news 2023

The voice is the most important sound for human beings, providing information about the identity, gender, age and emotional state of the speaker, as well as being the basis of our communication through language and other non-linguistic cues. Adults have a specific brain area that responds preferentially to voice among all other sounds.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly being used in various aspects of our society. However, we do not always know how the algorithms work and whether the choices they make are fair.

According to a series of reports published by WHO and the partner study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), adolescents who are most likely to have suffered from negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are female, older, from less affluent families, faced prolonged school closures or lacked social support.

Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel suspect there is a link between stuttering and the quality and quantity of sleep in children aged four to 13. Previous research has shown that sleep problems can cause drowsiness, fatigue attention disorders, anxiety and depression symptoms and, the VUB researchers believe, the intensity of stutters.