Past Events

Perfect pitch - why do some people have this ability?

Perfect pitch - why do some people have this ability? Speaker: Prof. Mary Waye (Research Professor The Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Overview: Perfect Pitch (also called Absolute Pitch) is the ability to recognize the pitch of a musical tone accurately and instantaneously, without having an external reference. This is considered to be a rare trait and previously Sacks (1995) reported that approximately 1 in 10,000 people has this ability. It is thought that perfect pitch is a dominant trait that is heritable (probably determined by a single gene, or very few genes), but that trait needs to be developed through early music training. Apparently perfect pitch cannot be learnt even though relative pitch (i.e. ability to distinguish pitch with an external reference) can be learnt readily. Some people manage to learn a pseudo-perfect pitch ability that is not nearly as exact as perfect pitch (in terms of accuracy, the speed of recognition and range

Understanding Chinese reading process based on multi-level neurocognitive modulations

Understanding Chinese reading process based on multi-level neurocognitive modulations Speaker: Dr Tao Ran (Department of Linguistics, The University of Hong Kong) Overview: Reading Chinese is a complex task. Understanding the modulations from other modalities of language processing and basic cognitive abilities is essential to portraying a full picture of Chinese reading process. Here I present two studies showing how writing ability and the attentional state influence reading processing. In study one, we measured a group of participants’ (N = 32) reading and writing abilities in scales of accuracy and fluency. The participants also performed a reading task and a writing task while their brain activities were recorded by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Multilingualism and the brain

Multilingualism and the brain Speaker: Prof. Brenden Weekes (Chair Professor Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Director, Laboratory for Communication Science, The University of Hong Kong) Overview: A majority of the global population is multilingual. Although many studies have investigated the cognitive processes used to produce words in multilingual speakers, one criticism of this research is the emphasis on Indo-European languages typically always including English as the dominant language. The question posed in this presentation is whether cognitive processes that have been assumed in models of language processing (naming, reading and spelling) extend to multilingual speakers. This is not a trivial question. Multilingual speakers can use very different writing systems. Indeed, even within a language e.g. Japanese and Korean - two or more scripts must be learned to become literate (monolingual bi-scriptals). If the same cognitive mechanisms used to read and to spell in one type of script impact on reading and spelling skills in different scripts then several clinical implications arise e.g. in the diagnosis and treatment of aphasia, dyslexia and dysgraphia in multilingual speakers.

The effect of right hemisphere stimulation on language recovery in left-brain damage patients with chronic aphasia

The effect of right hemisphere stimulation on language recovery in left-brain damage patients with chronic aphasia Speaker: Dr Mehdi Bakhtiar (Research Assistant Professor Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) Overview: Over the past decades, the application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), has received an increasing attention as a potential complement to traditional behavioral therapy for stroke patients with Aphasia. However, different tDCS parameters were employed including the stimulation of right versus left hemisphere and application of anodal (excitatory) versus cathodal (inhibitory) stimulations. There are two opposing hypotheses, namely the interference hypothesis and the compensatory hypothesis regarding the role of right hemisphere (RH) activation

Clinical application of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for swallowing disorders following stroke

Clinical application of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for swallowing disorders following stroke Speaker: Dr Ivy Cheng (Speech Therapist Chance Developmental Support Centre) Overview: Swallowing disorders (dysphagia) is common among stroke patients. Recovery of swallowing functions after stroke relies on the reorganization of neurological systems (neural plasticity). Studies have found that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can be used to promote neural plasticity and improve swallowing functions in acute stroke survivors. rTMS is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique that can increase or decrease cortical excitability through electromagnetic induction

Comprehension of Chinese relative clauses in a trilingual acquisition context

Comprehension of Chinese relative clauses in a trilingual acquisition context Speaker: Dr Angel Chan (Associate Professor Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) Overview: Chinese relative clauses (RCs) have word order properties that are distinctly rare across languages of the world; such properties provide a good testing ground to tease apart predictions regarding the relative complexity of subject and object RCs in acquisition and processing. This study considers these special word order properties in a multilingual acquisition context, examining how Cantonese(L1)-English(L2)- Mandarin(L3) trilingual children process RCs in two Chinese

A Study on the Evolution of Voval Tract from Chimpanzees to Humans

A Study on the Evolution of Voval Tract from Chimpanzees to Humans Speaker: Prof. Kong Jiangping (Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University) Overview: As is well known, vowels [a, i, u] are regarded as the basic vowels in human speech. Chimpanzee, on the other hand, can only produce sounds reminiscent of [a] and [u] because of their small back cavity and the specific structure of their tongue muscles, which make it impossible for them to form the vocal-track shapes as observed in human. The differentiation of chimpanzee and modern human dates back to 5 million years ago. Since tongue muscles and larynx cannot be fossilized, it is difficult to reconstruct vocal tracts simply based on the fossils of ancient homos. Kong’s team has established the physiological models of chimpanzee and modernhuman based on 3D MRI data, which include the parameters of front cavity length,back cavity length, and similarity of vocal tract shapes. Through the vocal tractsimulation from chimpanzee to modern human, about fifty thousand 3D vocal tracts are reconstructed, and sounds produced in the vocal tracts have been synthesized. By conducting speech sound perception tests, the team explores the time vowels couldhave emerged.

Tone Development in Mandarin-Speaking Children

Tone Development in Mandarin-Speaking Children Speaker: Dr Peng Gang (Associate Professor Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) Overview: Children start to produce their first words by the age of one; by four, most children have developed the ability to use their native language; by six or seven, they become veteran users of their native language. Studies on tone production have suggested very early mastery of Mandarin tones and reported that children produce tones correctly around age two. However, early production of tones in

A lens to the language deficit in schizophrenia: Verbal memory and voxel based morphometry in first episode non-affective psychosis

A lens to the language deficit in schizophrenia: Verbal memory and voxel based morphometry in first episode non-affective psychosis Speaker: Prof. Rosa Ayesa-Arriola (Centro de Investigación Biomedica En Red del Área de Salud Mental, Psychiatry Department, University Hospital Marques de Valdecillapeech Therapist) Overview: Deficits in auditory-verbal memory have been reported by the vast majority of published research in schizophrenia and also detected in first episode psychosis (FEP), confirming they are already present at the early stages of the illness. However, the specific neurocognitive constructs underlying defective verbal memory and their neuroanatomical correlates remains poorly understood in patients of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. In this talk I will explore results from both the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and structural MRI using voxel based morphometry taken from a large cohort of FEP patients and healthy controls. I will discuss how

Online adjustment of phonetic expectation of lexical tones to accommodate speaker variation

Online adjustment of phonetic expectation of lexical tones to accommodate speaker variation Speaker: Dr Zhang Caicai (Assistant Professor Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) Overview: An unresolved question in speech perception is how speech signals with speaker variation are mapped onto their perceptual representations. In this study, this issue was examined using a written-word/spoken-word matching paradigm, where listeners could adjust phonetic expectations of spoken words carrying lexical tones according to speaker-specific F0 cues contained in a preceding speech context, to analyse the tone of the incoming spoken word. Behavioural results showed that Cantonese listeners perceived spoken words differently, in a way compatible with the adjustment of F0 expectations of lexical tones to accommodate between- and within-speaker variation in F0