Study on transmission process of one's own voice through air- and bone-conduction pathways

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K21314
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 1002:Human informatics, applied informatics and related fields
• Research Institution: University of Yamanashi (2023); Kanazawa University (2021-2022)
• Principal Investigator: Toya Teruki 山梨大学, 大学院総合研究部, 特任助教 (00911223)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-08-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 聴覚フィードバック / 気導音声 / 骨導音声 / 自己聴取音 / 伝達特性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study attempted to clarify the transmission process of one's own perceived voice through air-conducted (AC) and bone-conducted (BC) pathways. (1) Measurement of the frequency characteristics of the BC pathway from the speech organ to the auditory organ using actual vocalizations and artificial sound excitation. (2) The perceptual contributions of the AC and BC pathways were estimated by simulating BC speech spectrum using the transmission characteristics obtained.
The results showed that (1) the BC pathway reaching the middl/inner ear and that radiating sounds into the ear canal had different transmission characteristics, and (2) the AC and total BC pathways had almost equal contribution to the own-voice perception, while the BC pathway radiating sounds into the ear canal had a larger contribution in comparison with the other BC pathway. Those findings suggest the role of BC speech perception on the auditory feedback.

Free Research Field

聴覚・音声，音響信号処理

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

発話者が自ら発した音声を自ら知覚する「聴覚フィードバック」という機構の存在が知られている．これまで，骨導音観測の難しさ等から，聴覚フィードバックにおける骨導音声知覚の役割は未解明であった．本研究では，骨導音の物理計測に加え，過去の生理学的知見等から自己聴取音伝達経路を仮定し，情報科学的なアプローチで自己聴取音知覚における骨導経路の役割を推測できた．得られた知見は，骨導聴取技術を用いた新しい発話支援等に応用できることが期待される．