Cognitive-linguistic processing demands and speech breathing

This investigation examined the influence of cognitive-linguistic processing demands on speech breathing. Twenty women were studied during performance of two speaking activities designed to differ in cognitive-linguistic planning requirements. Speech breathing was monitored with respiratory magnetometers from which recordings were made of anteroposterior diameter changes of the rib cage and abdomen. Results indicated that speech breathing was highly similar across speaking conditions, with the exception that the average lung volume expended per syllable was greater during performance of the more demanding speaking activity. Further analyses suggested that greater lung volume expenditures were associated with longer expiratory pause times. In conclusion, it appears that general speech breathing performance is essentially unaffected by variations in cognitive-linguistic demands, however, certain fluency-related breathing behaviors are highly sensitive to such demands.