Interdisciplinary research of verbal communication quality

Researches in this project are focused on the quality of verbal communication as a multidimensional characteristic of speech and factors influencing that quality. It includes a wide variety of factors from developmental to psychosomatic and from communication to pathological. This project is based on four subprojects: (1) researches of the quality of children’s verbal communication, behaviour and learning in relation to presence/absence of prenatal and perinatal risk factors, (2) researches of electrophysiological correlates of auditory perception and speech production, (3) researches of psychoemotional and psychoacoustic variations in verbal communication and (4) theoretical and experimental researches of verbal-nonverbal cognitive-psychosomatic communication. Each of the projects requires interdisciplinary approach in researches of fundamental nature (e.g. mathematical modelling) as well as experimental nature (e.g. researching psychophysiological correlates). Significance of these researches lies in better understanding of all levels of verbal communication and in quantifying variation factors which influence verbal communication disorders. Finally, we expect results which can objectively set platforms for new diagnostic methodologies and protocols, new technological solutions primarily in the area of speech technologies and telemedicine, as well as bases for further fundamental and experimental researches.