Jessica E. Huber Ph.D. in Speech Science from University at Buffalo MA in Speech-Language Pathology, Certified Speech- Language Pathologist Assistant Professor, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Faculty Associate, Center on Aging and the Life Course Phone: Mail: 1353 Heavilon Hall

Current Research Areas To understand the neuromotor control for the respiratory system during speech –Affect of language and cognitive demands –Affect of the speaker’s perception –Adjustment to changes in physiology with normal aging and with disease Use acoustics to examine articulatory effects, changes to voicing patterns, and changes to prosody/intonation

Methodologies Examine movements of the chest wall to determine how the respiratory system is used during speech Acoustic analyses: use Praat software –Sound pressure level, Fundamental frequency, Formant frequencies, Spectral information (Harmonic frequencies and amplitude) Recently have examined how cues to increase loudness affect respiratory and articulatory function in young adults, older adults, and individuals with Parkinson’s disease

Recent Results Young Adults: –How an individual is cued to increase loudness does affect the respiratory and articulatory mechanisms used to support the louder speech –May be related to how an individual perceives or conceptualizes a task – what their internal target is for what needs to be done Older Adults: –The physiologic changes to the respiratory and laryngeal systems with age alter the way the systems are used during speech production –The older adults responded to the different loudness cues in a similarly to the young adults for the sentence task Parkinson’s Disease: –Individuals with Parkinson’s disease are able to increase loudness, similarly to older adults. May have difficulty perceiving how loud their voice is and modifying it without a specific cue. –Individuals with Parkinson’s disease are known to have fast rates of speech. Did not slow their rate of speech automatically when speaking in noise, as the young and older adults did.

Future Directions Further examine cognitive, perceptual, and physiologic mechanisms underlying reduced loudness and increased rate in individuals with Parkinson’s Disease –Examine the perception of loudness and rate and the effects of changes in intensity and intonation on speech intelligibility in individuals with Parkinson’s disease Continue to build a model of neuromotor control of the respiratory system during speech –Examine the role of auditory feedback, cognitive demands, and linguistic demands –Examine the how the laryngeal and respiratory systems work together to control pressure for speech