scholarly journals Digital Speech Analysis in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Corticobasal Syndromes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Parjane ◽  
Sunghye Cho ◽  
Sharon Ash ◽  
Sanjana Shellikeri ◽  
Mark Liberman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Speech Disorders ◽  
Speech Impairments ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Speech Fluency ◽  
Speech Segments ◽  
Automated Methods

Background: Progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndromes (PSPS-CBS) as well as nonfluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia (naPPA) are often due to misfolded 4-repeat Tau, but the diversity of the associated speech disorders beyond Apraxia of Speech (AoS) is poorly understood. Objective: Investigate the full range of acoustic and lexical properties of speech to test the hypothesis that PSPS-CBS show a subset of speech impairments found in naPPA. Methods: Acoustic and lexical measures, extracted from natural, digitized semi-structured speech samples using novel, automated methods, were compared in PSPS-CBS (n=87), naPPA (n=25) and healthy controls (HC, n=41). We also explored speech in a group of PSPS-CBS patients with concomitant naPPA (PSPS-CBS+naPPA, n=8). We related these measures to grammatical performance and speech fluency, core features of naPPA, and to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) phosphorylated tau (pTau) in patients with available biofluid. Results: Both naPPA and PSPS-CBS speech had shorter speech segments, longer pauses, higher pause rate, reduced fundamental frequency (f0) range, and slower speech rate compared to HC. naPPA speech was distinct from PSPS-CBS with shorter speech segments, more frequent pauses, slower speech rate, and reduced verb production. In both groups, acoustic duration measures generally correlated with speech fluency and grammatical performance. PSPS-CBS+naPPA resembled naPPA in most speech measures and had the narrowest f0 range. CSF pTau levels correlated with f0 range and verb production in PSPS-CBS and naPPA. Conclusion: The speech pattern of PSPS-CBS overlaps that of naPPA apart from AoS, and may be related to CSF pTau.

scholarly journals Digital Speech Analysis in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Corticobasal Syndromes

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Parjane ◽  
Sunghye Cho ◽  
Sharon Ash ◽  
Katheryn A.Q. Cousins ◽  
Sanjana Shellikeri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Speech Impairments ◽  
Neuropsychological Measures ◽  
Speech Fluency ◽  
Partial Word ◽  
Speech Features ◽  
Speech Segments

Background: Progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome (PSPS) and corticobasal syndrome (CBS) as well as non-fluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia (naPPA) are often associated with misfolded 4-repeat tau pathology, but the diversity of the associated speech features is poorly understood. Objective: Investigate the full range of acoustic and lexical properties of speech to test the hypothesis that PSPS-CBS show a subset of speech impairments found in naPPA. Methods: Acoustic and lexical measures, extracted from natural, digitized semi-structured speech samples using novel, automated methods, were compared in PSPS-CBS (n = 87), naPPA (n = 25), and healthy controls (HC, n = 41). We related these measures to grammatical performance and speech fluency, core features of naPPA, to neuropsychological measures of naming, executive, memory and visuoconstructional functioning, and to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) phosphorylated tau (pTau) levels in patients with available biofluid analytes. Results: Both naPPA and PSPS-CBS speech produced shorter speech segments, longer pauses, higher pause rates, reduced fundamental frequency (f0) pitch ranges, and slower speech rate compared to HC. naPPA speech was distinct from PSPS-CBS with shorter speech segments, more frequent pauses, slower speech rate, reduced verb production, and higher partial word production. In both groups, acoustic duration measures generally correlated with speech fluency, measured as words per minute, and grammatical performance. Speech measures did not correlate with standard neuropsychological measures. CSF pTau levels correlated with f0 range in PSPS-CBS and naPPA. Conclusion: Lexical and acoustic speech features of PSPS-CBS overlaps those of naPPA and are related to CSF pTau levels.

scholarly journals Motor Speech Disorders and Communication Limitations in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Heather M. Clark ◽  
Rene L. Utianski ◽  
Farwa Ali ◽  
Hugo Botha ◽  
Jennifer L. Whitwell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Speech Disorders ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Motor Speech ◽  
Motor Speech Disorders ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Communicative Effectiveness

Purpose This study describes motor speech disorders and associated communication limitations in six variants of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Method The presence, nature, and severity of dysarthria and apraxia of speech (AOS) were documented, along with scores on the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale–Version 3 (ASRS-3) for 77 (40 male and 37 female) patients with PSP. Clinician-estimated and patient-estimated communication limitations were rated using the Motor Speech Disorders Severity Rating (MSDSR) Scale and the Communicative Effectiveness Survey (CES), respectively. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each of these dependent variables. One-tailed t tests were conducted to test mean differences in ASRS-3 and CES between participants with and without AOS and between participants with and without dysarthria. Spearman rank correlations were calculated between ASRS-3 scores and clinical judgments of AOS and dysarthria severity and between MSDSR and CES ratings. Results Nine participants (12%) had normal speech. Eighty-seven percent exhibited dysarthria; hypokinetic and mixed hypokinetic–spastic dysarthria were observed most frequently. AOS was observed in 19.5% of participants across all variants, but in only 10% exclusive of the PSP speech and language variant. Nearly half presented with AOS in which neither phonetic nor prosodic features clearly predominated. The mean ASRS-3 score for participants with AOS was significantly higher than for those without and correlated strongly with clinician judgment of AOS severity. Mean ASRS-3 was higher for participants with dysarthria than for those without but correlated weakly with dysarthria severity. Mean MSDSR and CES ratings were lower in participants with AOS compared to those without and moderately correlated with each other. Conclusions Motor speech disorders that negatively impact communicative effectiveness are common in PSP and occur in many variants. This is the first description of motor speech disorders across PSP variants, setting the stage for future research characterizing neuroanatomical correlates, progression of motor speech disorders, and benefits of targeted interventions. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14111837

scholarly journals Effects of tDCS on Sound Duration in Patients with Apraxia of Speech in Primary Progressive Aphasia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charalambos Themistocleous ◽  
Kimberly Webster ◽  
Kyrana Tsapkini
Keyword(s):  
Speech Therapy ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Primary Progressive ◽  
Speech Fluency ◽  
Sound Duration

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) was found to improve apraxia of speech (AOS) in post-stroke aphasia, speech fluency in adults who stutter, naming and spelling in primary progressive (PPA). This paper aims to determine whether tDCS over the left IFG coupled with AOS therapy improves speech fluency in patients with PPA more than sham. Eight patients with non-fluent PPA with AOS symptoms received either active or sham tDCS, along with speech therapy for 15 weekday sessions. Speech therapy consisted of repetition of increasing syllable-length words. Evaluations took place before, immediately after, and two months post-intervention. Words were segmented into vowels and consonants and the duration of each vowel and consonant was measured. Segmental duration was significantly shorter after tDCS than sham for both consonants and vowels. tDCS gains generalized to untrained words. The effects of tDCS sustained over two months post-treatment in trained words. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the tDCS over the left IFG facilitates speech production by reducing segmental duration. The results provide preliminary evidence that tDCS can maximize efficacy of speech therapy in non-fluent PPA with AOS.

scholarly journals Prosody-Based Measures for Automatic Severity Assessment of Dysarthric Speech

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 6999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abner Hernandez ◽  
Sunhee Kim ◽  
Minhwa Chung
Keyword(s):  
Speech Rate ◽  
Speech Disorders ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Speech Impairments ◽  
Perceptual Evaluation ◽  
Speech Therapist ◽  
Severity Levels ◽  
Neural Network Classifiers

One of the first cues for many neurological disorders are impairments in speech. The traditional method of diagnosing speech disorders such as dysarthria involves a perceptual evaluation from a trained speech therapist. However, this approach is known to be difficult to use for assessing speech impairments due to the subjective nature of the task. As prosodic impairments are one of the earliest cues of dysarthria, the current study presents an automatic method of assessing dysarthria in a range of severity levels using prosody-based measures. We extract prosodic measures related to pitch, speech rate, and rhythm from speakers with dysarthria and healthy controls in English and Korean datasets, despite the fact that these two languages differ in terms of prosodic characteristics. These prosody-based measures are then used as inputs to random forest, support vector machine and neural network classifiers to automatically assess different severity levels of dysarthria. Compared to baseline MFCC features, 18.13% and 11.22% relative accuracy improvement are achieved for English and Korean datasets, respectively, when including prosody-based features. Furthermore, most improvements are obtained with a better classification of mild dysarthric utterances: a recall improvement from 42.42% to 83.34% for English speakers with mild dysarthria and a recall improvement from 36.73% to 80.00% for Korean speakers with mild dysarthria.

scholarly journals Left frontal white matter atrophy links to timing mechanisms relevant for apraxia of speech

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose Bruffaerts ◽  
Jolien Schaeverbeke ◽  
Manon Grube ◽  
Silvy Gabel ◽  
An-Sofie De Weer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Diffusion Tensor ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Speech Impairments ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Motor Speech ◽  
Left Frontal Lobe ◽  
Frontal White Matter ◽  
Perceptual Timing

AbstractObjectiveIn some patients with apraxia of speech (AOS), we observed impaired perceptual timing abilities, which lead us to propose a shared mechanism of impaired perceptual timing underlying impaired rhythm discrimination (perceptual processing) and AOS (motor speech output). Given that considerable white matter damage is often observed in these patients, we here investigate whether white matter changes are related to impaired rhythm processing as one possible mechanism underlying AOS.MethodsWe applied deformation-based morphometry (DBM) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in 12 patients with the nonfluent variant (NFV) of Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) with AOS, as well as 11 patients with the semantic variant and 24 controls.ResultsSeventy-five percent of the patients with NFV displayed impaired rhythm processing and the severity of their impairment correlated with their degree of AOS. Moreover, left frontal white matter volume loss adjacent to the supplementary motor area (SMA) correlated with impaired rhythm processing. In addition, we obtained tract-based metrics of the left Aslant tract, which is typically damaged in NFV. The structural integrity of the left Aslant tract also correlated with rhythmic discrimination abilities in NFV.ConclusionsOur data suggest that a shared white matter substrate adjacent to the SMA contributes to impaired rhythm perception and motor speech impairments. This indicates that impaired perceptual timing may be one of the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying AOS. Our observation that regional variations in left frontal lobe atrophy are linked to the phenotypical heterogeneity in NFV may lead the way for earlier diagnosis.

The Labeling Problem in Aphasia

1986 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey L. Holland ◽  
Davida Fromm ◽  
Carol S. Swindell
Keyword(s):  
Speech Disorders ◽  
Case Description ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Poor Agreement ◽  
Motor Speech ◽  
Motor Speech Disorders ◽  
Communication Difficulties ◽  
Token Test ◽  
Primary Problem

Twenty-five "experts" on neurogenic motor speech disorders participated in a tutorial exercise. Each was given information on M, a patient who had communication difficulties as the result of stroke, and asked to complete a questionnaire about his problem. The information included a detailed case description, an audiotape of M's speech obtained at 4, 9, 13, and 17 days post-stroke, and test results from the Western Aphasia Battery, the Token Test, and a battery for apraxia of speech. The experts were in excellent agreement on M's primary problem, although it was called by seven different names. The experts were in poor agreement on his secondary problem(s), e.g., the presence and type of aphasia and dysarthria. The results suggest that labeling is difficult, even for "experts." Furthermore, the practicing clinician needs to be sensitive to the likelihood of more than one coexisting problem.

scholarly journals A molecular pathology, neurobiology, biochemical, genetic and neuroimaging study of progressive apraxia of speech

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith A. Josephs ◽  
Joseph R. Duffy ◽  
Heather M. Clark ◽  
Rene L. Utianski ◽  
Edythe A. Strand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy ◽  
Molecular Pathology ◽  
Age At Onset ◽  
Haplotype Frequency ◽  
Corticobasal Degeneration ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Speech Characteristics ◽  
Biochemical Genetic ◽  
Neuroimaging Study ◽  
Longitudinal Imaging

AbstractProgressive apraxia of speech is a neurodegenerative syndrome affecting spoken communication. Molecular pathology, biochemistry, genetics, and longitudinal imaging were investigated in 32 autopsy-confirmed patients with progressive apraxia of speech who were followed over 10 years. Corticobasal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy (4R-tauopathies) were the most common underlying pathologies. Perceptually distinct speech characteristics, combined with age-at-onset, predicted specific 4R-tauopathy; phonetic subtype and younger age predicted corticobasal degeneration, and prosodic subtype and older age predicted progressive supranuclear palsy. Phonetic and prosodic subtypes showed differing relationships within the cortico-striato-pallido-nigro-luysial network. Biochemical analysis revealed no distinct differences in aggregated 4R-tau while tau H1 haplotype frequency (69%) was lower compared to 1000+ autopsy-confirmed 4R-tauopathies. Corticobasal degeneration patients had faster rates of decline, greater cortical degeneration, and shorter illness duration than progressive supranuclear palsy. These findings help define the pathobiology of progressive apraxia of speech and may have consequences for development of 4R-tau targeting treatment.

Word Fluency Test Performance in Primary Progressive Aphasia and Primary Progressive Apraxia of Speech

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Lucia Scheffel ◽  
Joseph R. Duffy ◽  
Edythe A. Strand ◽  
Keith A. Josephs
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Clinical Group ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Word Fluency ◽  
Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Primary Progressive ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Fluency Task

Purpose This study compared performance on three-word fluency measures among individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS), and examined the relationship between word fluency and other measures of language and speech. Method This study included 106 adults with PPA and 30 adults with PPAOS. PPA participants were divided into three clinical subgroups: semantic (svPPA), logopenic (lvPPA), and nonfluent/agrammatic with or without apraxia of speech (nfPPA). Category fluency, letter fluency, and action/verb fluency tasks were administered to all participants. Results The four clinical groups performed abnormally on the word fluency measures, although not to a degree that represented high sensitivity to their PPA or PPAOS diagnosis. All PPA subgroups produced fewer words compared to individuals with PPAOS on all word fluency measures. Moderate correlations were found between word fluency and aphasia severity and naming performance in some of the clinical groups. Conclusions Word fluency measures are often challenging for individuals with PPA and PPAOS, but they are not of equal difficulty, with letter fluency being the most difficult. Differences among word fluency tests also vary to some degree as a function of the clinical group in question, with least impairment in PPAOS. However, the findings of this study do not support statistically significant differences in word fluency task performance among the PPA subgroups. Correlations suggest that word fluency performance in PPA is at least partly related to aphasia severity.

scholarly journals Electroencephalography in primary progressive aphasia and apraxia of speech

Aphasiology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (11) ◽  
pp. 1410-1417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rene L. Utianski ◽  
John N. Caviness ◽  
Gregory A. Worrell ◽  
Joseph R. Duffy ◽  
Heather M. Clark ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Primary Progressive

scholarly journals Speech fluency: a result of oral language proficiency?

Linguistica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesna Požgaj Hadži ◽  
Damir Horga ◽  
Tatjana Balazic Bulc
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Articulation Rate ◽  
Speech Fluency ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Oral Language Proficiency

The aim of this paper is to answer the question of the influence of language proficiency on speech fluency in relation to speakers’ other cognitive abilities by comparing the speech of research participants who speak Slovenian as L1 and Croatian as LF. By using the method of acoustic and corpus analysis, the values of speech rate, articulation rate, mean length of runs and the length and frequency of certain pauses are presented.

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