Vowel articulation index and conversational spontaneous speech intelligibility in Parkinson's disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. e123
Author(s):  
C. Rountrey ◽  
M. Molett
2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (6S) ◽  
pp. 1818-1825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yana Yunusova ◽  
Elaine Kearney ◽  
Madhura Kulkarni ◽  
Brandon Haworth ◽  
Melanie Baljko ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this pilot study was to demonstrate the effect of augmented visual feedback on acquisition and short-term retention of a relatively simple instruction to increase movement amplitude during speaking tasks in patients with dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD). Method Nine patients diagnosed with PD, hypokinetic dysarthria, and impaired speech intelligibility participated in a training program aimed at increasing the size of their articulatory (tongue) movements during sentences. Two sessions were conducted: a baseline and training session, followed by a retention session 48 hr later. At baseline, sentences were produced at normal, loud, and clear speaking conditions. Game-based visual feedback regarding the size of the articulatory working space (AWS) was presented during training. Results Eight of nine participants benefited from training, increasing their sentence AWS to a greater degree following feedback as compared with the baseline loud and clear conditions. The majority of participants were able to demonstrate the learned skill at the retention session. Conclusions This study demonstrated the feasibility of augmented visual feedback via articulatory kinematics for training movement enlargement in patients with hypokinesia due to PD. Supplemental Materials https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5116840


2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 1134-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Supraja Anand ◽  
Cara E. Stepp

PurposeGiven the potential significance of speech naturalness to functional and social rehabilitation outcomes, the objective of this study was to examine the effect of listener perceptions of monopitch on speech naturalness and intelligibility in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD).MethodTwo short utterances were extracted from monologue samples of 16 speakers with PD and 5 age-matched adults without PD. Sixteen listeners evaluated these stimuli for monopitch, speech naturalness and intelligibility using the visual sort and rate method.ResultsNaïve listeners can reliably judge monopitch, speech naturalness, and intelligibility with minimal familiarization. While monopitch and speech intelligibility were only moderately correlated, monopitch and speech naturalness were highly correlated.ConclusionsA great deal of attention is currently being paid to improvement of vocal loudness and thus speech intelligibility in PD. Our findings suggest that prosodic characteristics such as monopitch should be explored as adjuncts to this treatment of dysarthria in PD. Development of such prosodic treatments may enhance speech naturalness and thus improve quality of life.


2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Farrell ◽  
Deborah Theodoros ◽  
Elizabeth Ward ◽  
Bruce Hall ◽  
Peter Silburn

The present study examined the effects of neurosurgical management of Parkinson’s disease (PD), including the procedures of pallidotomy, thalamotomy, and deep-brain stimulation (DBS) on perceptual speech characteristics, speech intelligibility, and oromotor function in a group of 22 participants with PD. The surgical participant group was compared with a group of 25 non-neurologically impaired individuals matched for age and sex. In addition, the study investigated 16 participants with PD who did not undergo neurosurgical management to control for disease progression. Results revealed that neurosurgical intervention did not significantly change the surgical participants’ perceptual speech dimensions or oromotor function despite significant postoperative improvements in ratings of general motor function and disease severity. Reasons why neurosurgical intervention resulted in dissimilar outcomes with respect to participants’ perceptual speech dimensions and general motor function are proposed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
pp. 2259-2274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Roberts ◽  
Danielle Post

Purpose This study compared the information content and information efficiency of spoken language in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) to a healthy comparator group. Method Nineteen participants with PD and 19 healthy older adults completed the prospective, cross-sectional study. In the primary analysis, 2 language samples elicited by standardized protocols were analyzed for group differences using standard discourse informativeness measures including main events (MEs; Wright, Capilouto, Wagovich, Cranfill, & Davis, 2005) analyzed as %MEs and correct information units (CIUs; Nicholas & Brookshire, 1993) analyzed as %CIUs and CIUs/min. In exploratory analyses, the following were examined: (a) associations among conceptual (%MEs) and lexical (%CIUs and CIUs/min) measures and (b) associations among informativeness measures and age, education, disease severity/duration, global cognition, speech intelligibility, and a verb confrontation naming measure. Results In the primary analysis, the PD group differed significantly from the control group on conceptual (%MEs) and lexical measures of content (%CIUs) and efficiency (CIUs/min). In exploratory analyses, for the control group %MEs were significantly correlated with CIUs/min. Significant associations among conceptual and lexical measures of informativeness were not found in the PD group. For controls, there were no significant correlations between informativeness measures and any of the demographic or speech/cognitive/language variables. In the PD group, there was a significant and positive association between CIUs/min and Dementia Rating Scale–Second Edition scores (Mattis, 2001). A significant but negative correlation was found between CIUs/min and motor severity scores. However, %MEs and verb naming were significantly and positively correlated. Conclusions Individuals with PD without dementia demonstrated reduced discourse informativeness that reflects disruptions to both conceptual and lexical discourse processes. In exploratory analyses, reduced efficiency of information content was associated with global cognition and motor severity. Clinical and research implications are discussed within a Cognitivist framework of discourse production (Sheratt, 2007).


Author(s):  
Defne Abur ◽  
Austeja Subaciute ◽  
Ayoub Daliri ◽  
Rosemary A. Lester-Smith ◽  
Ashling A. Lupiani ◽  
...  

Purpose Unexpected and sustained manipulations of auditory feedback during speech production result in “reflexive” and “adaptive” responses, which can shed light on feedback and feedforward auditory-motor control processes, respectively. Persons with Parkinson's disease (PwPD) have shown aberrant reflexive and adaptive responses, but responses appear to differ for control of vocal and articulatory features. However, these responses have not been examined for both voice and articulation in the same speakers and with respect to auditory acuity and functional speech outcomes (speech intelligibility and naturalness). Method Here, 28 PwPD on their typical dopaminergic medication schedule and 28 age-, sex-, and hearing-matched controls completed tasks yielding reflexive and adaptive responses as well as auditory acuity for both vocal and articulatory features. Results No group differences were found for any measures of auditory-motor control, conflicting with prior findings in PwPD while off medication. Auditory-motor measures were also compared with listener ratings of speech function: first formant frequency acuity was related to speech intelligibility, whereas adaptive responses to vocal fundamental frequency manipulations were related to speech naturalness. Conclusions These results support that auditory-motor processes for both voice and articulatory features are intact for PwPD receiving medication. This work is also the first to suggest associations between measures of auditory-motor control and speech intelligibility and naturalness.


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taha Khan ◽  
Jerker Westin ◽  
Mark Dougherty

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 2506-2518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunjung Kim ◽  
Yaelin Choi

Purpose The present study aimed to compare acoustic models of speech intelligibility in individuals with the same disease (Parkinson's disease [PD]) and presumably similar underlying neuropathologies but with different native languages (American English [AE] and Korean). Method A total of 48 speakers from the 4 speaker groups (AE speakers with PD, Korean speakers with PD, healthy English speakers, and healthy Korean speakers) were asked to read a paragraph in their native languages. Four acoustic variables were analyzed: acoustic vowel space, voice onset time contrast scores, normalized pairwise variability index, and articulation rate. Speech intelligibility scores were obtained from scaled estimates of sentences extracted from the paragraph. Results The findings indicated that the multiple regression models of speech intelligibility were different in Korean and AE, even with the same set of predictor variables and with speakers matched on speech intelligibility across languages. Analysis of the descriptive data for the acoustic variables showed the expected compression of the vowel space in speakers with PD in both languages, lower normalized pairwise variability index scores in Korean compared with AE, and no differences within or across language in articulation rate. Conclusions The results indicate that the basis of an intelligibility deficit in dysarthria is likely to depend on the native language of the speaker and listener. Additional research is required to explore other potential predictor variables, as well as additional language comparisons to pursue cross-linguistic considerations in classification and diagnosis of dysarthria types.


2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella A Constantinescu ◽  
Deborah G Theodoros ◽  
Trevor G Russell ◽  
Elizabeth C Ward ◽  
Stephen J Wilson ◽  
...  

We investigated the validity and feasibility of online delivery of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) for the treatment of the speech disorder of a patient with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. The treatment was delivered in 16 sessions to the participant's home, 90 km from the speech language pathologist. A PC-based videoconferencing system was used, operating at 128 kbit/s over the public telecommunications network. The patient achieved substantial improvements in vocal sound pressure levels during sustained vowel phonation (6.13 dB), reading (12.28 dB) and conversational monologue (11.32 dB). There were improvements in the duration of sustained vowel phonation (4 s). Improvements were also perceived in the degree of breathiness and roughness in the voice, and in overall speech intelligibility in conversation. The patient was very satisfied with the audio and video quality of the conferencing, and with the online treatment overall. He reported a preference for online sessions for the future management of his condition, rather than face-to-face treatment. Remote LSVT delivery was found to be feasible and effective.


2019 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 194-198
Author(s):  
Ece Bayram ◽  
Eda Aslanbaba ◽  
Muhittin Cenk Akbostanci

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