It's time for BU Giving Day 2025! ♥️ If you're interested in supporting the Stepp Lab this year, the link to donate is in our bio. We greatly appreciate any and all contributions, and we are immensely grateful for all of the support you all give us and our work year-round! ✨
Participants will be asked to come in for up to 13 in-person visits over the first year of taking testosterone and will be compensated $30/hour.
Anyone interested in participating can contact us at stepplab@gmail.com / 617-358-1395!
The Stepp Lab is recruiting gender diverse adults (aged 18-50) to take part in a voice research study over their first year of taking testosterone. All individuals seeking testosterone hormone replacement therapy for the first time are encouraged to contact us!
We also found that how people responded to pitch errors in running speech did not relate to their responses in sustained vowels (“aaaah”). This raises the question: do we truly capture speech motor learning as it occurs in meaningful speech by having people sustain vowels?
ALT Scatterplot showing relationship between pitch responses during an emphasized word in a sentence and during a sustained vowel. The data points are oriented in a cloud with slight clustering toward the upper right quadrant. The p value is .996.
We found that speakers responded similarly across these contexts, whether or not a pitch error disrupted the meaning of the sentence
ALT Figure of pitch responses during study conditions. Full description is available in published article on the website of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
We tested this by shifting people’s pitch up & down in running speech—making emphasized words sound unemphasized or super-emphasized (& vice versa with unemphasized words)
ALT Graphic with the head of a person with headphones and mic and 3 boxes encircling the lower part of the face. The first box is a speech bubble titled "Speaker says." The person is saying "Dave buys beds" with emphasis on Dave. An arrow connects this to a box titled "Perturbation applied." The perturbation is a 200-cent downward shift in pitch on the first word only. This box is connected by an arrow to another box titled "Speaker hears." The speaker hears "Dave buys beds," but with the first word being neutral instead of emphasized. Underneath these boxes is an arrow pointing from left to right. The left end of the arrow is labeled "Most disruptive to linguistic meaning." The right end is "least disruptive." Above the arros are five boxes in a row. Each box describes a speech task and pitch-shift condition. They are, from left to right: emphasized word, shift down; unemphasized word, shift up; emphasized word, shift up; unemphasized word, shift down; sustained vowel, shift down
Katherine Marks, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is presenting "Updates in the Assessment and Treament Characterization in those with Laryngeal Dystonia & Vocal Tremor" in a 1-hour seminar
Cara Stepp, Ph.D., is presenting “Current Research in Vocal Hyperfunction: Update from the Massachusetts General Hospital Clinical Research Center” in a 1-hour seminar
Nicole Tomassi is presenting a poster titled “How Gender-Diverse Individuals Assigned-Female-at-Birth Adjust their Vocal Tract to Express their Gender: An MRI Study.” The poster is designed as an ASHA Convention Changemaker Session!
Dilys Tan, MS-SLP, is presenting a poster titled “Impact of Speech Rate and Speaker-modulated Vocal Effort on Laryngeal Kinematics in Parkinson’s Disease”
Nichole Houle, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is presenting a poster titled “Examining the relationship between fundamental frequency and measures of vocal hyperfunction in cisgender speakers”
This week the Stepp Lab is raising awareness about voice disorders like spasmodic dysphonia by participating in @dysphonia_intl’s annual Walk for Talk! To learn more about Dysphonia International, visit dysphonia.org 🗣❤️
The Boston Speech Motor Control Working Group meets Oct 16 at 3:30p to hear about the latest research from @kimberlydahl of @SteppLab, @hilaryemiller of @GuentherLab, and Xiaofeng Liu of JW Lab. Reception sponsored by @BUSargent. See you at Sargent College, Room 101!
Join us at the Michael J. Fox Foundation Run/Walk in Swampscott, MA on October 29th! The Michael J. Fox Foundation is a non-profit that connects people with Parkinson’s disease to researchers, and strives to eradicate Parkinson’s by funding countless research initiatives.
📅 Save the date! The Boston Speech Motor Control Working Group will meet at Sargent College on Oct 16, 2023 to hear about the latest work by Boston-area researchers in the area of speech motor control. Reception sponsored by @BUSargentsites.bu.edu/stepplab/upcomi…
ALT Save-the-date graphic for the October 16 meeting of the Boston Speech Motor Control Working Group
Just published: Normative Values of Cepstral Peak Prominence Measures in Typical Speakers by Sex, Speech Stimuli, and Software Type Across the Life Span @ASHAJournals@buslhssites.bu.edu/stepplab/files/…
More #2023BSMCS awesomeness with a great talk from Amanda Eads @A_R_Eads on Auditory Acuity and SimpleDIVA Modeling of Response to Altered Auditory Feedback in Children with and without Residual Speech Sound Disorder!
Thank you to Dr. Edward Chang for his amazing keynote talk on the Speech Cortex and sharing with us some of his groundbreaking work at the Chang Lab! @ChangLabUcsf#2023BCS
Moving ahead, Kathryn Connaghan @KateConnaghan , Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is discussing the impact of dysarthria on communicative participation and social connectedness at #2023BSMCS
Next up at #2023BSMCS we have the amazing Mara Kapsner-Smith, Ph.C., CCC-SLP, talking to us about Test-Retest Reliability of Behavioral Assays of Feedforward and Feedback Auditory-Motor Control of Voice and Articulation!
We are back from the break! Starting with a talk by Dr. Ding-Ian Tang @DinglanTang1 titled “The Brain’s Sensitivity to Sensory Error Can be Modulated by Altering Perceived Speech Variability” #2023BSMCS
Time for the first talk of the day at #2023BSMCS with Marisha Speights Atkins, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. “Looking Forward: Speech Analysis and Assessment Through an Equity Lens”
Thank you to everyone leading and participating in these great roundtable conversations! Can’t wait to see everyone again tomorrow for more amazing conversations at #2023BSMCS !
🚨 Registration closes May 15! No extensions! 🚨
Join us June 12 for the Boston Speech Motor Control Symposium. Trainee preconference tutorial on June 11.
The Boston Speech Motor Control Working Group meets May 12, 2023 to hear about the latest research from Abigail Haenssler of @MGHInstitute, @jordan_manes of @GuentherLab, & Lauren Sullivan of @SMILeResearch. Talks followed by a reception, sponsored by @BUSargent
🚨 Early registration ends today, April 17! Join us for the 2023 Boston Speech Motor Control Symposium for an exciting slate of speakers and poster presentations. #2023BSMCSsites.bu.edu/stepplab/collab…
ALT Early registration for the 2023 Boston Speech Motor Control Symposium ends today, April 17
#2023BSMCS will host roundtable talks on career planning in speech motor control—grant-writing, clinical research, industry work, & more! Each table is led by our esteemed invited speakers & special guests. Trainees, don't miss this preconference event! tinyurl.com/2023bsmcs
ALT List of roundtable topics and a notice that early registration ends April 17
We are delighted to support and attend @FirstEventConf! Join our workshop on "Gender-Affirming Voice and Communication" this Thursday (1/26) at 11am, and visit us during the Vendor Fair Thursday through Saturday. Visit tcne.org/first-event/event-s… for more information.
New publication led by @kimberlydahl 🗣️
This study looks at the effects of cognitive stress on voice acoustics in female speakers with and without hyperfunctional voice disorders. Scan the QR code or click the link below to read the full paper!
sites.bu.edu/stepplab/files/…
📢🗓️Join us at Michael J. Fox Foundation's Boston Run/Walk on Oct 30th as we work toward finding a cure for Parkinson's. We are excited to join as a community partner for the event. Visit our tent to know about PD research on voice! 🧠🗣️#OutrunPD 🎽👟mjffrunwalk.org
📢🗓️Join us at Michael J. Fox Foundation's Boston Run/Walk on Oct 30th as we work toward finding a cure for Parkinson's. @SteppLab is excited to join as a community partner for the event. Visit our tent to know about PD research on voice! 🧠🗣️#OutrunPD 🎽👟mjffrunwalk.org