysis, we investigated the articulation of sibilants /s/ and /f/. We used Mview (developed by Mark Tiede, Haskins Laboratories) to identify and extract kinematic landmarks in the tongue tip trajectory, including gestural onset, peak velocity, target and gestural offset.

**Predictions** Masking noise results in increased speech loudness (i.e., the Lombard effect). Based on prior studies investigating kinematic differences in loud vs. normal speech, we generally expect faster and bigger lingual and jaw movement for loud speech (e.g., Kearney et al., 2017). Additionally, for partial glossectomy/mandibulectomy speak-

<footnote n="1">¹University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage (DDL), Lyon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶Haskins laboratories, New Haven, CT, United States of America</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands</footnote>
ers, we expect smaller gestures due to decreased range of movement in non-perturbed speech, and larger endpoint variability under masking noise.

References

Bressmann, T., Sader, R., Whitehill, T. L., & Samman, N. (2004). Consonant intelligibility and tongue motility in patients with partial glossectomy. *Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 62*(3), 298-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2003.04.017

Kearney, E., Giles, R., Haworth, B., Faloutsos, P., Baljko, M., & Yunusova, Y. (2017). Sentence-level movements in Parkinson’s disease: loud, clear, and slow speech. *Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60*(12), 3426-3440. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-17-0075

Rebernik, T., Jacobi, J., Tiede, M., & Wieling, M. (2021). Accuracy Assessment of Two Electromagnetic Articulographs: Northern Digital Inc. WAVE and Northern Digital Inc. VOX. *Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64*(7), 2637-2667. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00394

Schliesser, H. F., & Coleman, R. O. (1968). Effectiveness of certain procedures for alteration of auditory and oral tactile sensation for speech. *Perceptual and Motor Skills, 26*, 175-281. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1968.26.1.275