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PubMed1996

Effect of instruction to sing on stuttering frequency at normal and fast rates.

Singing as a fluency-enhancing mechanism is well-established. The fluency derived by singing has been attributed to a reduced speech rate, memorized material, semantically reduced content, and an imposed rhythm. In this study, we attempted to address each of these explanations. 12 participants who stuttered were instructed to read or sing each of four different passages under the following conditions: reading at a normal rate, reading at a fast rate, singing at a normal rare, and singing at a fast rate. Participants exhibited a statistically significant increase in disfluencies while reading, i.e., participants displayed a 75% reduction in disfluency in the singing condition relative to the reading condition. There was no difference in stuttering frequency with rate conditions. Current findings suggest that stutterers are capable of internally generating fluent speech production by imposing idiosyncratic melodic structures or some derivation of melody when asked simply to sing. There is no claim that these participants were singing, as skills and capabilities varied tremendously, only that participants achieved dramatic enhancement of fluency after they were just asked to sing. Thus, the only intervening variable was the instruction to sing, which suggests the attempt to follow the instruction, no matter how futile, generated fluent speech. Since fluency was maintained in both the normal and fast rates of production, alternate central mechanisms must be held accountable for these findings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

[Vocal efficiency parameters in children and adolescents: effect of physical development and singing activity].

The influence of physical development and singing activity on vocal efficiency in children and adolescents is well known from clinical experience. There is, however, no comparative study between singing and non-singing children which also considers the influence of age and gender. Therefore, standard values for evaluation in clinical practice are missing. We examined the following parameters in 164 healthy children and adolescents (90 boys, 74 girls; 11-16 years), 86 without singing activity (group A) and 78 members of children's and youth choirs (group B): frequency and dynamic range of voice and its borders with a voice range profile, mean fundamental frequency (normal and loud phonation), maximum voice intensity, and maximum duration of intonation. The statistical analysis was performed using three-way ANOVA. We found significantly higher ranges of frequency and intensity in singing children and adolescents (p<0.0001). The borders of the dynamic range and the upper border of the frequency range were significantly higher in group B (p<0.0001). The boys in group B used a higher mean fundamental frequency during loud phonation. There were no significant differences between groups in maximum voice intensity (p=0.051) but a tendency towards higher values in singing children. As an unexpected result, we found significantly higher values in maximum duration of intonation in group A (p<0.0001) independent of age and gender, which seems to be related to the methods used. Regular training of the singing voice results in positive effects on several voice parameters in children as well as adolescents. Our results can be used for estimating standard values in professional clinical and educational care of young singing voices and non-singing children. For this purpose, voice range profile is particularly suitable.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Rearrangements at a hobo element inserted into the first intron of the singed gene in the unstable sn49 system of Drosophila melanogaster.

The cytological structure of the X chromosome and the DNA organisation of the singed locus were examined in five singed bristle mutants of Drosophila melanogaster. These mutants are all derived from the unstable mutant singed-49, isolated from a wild population in the Russian Far East in 1975. Rearrangements were found at a site within the first intron of the singed gene, where a hobo element is inserted in these mutants. One rearrangement, which is associated with a strong bristle phenotype, has an inversion between 2D and the location of singed at 7D, which separates the singed promoter from the singed coding region. Two phenotypically wild-type derivatives have smaller rearrangements within the first intron which do not appear to interfere with singed expression. Two derivatives with bristle phenotypes have more complex rearrangements, and one of them shows a dominant or antimorphic phenotype. DNA blotting and in situ hybridisation experiments show that, in addition to these rearrangements at a hobo element inserted at singed, other hobo elements in these strains have been mobilised. This system is therefore similar to others in which functional hobo elements continue to transpose, resulting in elevated rates of mutation and chromosome rearrangement.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Vowel intelligibility in classical singing.

Vowel intelligibility during singing is an important aspect of communication during performance. The intelligibility of isolated vowels sung by Western classically trained singers has been found to be relatively low, in fact, decreasing as pitch rises, and it is lower for women than for men. The lack of contextual cues significantly deteriorates vowel intelligibility. It was postulated in this study that the reduced intelligibility of isolated sung vowels may be partly from the vowels used by the singers in their daily vocalises. More specifically, if classically trained singers sang only a few American English vowels during their vocalises, their intelligibility for American English vowels would be less than for those classically trained singers who usually vocalize on most American English vowels. In this study, there were 21 subjects (15 women, 6 men), all Western classically trained performers as well as teachers of classical singing. They sang 11 words containing 11 different American English vowels, singing on two pitches a musical fifth apart. Subjects were divided into two groups, those who normally vocalize on 4, 5, or 6 vowels, and those who sing all 11 vowels during their daily vocalises. The sung words were cropped to isolate the vowels, and listening tapes were created. Two listening groups, four singing teachers and five speech-language pathologists, were asked to identify the vowels intended by the singers. Results suggest that singing fewer vowels during daily vocalises does not decrease intelligibility compared with singing the 11 American English vowels. Also, in general, vowel intelligibility was lower with the higher pitch, and vowels sung by the women were less intelligible than those sung by the men. Identification accuracy was about the same for the singing teacher listeners and the speech-language pathologist listeners except for the lower pitch, where the singing teachers were more accurate.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Drosophila singed, a fascin homolog, is required for actin bundle formation during oogenesis and bristle extension.

Drosophila singed mutants were named for their gnarled bristle phenotype but severe alleles are also female sterile. Recently, singed protein was shown to have 35% peptide identity with echinoderm fascin. Fascin is found in actin filament bundles in microvilli of sea urchin eggs and in filopodial extensions in coelomocytes. We show that Drosophila singed is required for actin filament bundle formation in the cytoplasm of nurse cells during oogenesis; in severe mutants, the absence of cytoplasmic actin filament bundles allows nurse cell nuclei to lodge in ring canals and block nurse cell cytoplasm transport. Singed is also required for organized actin filament bundle formation in the cellular extension that forms a bristle; in severe mutants, the small disorganized actin filament bundles lack structural integrity and allow bristles to bend and branch during extension. Singed protein is also expressed in migratory cells of the developing egg chamber and in the socket cell of the developing bristle, but no defect is observed in these cells in singed mutants. Purified, bacterially expressed singed protein bundles actin filaments in vitro with the same stoichiometry reported for purified sea urchin fascin. Singed-saturated actin bundles have a molar ratio of singed/actin of approximately 1:4.3 and a transverse cross-banding pattern of 12 nm seen using electron microscopy. Our results suggest that singed protein is required for actin filament bundle formation and is a Drosophila homolog of echinoderm fascin.

Actins↗
PubMed2006

Social context affects testosterone-induced singing and the volume of song control nuclei in male canaries (Serinus canaria).

The contribution of social factors to seasonal plasticity in singing behavior and forebrain nuclei controlling song, and their interplay with gonadal steroid hormones are still poorly understood. In many songbird species, testosterone (T) enhances singing behavior but elevated plasma T concentrations are not absolutely required for singing to occur. Singing is generally produced either to defend a territory or to attract a mate and it is therefore not surprising that singing rate can be influenced by the sex and behavior of the social partner. We investigated, based on two independent experiments, the effect of the presence of a male or female partner on the rate of song produced by male canaries. In the first experiment, song rate was measured in dyads composed of one male and one female (M-F) or two males (M-M). Birds were implanted with T-filled Silastic capsules or with empty capsules as control. The number of complete song bouts produced by all males was recorded during 240 min on week 1, 2, 4, and 8 after implantation. On the day following each recording session, brains from approximately one-fourth of the birds were collected and the volumes of the song control nuclei HVC and RA were measured. T increased the singing rate and volume of HVC and RA but these effects were affected by the social context. Singing rates were higher in the M-M than in the M-F dyads. Also, in the M-M dyads a dominance-subordination relationship soon became established and dominant males sang at higher rates than subordinates in T-treated but not in control pairs. The differences in song production were not reflected in the size of the song control nuclei: HVC was larger in M-F than in M-M males and within the M-M dyads, no difference in HVC or RA size could be detected between dominant and subordinate males. At the individual level, the song rate with was positively correlated with RA and to a lower degree HVC volume, but this relationship was observed only in M-M dyads, specifically in dominant males. A second experiment, carried out with castrated males that were all treated with T and exposed either to another T-treated castrate or to an estradiol-implanted female, confirmed that song rate was higher in the M-M than in the M-F condition and that HVC volume was larger in heterosexual than in same-sex dyads. The effects of T on singing rate and on the volume of the song control nuclei are thus modulated by the social environment, including the presence/absence of a potential mate and dominance status among males.

Androgens↗
PubMed1996

Laryngeal biomechanics of the singing voice.

By transnasal fiberoptic laryngoscopy, patients with functional voice often demonstrate abnormal laryngeal biomechanics, commonly supraglottic contraction. Appropriately, such conditions are sometimes termed muscle tension dysphonias. Singers working at the limits of their voice may also transiently demonstrate comparable tension patterns. However, the biomechanics of normal singing, particularly for different singing styles, have not been previously well characterized. We used transnasal fiberoptic laryngoscopy to study 100 healthy singers to assess patterns of laryngeal tension during normal singing and to determine whether factors such as sex, occupation, and style of singing influence laryngeal muscle tension. Thirty-nine male and 61 female singers were studied; 48 were professional singers, and 52 were amateurs. Examinations of study subjects performing standardized and nonstandardized singing tasks were recorded on a laser disk and subsequently analyzed in a frame-by-frame fashion by a blinded otolaryngologist. Each vocal task was graded for muscle tension by previously established criteria, and objective muscle tension scores were computed. The muscle tension score was expressed as a percentage of frames for each task with one of the laryngeal muscle tension patterns shown. The lowest muscle tension scores were seen in female professional singers, and the highest muscle tension scores were seen in amateur female singers. Male singers (professional and amateur) had intermediate muscle tension scores. Classical singers had lower muscle tension scores than nonclassical singers, with the lowest muscle tension scores being seen in those singing choral music (41%), art song (47%), and opera (57%), and the highest being seen in those singing jazz/pop (65%), musical theater (74%), bluegrass/country and western (86%), and rock/gospel (94%). Analyzed also were the influences of vocal nodules, prior vocal training, number of performance and practice hours per week, warm-up before singing, race, smoking, and alcohol consumption.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Structure and transcription of the singed locus of Drosophila melanogaster.

Developmental and genetic studies of the singed gene of Drosophila melanogaster indicate that the gene has a role in somatic cells during the formation of adult bristles and hairs, and in the female germline during oogenesis. During metamorphosis a single 3.6-kilobase (kb) RNA is made, and this RNA is also present in adults and early embryos. Early embryos and adult females have additional 3.3- and 3.0-kb RNAs. The RNAs differ only in the length of the 3' untranslated region and a single gene product of 57 kilodaltons is predicted. Analysis of RNA from females lacking ovaries suggests that the 3.3- and 3.0-kb RNAs are made only in ovaries. The absence of the 3.3- and 3.0-kb RNAs in pupae and the time course of their appearance in adult females after eclosion suggests that transcription of singed in the ovary is from middle to late stages of oogenesis. Analysis of RNA in embryos from the reciprocal crosses between wild type and singed-3 showed that all three RNAs are maternally inherited with very little zygotic transcription in embryos. The mutation singed-3 appears to separate the two requirements for singed function as it has an extreme effect upon bristle development, but does not obviously affect oogenesis. In singed-3, there is a deletion at the 5' end of the gene, but the coding region is intact. Transcription in singed-3 is from a cryptic promoter in the upstream flanking sequences which is sufficiently active during oogenesis for fertility, but less active than the wild-type promoter during metamorphosis. The role of the single singed gene product may be in the asymmetric organization and/or movement of cytoplasmic components.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2001

The perceived benefits of singing: findings from preliminary surveys of a university college choral society.

Two exploratory studies are reported on the perceived benefits associated with active participation in choral singing. In the first study, 84 members of a university college choral society completed a brief questionnaire that asked whether they had benefited personally from their involvement in the choir and whether there were ways in which participation could benefit their health. A large majority of respondents agreed they had benefited socially (87%) and emotionally (75%), with 58% agreeing they had benefited in some physical way, and 49% spiritually. A content analysis of written comments served to elaborate the ways in which choir members felt they had benefited. Common themes expressed were: meeting new people, feeling more positive, increased control over breathing, feeling more alert and feeling spiritually uplifted. With respect to health benefits, 84% of participants gave answers, the main themes of which related to improved lung function and breathing, improved mood and stress reduction. In the second study, 91 members of the choir completed a structured questionnaire consisting of 32 statements about singing reflecting the ideas expressed in the first study. Over 40% of respondents strongly agreed that 'singing helps to make my mood more positive', 'singing is a moving experience for me sometimes', 'singing makes me feel a lot happier' and 'singing is good for my soul'. A principal components analysis followed by Oblimin rotation identified six dimensions of benefit associated with singing. These were labelled as: benefits for well-being and relaxation, benefits for breathing and posture, social benefits, spiritual benefits, emotional benefits, and benefits for heart and immune system. Cronbach alpha coefficients were satisfactory for all components except the third, social benefits, due primarily to the small number of items loading on this component. Women were significantly more likely to experience benefits for well-being and relaxation, younger people were more likely to report social benefits, and those professing religious beliefs were more likely to experience spiritual benefits. The present studies have a number of limitations, but they provide a useful foundation for future larger scale surveys, more sophisticated qualitative studies, and experimental investigations of the impact of singing on psycho-physiological functioning.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Social context-dependent singing-regulated dopamine.

Like the mammalian striatum, the songbird striatum receives dense dopaminergic input from the midbrain ventral tegmental area-substantia nigra pars compacta complex. The songbird striatum also contains a unique vocal nucleus, Area X, which has been implicated in song learning and social context-dependent song production. Area X shows increased neural firing and activity-dependent gene expression when birds sing, and the level of activation is higher and more variable during undirected singing relative to directed singing to other birds. Here we show in the first report of in vivo microdialysis in awake, behaving songbirds that singing is associated with increased dopamine levels in Area X. Dopamine levels are significantly higher with directed relative to undirected singing. This social context-dependent difference in dopamine levels requires the dopamine transporter, because local in vivo blockade of the transporter caused dopamine levels for undirected singing to increase to levels similar to that for directed singing, eliminating the social context-dependent difference. The increase in dopamine is presumably depolarization and vesicular release dependent, because adding of high K+ increased and removal of Ca2+ increased and decreased extracellular DA levels. Our findings implicate DA and molecules that control DA kinetics in singing behavior and social context-dependent brain function.

Animal Communication↗
PubMed2005

Heat transfer and the energetic cost of singing by canaries Serinus canaria.

Sexually selected displays, such as male passerine bird song, are predicted to be costly. However, most measurements calculated the rate of oxygen consumption during singing using respirometry have shown that bird song has a low energetic cost. Since birds are reluctant to sing when enclosed inside a respirometry chamber, the energetic cost of singing could differ from that under more normal circumstances. We used heat transfer modelling, based on thermal images, to estimate the energetic cost of singing by canaries (Serinus canaria) that were not enclosed in respirometry chambers. Metabolic rate calculated from heat transfer modelling was 0.70 +/- 0.02 W (N = 10 birds) during singing, which was 14+/-5% greater than during standing (0.62 +/- 0.02 W). The energetic cost of singing did not differ significantly from that measured previously using respirometry when we took into account that birds sang for a greater proportion of the time during the current experiments. These conclusions were not sensitive to potential errors in the heat transfer model. Heat transfer modelling would be especially useful to obtain measurements of the energetic cost of activities that animals do not perform readily inside respirometry chambers, such as singing in birds.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Infant behavioral responses to infant-directed singing and other maternal interactions.

Seventy, 6-9-month-old infants were videotaped during six interactions: mother sings assigned song, "stranger" sings assigned song, mother sings song of choice, mother reads book, mother plays with toy, and mother and infant listen to recorded music. Infant-directed (ID) singing conditions elicited moderately positive cognitive behavior, low levels of positive physical behavior and minimal amounts of vocal behaviors, mostly negative. Across all conditions, cognitive scores remained positive at low to moderate levels. Physical responses were most positive during book and toy, most negative during recorded music, and differed by gender, especially during ID singing. Vocally, infants responded positively to toy, and 8-month-old infants vocalized more than younger infants, particularly during ID singing conditions. ID singing appears just as effective as book reading or toy play in sustaining infant attention and far more effective than listening to recorded music, while interactions involving objects may provide opportunity for shared attention.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Rhythmic brain activities related to singing in humans.

To investigate the motor control related to sound production, we studied cortical rhythmic changes during continuous vocalization such as singing. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses were recorded while subjects spoke in the usual way (speaking), sang (singing), hummed (humming) and imagined (imagining) a popular song. The power of alpha (8-15 Hz), beta (15-30 Hz) and low-gamma (30-60 Hz) frequency bands was changed during and after vocalization (singing, speaking and humming). In the alpha band, the oscillatory changes for singing were most pronounced in the right premotor, bilateral sensorimotor, right secondary somatosensory and bilateral superior parietal areas. The beta oscillation for the singing was also confirmed in the premotor, primary and secondary sensorimotor and superior parietal areas in the left and right hemispheres where were partly activated even for imagined a song (imaging). These regions have been traditionally described as vocalization-related sites. The cortical rhythmic changes were distinct in the singing condition compared with the other vocalizing conditions (speaking and humming) and thus we considered that more concentrated control of the vocal tract, diaphragm and abdominal muscles is responsible. Furthermore, characteristic oscillation in the high-gamma (60-200 Hz) frequency band was found in Broca's area only in the imaging condition and might occur singing rehearsal and storage process in Broca's area.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Preference for infant-directed singing in 2-day-old hearing infants of deaf parents.

L. J. Trainor (1996) reported preferences for infant-directed versus infant-absent singing in English in 4-7-month-old hearing infants of English-speaking hearing parents. In this experiment, the author tested preferences for infant-directed singing versus adult-directed singing in 15 two-day-old hearing infants of deaf parents for a Japanese and an English play song. Using a modified visual-fixation-based auditory-preference procedure, the author found that infants looked longer at a visual stimulus when looking produced infant-directed singing as opposed to adult-directed singing. These results suggest that infants prefer infant-directed singing over adult-directed singing and that the preference is present from birth and is not dependent on any specific prenatal or postnatal experience.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Factors contributing to the reduction of stuttering during singing.

This study was conducted to determine if the reduction of stuttering typically observed during singing is associated with altered vocalization or the familiarity of the melody and lyrics of the song sung by the stutterer, or both. Subjects were eight adult male stutterers. Prior to testing, each of these individuals demonstrated that he knew the melody and lyrics of a well-known song from memory. Subsequently, subjects were asked to read these lyrics aloud and then sing them. Next, subjects had to read aloud and then sing a set of unfamiliar lyrics to the conventional melody of the same song. The stutterers' reading and singing performances were audiotaped. The dependent measures of utterance duration and stuttering frequency were extracted from the tapes. Results showed that subjects' utterance durations were significantly longer during singing than reading. The main effects of singing and familiarity were both associated with significant reductions in stuttering frequency. The greatest decrement in stuttering occurred in the condition where subjects sang the familiar melody and lyrics. These findings were interpreted to mean that changes in vocalization cannot account for all of the decrease in stuttering that occurs during singing. During song, the familiarity of the melody and lyrics being produced may also affect stuttering frequency.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Singing with and without words: hemispheric asymmetries in motor control.

Singing is relatively preserved and can even improve the language production of aphasic patients who have lesions of the left hemisphere but an intact right hemisphere. In contrast, singing is impaired following lesions or anesthesia of the right hemisphere, suggesting a right hemisphere role in singing. To assess the influence of singing upon hemispheric control of articulatory output in normal subjects, we measured lip opening asymmetry by single-frame photographic analysis. Spontaneous speech, reciting the words of a song, and singing with words all showed right-side lip opening superiority, revealing a major left hemisphere role in control of verbal articulation. Singing without words, on the other hand, did not show asymmetric facial motor activation, suggesting that the right hemisphere also participates in singing. In addition, we assessed auditorily perceivable differences in articulation when lip movement on one side of the mouth was artificially restricted (hemibuccal speech). Articulation quality was higher when speaking from the right side of the mouth.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

P element insertions and rearrangements at the singed locus of Drosophila melanogaster.

DNA from the singed gene of Drosophila melanogaster was isolated using an inversion between a previously cloned P element at cytological location 17C and the hypermutable allele singed-weak. Five out of nine singed mutants examined have alterations in their DNA maps in this region. The singed locus is a hotspot for mutation during P-M hybrid dysgenesis, and we have analyzed 22 mutations induced by P-M hybrid dysgenesis. All 22 have a P element inserted within a 700-bp region. The precise positions of 10 P element insertions were determined and they define 4 sites within a 100-bp interval. During P-M hybrid dysgenesis, the singed-weak allele is destabilized, producing two classes of phenotypically altered derivatives at high frequency. In singed-weak, two defective P elements are present in a "head-to-head" or inverse tandem arrangement. Excision of one element results in a more extreme singed bristle phenotype while excision of the other leads to a wild-type bristle phenotype.

Alleles↗
PubMed2006

Cerebral networks for spontaneous and synchronized singing and speaking.

Singing in unison is usually easier than singing alone, but the neural mechanism underlying these two contrasting modes of singing remains unknown. We investigated neural correlates of singing by a functional magnetic resonance imaging study focusing on the capacities of spontaneity and synchronization and compared them with those of speaking. The left inferior frontal gyrus appears important for self-generation of text in singing and speaking without auditory input, whereas the left posterior planum temporale plays a key role in synchronizing both text and melody, in combination with the bilateral inferior parietal lobule for singing along, and with the left angular gyrus for speaking in chorus. These findings indicate that text and melody are not processed symmetrically or parallel in singing a well-learned song.

Adult↗