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Cognitive restoration of reversed speech

Nature volume 398, page 760 (1999) Cite this article

Abstract

Speech is the most complex auditory signal and requires the most processing1. The human brain devotes large cortical areas2,3 to deciphering the information it contains, as well as parsing speech sounds produced simultaneously by several speakers4. The brain can also invoke corrective measures to restore distortions in speech5; for example, if a brief speech sound is replaced by an interfering sound that masks it, such as a cough, the listener perceives the missing speech as if the brain interpolates through the absent segment. We have studied the intelligibility of speech, and find it is resistant to time reversal of local segments of a spoken sentence, which has been described as “the most drastic form of time scale distortion”6.

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Figure 1: Segments of speech showing the effects of time reversal.
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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biology, 216-76, Caltech, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Kourosh Saberi

  2. Departmentof Psychology, California State University, Los Angeles, 90032, California, USA

    David R. Perrott

Authors
  1. Kourosh Saberi
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  2. David R. Perrott
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Saberi, K., Perrott, D. Cognitive restoration of reversed speech. Nature 398, 760 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/19652

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