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Purpose: Hypernasality and atypical voice characteristics are common features of dysarthric speech due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Existing acoustic measures have been developed to primarily target either hypernasality or voice impairment, and the effects of co-occurring hypernasality-voice problems on these measures are unknown. This report explores (a) the extent to which acoustic measures are affected by concurrent perceptually identified hypernasality and voice impairment due to ALS and (b) candidate acoustic measures of early indicators of hypernasality and voice impairment in the presence of multisystem involvement in individuals with ALS. Method: Two expert listeners rated severity of hypernasality and voice impairment in sentences produced by individuals with ALS (n = 27). The samples were stratified based on perceptual ratings: voice/hypernasality asymptomatic, predominantly hypernasal, predominantly voice impairment, and mixed (co-occurring hypernasality and voice impairment). Groups were compared using established acoustic measures of hypernasality (one-third octave analysis) and voice (cepstral/spectral analysis) impairment. Results: The one-third octave analysis differentiated all groups; the cepstral peak prominence differentiated all groups except asymptomatic versus mixed, whereas the low-to-high spectral ratio did not differ among groups. Additionally, one-third octave analyses demonstrated promising speech diagnostic potential. Conclusions: The results highlight the need to consider the validity of measures in the context of multisubsystem involvement. Our preliminary findings further suggest that the one-third octave analysis may be an optimal approach to quantify hypernasality and voice abnormalities in the presence of multisystem speech impairment. Future evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of the one-third octave analysis is warranted.

Purpose: Hypernasality and atypical voice characteristics are common features of dysarthric speech due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Existing acoustic measures have been developed to primarily target either hypernasality or voice impairment, and the effects of co-occurring hypernasality-voice problems on these measures are unknown. This report explores (a) the extent to which acoustic measures are affected by concurrent perceptually identified hypernasality and voice impairment due to ALS and (b) candidate acoustic measures of early indicators of hypernasality and voice impairment in the presence of multisystem involvement in individuals with ALS. Method: Two expert listeners rated severity of hypernasality and voice impairment in sentences produced by individuals with ALS (n = 27). The samples were stratified based on perceptual ratings: voice/hypernasality asymptomatic, predominantly hypernasal, predominantly voice impairment, and mixed (co-occurring hypernasality and voice impairment). Groups were compared using established acoustic measures of hypernasality (one-third octave analysis) and voice (cepstral/spectral analysis) impairment. Results: The one-third octave analysis differentiated all groups; the cepstral peak prominence differentiated all groups except asymptomatic versus mixed, whereas the low-to-high spectral ratio did not differ among groups. Additionally, one-third octave analyses demonstrated promising speech diagnostic potential. Conclusions: The results highlight the need to consider the validity of measures in the context of multisubsystem involvement. Our preliminary findings further suggest that the one-third octave analysis may be an optimal approach to quantify hypernasality and voice abnormalities in the presence of multisystem speech impairment. Future evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of the one-third octave analysis is warranted., Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the limb and bulbar musculature due to progressive loss of motor neurons. Multiple speech subsystems (i.e., respiratory, resonatory/velopharyngeal, voice/ phonatory, [...]

Purpose: To compare vowel acoustics and intelligibility in words produced with and without contrastive stress by speakers with spastic (mixed-spastic) dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy (DYS[subscript CP]) and healthy controls (HCs). Method: Fifteen participants (9 men, 6 women; age M = 42 years) with DYS[subscript CP] and 15 HCs (9 men, 6 women; age M = 36 years) produced sentences containing target words with and without contrastive stress. Forty-five healthy listeners (age M = 25 years) completed a vowel identification task of DYS[subscript CP] productions. Vowel acoustics were compared across stress conditions and groups using 1st (F1) and 2nd (F2) formant measures. Perceptual intelligibility was compared across stress conditions and dysarthria severity. Results: F1 and F2 significantly increased in stressed words for both groups, although the degree of change differed. Mean Euclidian distance between vowels also increased with stress. The relative probability of vowels falling within the target F1 × F2 space was greater for HCs but did not differ with stress. Stress production resulted in greater listener vowel identification accuracy for speakers with mild dysarthria. Conclusions: Contrastive stress affected vowel formants for both groups. Perceptual results suggest that some speakers with dysarthria may benefit from a contrastive stress strategy to improve vowel intelligibility.

Although tongue twisters have been widely use to study speech production in healthy speakers, few studies have employed this methodology for individuals with speech impairment. The present study compared tongue twister errors produced by adults with dysarthria and age-matched healthy controls. Eight speakers (four female, four male; mean age = 54.5 years) with spastic (mixed-spastic) dysarthria of varying aetiology (cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, multiple system atrophy) and eight controls (four female, four male; mean age = 56.9 years) were audio-recorded producing tongue twisters. One word in each tongue twister was marked for prominence. Speakers with dysarthria produced significantly more errors and spoke slower than healthy controls. The effect of prominence was significant for both groups--words spoken with prosodic prominence were significantly less error prone compared with words without prominence. While both groups produced most errors on words in the third position (of four-word utterances), speakers with dysarthria also produced high rates of errors on the first and fourth words. This preliminary investigation demonstrated the promise of applying the tongue twister paradigm to speakers with dysarthria and contributes to the evidence base for the implementation of prosodic strategies in speech intervention.

Purpose: To compare vowel acoustics and intelligibility in words produced with and without contrastive stress by speakers with spastic (mixed-spastic) dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy ([DYS.sub.CP]) and healthy controls (HCs). Method: Fifteen participants (9 men, 6 women; age M = 42 years) with [DYS.sub.CP] and 15 HCs (9 men, 6 women; age M = 36 years) produced sentences containing target words with and without contrastive stress. Forty-five healthy listeners (age M = 25 years) completed a vowel identification task of [DYS.sub.CP] productions. Vowel acoustics were compared across stress conditions and groups using 1st (F1) and 2nd (F2) formant measures. Perceptual intelligibility was compared across stress conditions and dysarthria severity. Results: F1 and F2 significantly increased in stressed words for both groups, although the degree of change differed. Mean Euclidian distance between vowels also increased with stress. The relative probability of vowels falling within the target F1 x F2 space was greater for HCs but did not differ with stress. Stress production resulted in greater listener vowel identification accuracy for speakers with mild dysarthria. Conclusions: Contrastive stress affected vowel formants for both groups. Perceptual results suggest that some speakers with dysarthria may benefit from a contrastive stress strategy to improve vowel intelligibility., This investigation was designed to evaluate how contrastive stress production affects vowel acoustics and listener perception in speakers with and without dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy (CP). CP refers to [...]

Although tongue twisters have been widely use to study speech production in healthy speakers, few studies have employed this methodology for individuals with speech impairment. The present study compared tongue twister errors produced by adults with dysarthria and age-matched healthy controls. Eight speakers (four female, four male; mean age = 54.5 years) with spastic (mixed-spastic) dysarthria of varying aetiology (cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, multiple system atrophy) and eight controls (four female, four male; mean age = 56.9 years) were audio-recorded producing tongue twisters. One word in each tongue twister was marked for prominence. Speakers with dysarthria produced significantly more errors and spoke slower than healthy controls. The effect of prominence was significant for both groups-words spoken with prosodic prominence were significantly less error prone compared with words without prominence. While both groups produced most errors on words in the third position (of four-word utterances), speakers with dysarthria also produced high rates of errors on the first and fourth words. This preliminary investigation demonstrated the promise of applying the tongue twister paradigm to speakers with dysarthria and contributes to the evidence base for the implementation of prosodic strategies in speech intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]