Speech lab: Unlocking the secrets of the human voice

It's an unusual performance. As James Wilkes reads aloud one of his poems, he slurs, stutters and stammers, struggling to get the words out. It's a far cry from his usually fluent readings of the material he knows so well. But today, James is taking part in an experiment at University College London's Speech Communication Lab. As he reads, his voice is played back to him through headphones just a fraction of a second later. And it is remarkably disruptive. He says: "It's a very, very odd experience. "It's like you are not saying words you have just said, so you are waiting for them to come. "The concentration involved is huge." Two cultures The writer has just taken up a poet-in-residence role at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience where the speech lab is based. He is hoping to get a creative insight into the science behind speech. "Everyone speaks, but it is something that is also really complex and strange," he explains. "The work they are doing at the lab is shedding some kind of light on that complexity and strangeness. And as a poet I really want to be part of that." The experiment that James has just taken part in is called Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), which is also known as speech jamming. Professor Sophie Scott, who heads the research group, says that it's a simple test that is helping to identify the mechanisms of speech. She explains: "What this is telling us is that when we speak, we make a noise, and if we fiddle around with that noise, it can make speech production difficult. "So it is telling us something interesting about how we use the sound of our own voice to guide speech output." Brain waves How we produce - and perceive - speech is the focus of research at the lab. Professor Scott says: "Speech is incredibly complex. "In fact, as a sound, speech or the human voice talking is comfortably the most complex sound you encounter on a day-to-day basis." She explains that just by hearing a few words, you start to build up an image of what a person might be like. "Our voices convey an awful lot of information about us, whether we want them to or not," she says. "If you couldn't see me, but hear me, you'd probably have a good guess at my sex, my age, where I come from, aspects of my mood and my socio-economic status - all of this is expressed in my voice. "But all sorts of other stuff too, like my aspirations and my hopes and what I'd like you to think of me. "I can guarantee to you that I sound different to talking to you here because I am trying to come across like a serious academic than if I was buying something a the market." The team is investigating the science behind speech in a variety of ways, from comparing recordings from around the world to see how communication varies across continents, to MRI scans that allow the researchers to identify which parts of the brain are activated as volunteers speak and listen to speech. And of course, as with any self-respecting cognitive neuroscience lab, behavioural experiments such as speech jamming feature too. In another test, Professor Scott asks James to read a text with her, out loud. It seems deceptively simple, but as they begin to read they have to synchronise everything: pauses, rhythm and even breathing to keep in time. Prof Scott explains that the simple experiment helps to reveal more about the complexities that exist in conversations. She says: "If you actually look at people together, they will start to coordinate their behaviour a lot to make conversation. "People will start to pronounce words in the same way, they'll coordinate their breathing. "Speech is actually a very, very complex social behaviour." James, who is spending several months with the speech team, is organising performances and events, such the Voices series of talks that will take place at UCL in April and May, to share what he is learning at the lab. But he also thinks it will have an impact on his own poetry. "[With speech jamming ] I found it changed the texture and the surface of what I was doing. I was slurring and stuttering, and those extra bits are really interesting to me as a poet," he explains. "It's something that is disruptive, it's unnecessary, excessive - and that to me is the material I want to work with." Prof Scott also thinks the poet's presence could have an impact on the way her team approaches their research. "You always learn something new from working with people who've got a different perspective," she says. "Psychologists tend to deal with speech as a disembodied language system, but the actual sounds of your language are incredibly important and have a lot to do with how you understand and interpret what people are saying to you. "And I think poets have a great deal of insight into that and a lot to say about the way we deal with the sounds people make around us." ________________ References: Morelle, Rebecca. 2012. "Speech lab: Unlocking the secrets of the human voice". BBC News. Posted: April 23, 2012. Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17790595

Forensic science used to determine who's who in pre-Columbian Peru

Analysis of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been used to establish migration and population patterns for American indigenous cultures during the time before Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Genetics has used more detailed DNA analysis of individuals from Arequipa region to identify the family relationships and burial traditions of ancient Peru. The social unit (ayllu) of Native South Americans is thought to be based on kin relationships. The establishment of ayllu-based communities is also associated with funereal monuments (chullpas) which are thought to be important social sites not only because of their religious importance but because they housed the venerated ayllu's ancestors. Ancestor worship and a belief in a common ancestor, central to the ayllu, still exists in the traditions of the Q'ero community. Researchers from University of Warsaw, in collaboration with Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria, used DNA analysis to reconstruct the family trees of individuals buried in six chullpas near the Coropuna volcano is southern Peru. Despite prior looting, the unique nature of this site, 4000m up the Cora Cora mountain, allowed an extraordinary preservation of human remains and of DNA within both teeth and bone. mtDNA analysis showed that the groups were of Andean origin and indicated a 500 year continuity, up to modern Andeans, without any major impact by European colonisation. The social structure of an aylla was established using Y (male) chromosome and autosomal microsatellites analysis, in conjunction with the mtDNA. Family connections were clearly strongest within each chullpa, since individuals buried in the same chullpa were more closely related than those buried in different chullpas, and all males buried together shared identical Y chromosome profiles. In two of the chullpas several generations of related males were found. This matches current thought that the ancient Andians would swap women between families - so called 'sister exchange' while the men retained the ancestral land. The combinations of DNA analysis used allowed for an unprecedented level of detail in social behaviour to be discerned. In one chullpa three different Y chromosome lineages were found. Comparison of mtDNA within this chullpa suggests that two of the males had the same mother but different fathers, and the third male was related to one of the females, probably a half brother. Mateusz Baca explained, "Our results show that this community of llama and alpaca herders was (genetically) an extended patriarchal society. The use of chullpas as family graves is consistent with the idea of ayllu-based communities based around strong kinship relationships. However, the chullpa with mixed male heritage shows that this social structure could also be flexible and the strict rules governing marriage and family could be intentionally, or unintentionally, relaxed." _______________ References: EurekAlert. 2012. "Forensic science used to determine who's who in pre-Columbian Peru". EurekAlert. Posted: April 22, 2012. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/bc-fsu042012.php Notes: 1. Ancient DNA reveals kinship burial patterns of a pre-Columbian Andean community Mateusz Baca, Karolina Doan, Maciej Sobczyk, Anna Stankovic and Piotr Weglenski BMC Genetics (in press) 2. BMC Genetics is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of inheritance and variation in individuals and among populations. 3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.

Timbuktu's treasures threatened by conflict

Few of world’s ancient cities have the mystique to match Timbuktu. During its golden age in medieval times, Timbuktu was a thriving desert trading capital, as well as an intellectual and spiritual centre, from which Islam spread throughout Africa. Since then, the city has fallen into serious decline, suffering from poverty and desertification. Now it faces another threat: war and conflict. A present danger Since Tuareg-led rebels took over control of Timbuktu on April 1st, Malian scholars, librarians and ordinary people have all helped hide priceless ancient manuscripts to prevent them from being damaged or looted. Preparations have been made to try to smuggle items out for safekeeping, either to Mali’s capital city, Bamako, or to neighbouring countries like Niger. After stealing vehicles from the newly constructed Ahmed Baba Institute — the Malian state library that houses more than 20,000 ancient scholarly manuscripts — armed rebels ransacked the Institute’s old building in another part of town, looting computers and other equipment. However, they did not enter any of the rooms and vaults where the priceless artefacts are stored. A huge collection of manuscripts Experts say that there at least 24 significant private manuscript collections, totalling anywhere from 150,000 to 750,000 individual items, in and around Timbuktu. Dating back as far as the 13th century CE, the documents have been guarded from invaders by generations of Malian families. Today, the texts represent a compendium of learning on everything from law, sciences and medicine to history and politics. Martin van Vliet, a researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, Netherlands, told CNN that while Timbuktu is no longer a city of vital economic or military importance, it stands out as an important prize for the rebels due to its symbolic significance. “The group that controls Timbuktu controls the symbolic capital of the entire region,” he said, “because it’s that well-known across the world. If you control that city, it will be known.” Respecting a country’s patrimony Irina Bokova, the director general of UNESCO, has called on rebel groups to respect and protect the city’s vital heritage. “Timbuktu’s outstanding earthen architectural wonders that are the great mosques of Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, must be safeguarded,” she said. “Along with the site’s 16 cemeteries and mausoleums, they are essential to the preservation of the identity of the people of Mali and of our universal heritage.” A new group has been created by the GHN Community to monitor and raise awareness of threats to Timbuktu and you are encouraged to join and discuss solutions for this important ancient city’s long-term preservation. Treasures Of Timbuktu (Journeyman Films) There are pictures and another video on the Past Horizons website. Take time to visit. _________________ References: Past Horizons. 2012. "Timbuktu's treasures threatened by conflict". Past Horizons. Posted: April 21, 2012. Available online: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/04/2012/timbuktus-treasures-threatened-by-conflict

Samples of traditional Chinese medicine are found to contain harmful ingredients

Traditional Chinese medicine is enjoying increasing popularity all over the world. But two recently published studies show that the treatments can be harmful. The papers focus attention on the fact that not all of the ingredients in TCM treatments are listed, or even legal, and that some can cause cancer. Critics have long warned that some mixtures can also contain naturally occurring toxins; contaminants such as heavy metals; added substances such as steroids, which can make them appear more effective; and traces of animals that are endangered and trade-restricted. Now, researchers in Australia have investigated the issue using modern sequencing technology. The team analyzed 15 TCM samples seized by Australian officials. “We took these traditional preparations, smashed them to pieces and extracted the DNA from the powder,” explained molecular geneticist Michael Bunce. Some products contained material from animals classified as vulnerable or critically endangered, such as the Asiatic black bear and the Saiga antelope, just as the producers of the products claimed. But often, the medicine also harbored ingredients not mentioned on the packaging, the team reported online in PLoS Genetics. In the herbal preparations that they tested, Bunce and his colleagues found members of 68 plant families, among them plants of the genera Ephedra and Asarum. Both can contain toxic substances such as aristolochic acid, banned in many countries because it causes kidney disease and upper urinary tract cancer, or UUC. Although detecting DNA from a certain species does not mean that a toxin produced by that plant is present, chemical analysis of one of the four samples containing Asarum did turn up aristolochic acid. The threat posed by aristolochic acid is also highlighted in a paper published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For this paper, researchers focused on Taiwan, which has the highest rate of UUC in the world. A previous analysis had shown that roughly one-third of the Taiwanese population consumed herbs likely to contain aristolochic acid. The scientists sequenced the tumors of 151 patients with UUC. Among those with mutations in a tumor-suppressor gene that make people more vulnerable to cancer, 84 percent showed indications of exposure to aristolochic acid. The study provides compelling evidence that aristolochic acid is a primary cause of UUC in Taiwan, the authors argue. __________________ References: Kupferschmidt, Kai. 2012. "Samples of traditional Chinese medicine are found to contain harmful ingredients". Washington Post. Posted: April 23, 2012. Available online: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/samples-of-traditional-chinese-medicine-are-found-to-contain-harmful-ingredients/2012/04/23/gIQAY2frcT_story.html

Rare Ancient Statue Depicts Topless Female Gladiator

A small bronze statue dating back nearly 2,000 years may be that of a female gladiator, a victorious one at that, suggests a new study. If confirmed the statue would represent only the second depiction of a woman gladiator known to exist. The gladiator statue shows a topless woman, wearing only a loincloth and a bandage around her left knee. Her hair is long, although neat, and in the air she raises what the researcher, Alfonso Manas of the University of Granada, believes is a sica, a short curved sword used by gladiators. The gesture she gives is a "salute to the people, to the crowd," Manas said, an action done by victorious gladiators at the end of a fight. The female fighter is looking down at the ground, presumably at her fallen opponent. The "precise real-life" details of the statue suggest the depiction was inspired by an actual person, a real woman who fought, Manas told LiveScience in an interview. [Photos: Gladiators of the Roman Empire] It’s not known where the statue was originally found, though it is currently in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbein Hamburg, Germany. The rarity of such statues likely reflects the idea that female gladiators in ancient Rome were scarce. They were banned by Emperor Septimius Severus in A.D. 200 with only about a dozen references to them in ancient writing surviving to present day. The only other known depiction of them is a carved relieffrom the site of Halicarnassus (now in the British Museum) that shows two female gladiators fighting. There have been claims made in the past of burials of female gladiators being uncovered, but none has attracted widespread support among scholars. Identifying the gladiator Scholars had initially suggested the statue represented a female athlete scraping herself with a strigil (a cleaning implement that can look similar to a sword). However, Manas noted several aspects of the artifact to suggest it instead represented a female gladiator. One was the woman's stance. It would make little sense for an athlete to raise a cleaning instrument high in the air while looking down at the ground.However, raising a sword into the air was a common victory pose among ancient gladiators. In addition, female athletes in the Roman world did not go completely topless, as they would wear a bikini or "a tunic that left one breast exposed," Manas pointed out. "In any case, female athletes never performed with bare breasts,” at least not with both exposed. Gladiators, on the other hand, tended to be slaves or people of low social status; depicting them topless would have been considered more acceptable. The bandage the woman is wearing on her knee is also a common feature of gladiators. [Roman Gladiator's Gravestone Reveals Fatal Foul] Altogether, this evidence "seems to indicate that the statuette at the MKG [the museum] represents a gladiator, thus becoming the second piece of visual evidence we have of female gladiators," Manas writes in a recent issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport. Anna McCullough, a professor at Ohio State University who has written about female gladiators, but is not affiliated with the research, is cautiously optimistic about this identification. "The gesture is far more similar to gestures of victory than it is to any depictions of athletes actually scraping themselves," McCullough said. "I think it certainly resembles a female gladiator more than (an) athlete, and I'm kind of happy to tentatively say that it is a gladiator in those terms." One potential problem, she points out, is the fact that the "gladiator" is portrayed without a helmet, greaves (shin protectors) or other form of armor. "The reason for this woman being topless might simply be that whoever made it wanted to sort of emphasize the fact that this is a female gladiator and not a male gladiator," she said, still "for her to be completely without armor is a little bit odd." Both Manas and McCullough pointed out that it wasn't uncommon for men to go into the arena topless, although typically equipped with defensive gear such as a helmet, shield, greaves or even a breastplate. McCullough said that, in real life, female gladiators would likely have worn more than a loincloth and bandage into the arena. Without the protective gear, the fighters would have been killed in large numbers. "If gladiators died every time that there was a fight in the arena, you would have a really hard time keeping up your population of gladiators in your gladiatorial school," she said. Manas said that in real life, a gladiator like this would have had at least a shield and possibly a helmet. Perhaps she had taken off the helmet for the victory gesture or because the ancient artist wanted to show her hair, he speculated. Or maybe she did in fact go into the arena without a warrior's helmet so that people could see her face. As for her shield, she may have been holding that in her right hand, which is no longer present on the statue. Erotic Romans? Manas argues in his paper that, in addition to the athleticism typical of gladiator matches, female gladiator contests would have had an element of eroticism for Roman men. "No doubt the particular appearance of female gladiators (with their breasts uncovered) would also cause an erotic impact on viewers," he writes. "In a society so militarised as the Roman one, in which weapons were so popular (but exclusive to men), to see a woman in that role, so different to the usual feminine one, wearing the armour of gladiators and showing so much of her anatomy, should also stimulate the imagination and the libido of spectators." [10 Innovations that Revolutionized Combat] McCullough has a different interpretation. "In the literary texts that we have, female gladiators are not described in any kind of an erotic context or using erotic language at all," she said. The authors of those texts, she said, simply note that"women fought in the arena and they fought very fiercely and we were excited to see them." If there were any sexual implication of the nude gladiator, it would've been due to her low social status. "In the Roman mind, there would have [been] certain associations with the sexual availability of slaves,” McCulloughsaid. "Slaves were sort of expected to be sexually available to anyone at anytime, especially their masters." To, "depict a female gladiator, or a slave, nude was really no big deal," she said. "It was an indication of their extremely low status." ___________________ References: Jarus, Owen. 2012. "Rare Ancient Statue Depicts Topless Female Gladiator". Live Science. Posted: April 17, 2012. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/19729-female-gladiator-statue-rome.html

How I traced my ancestry back to the Stone Age

I recently had a genetic test to find out more about where my ancestors came from. The results confirmed what I already knew - I am from a family of European Jews. But there was also a surprise - a Neanderthal forebear. In many families, there seems to be one person who is interested in genealogy. In my family, it's me. When I was 11, I conducted my very first interview with my grandmother, Ray Zall, who graciously answered all my questions about her childhood in Belarus. The recording, which I still have, begins rather grandly: "This is Carol Zall interviewing Ray Zall, my grandmother, or 'Bobe' in Yiddish. Now Mrs Zall, could you tell me about your childhood?" "What can I tell you?" asked my grandmother in her heavily-accented English. "I was born in a small village called Kashuki." I'd never heard of Kashuki. And I still can't find it on a map. "What country is it near?" I asked, confused. "Russian-Poland, Russian-Poland," she answered. My grandmother was born in the early 1900s, in what is now Belarus, but was then Poland (and part of the Russian Empire). Some other ancestors of mine came from similarly vague places in countries that no longer exist, like Austria-Hungary. All of this has made it very hard to trace my roots. Thirty-four years after I recorded that interview with my grandmother, there are new and revealing ways of finding out about your family tree. Advances in the field of genomics have made it possible to use a person's DNA to find out where their ancestors may have come from. A number of companies now offer these tests, and there are a few rules of thumb you can use to separate science from the snake oil. The question is, would this work for me? For about $200 (£125) I signed up with a company called 23andMe (the name derives from the fact that we all have 23 pairs of chromosomes). The next thing I knew I was spitting into a plastic tube and posting my saliva sample to the company. "The first thing we do is extract the DNA from the saliva," says Joanna Mountain, Senior Director of Research at 23andMe. "The DNA gets cut up into little pieces and put on to what we call a chip." Human DNA is like a code made up of three billion letters. Testing companies like 23andMe don't look at all those letters (or positions, as they call them). They look at a small percentage of them - about a million - a process known as "genotyping". The positions are studied to find out all kinds of information - from diseases we may be at risk of in the future, to details about our past. I've always known that my family was Jewish. My entire family tree, so far as I know, consists of European Jews, also known as Ashkenazi Jews. I've always imagined my ancestors as people who spoke Yiddish, lived in Eastern Europe, and listened to klezmer music. However, since Ashkenazis spent centuries wandering around Europe, living among different populations, I've often wondered if they might have married or had children with people who were not Ashkenazi. After all, my mother's mother and all her siblings had red hair and blue eyes. And my own sister - a redhead with freckles - is always assumed to be Irish. A few weeks later, the results of the test came back. "It looks like about two-thirds of it can be traced back to Ashkenazi-Jewish ancestry in Russia, Poland, Belarus, and other nearby countries," says Joanna Mountain. "This is where your Jewish ancestry really pops out," says Mountain as she shows me my chromosomes displayed as separate bars, each one of them covered with bright blue sections, representing all the gene segments I share with other people in her company's database whose known ancestry is Ashkenazi Jewish. __________________ References: Zall, Carol. "How I traced my ancestry back to the Stone Age". BBC News. Posted: April 17, 2012. Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17527318

Study reveals 'extraordinary' DNA of people in Scotland

The DNA of people living in Scotland has "extraordinary" and "unexpected" diversity, according to a new study. The Scotland's DNA project, led by Edinburgh University's Dr Jim Wilson, has tested almost 1,000 Scots in the last four months to determine the genetic roots of people in the country. The project discovered four new male lineages, which account for one in 10 Scottish men. It also found that actor Tom Conti is related to Napoleon Bonaparte. Scotland's DNA was set up by Dr Wilson along with historian Alistair Moffat, the current rector of St Andrews University. Using new technology, scientists were able to pinpoint a participant's DNA marker, from which they tracked the person's history and lineage. Conti and Napoleon both share the M34 marker, which is Saracen in origin. The project found that Scotland has almost 100 different groups of male ancestry from across Europe and further afield. More than 150 different types of female DNA from Europe, Asia and Africa were discovered. Royal line Researchers believe that Scotland's location could be a factor in the "astonishing and unique" origins of people from the country. In a statement, Dr Wilson and Mr Moffat said: "Perhaps geography, Scotland's place at the farthest north-western end of the European peninsula, is the reason for great diversity. "For many thousands of years, migrants could move no further west. Scotland was the end of many journeys." Scotland's DNA also found that more than 1% of all Scotsmen are direct descendants of the Berber and Tuareg tribesmen of the Sahara, a lineage which is around 5600 years old. Royal Stewart DNA was confirmed in 15% of male participants with the Stewart surname. They are directly descended from the royal line of kings. Scientists believe comedian and presenter Fred MacAuley's ancestors were slaves, sold at the great slave market in Dublin in the 9th Century, despite his name suggesting a Viking heritage. They said MacAuley's slave ancestor was taken by ship to the Hebrides and had an affair with his owner's wife, thereby intruding DNA into the MacAulay line. Scotland's DNA will soon be renamed Britain's DNA as the project aims to widen its genetic study to include the English, Welsh and Irish. __________________ References: BBC News. 2012. "Study reveals 'extraordinary' DNA of people in Scotland". BBC News. Posted: April 17, 2012. Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17740638