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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between automatic vowel articulation index (aVAI) and direct magnitude estimation (DME) among speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy controls. We further analysed the potential of aVAI to serve as an objective measure of speech impairment in the clinical setting. Method: Speech samples from native Finnish speakers were utilised. Expert raters utilised DME to scale the intelligibility of speech samples. aVAI scores for PD speakers and healthy control speakers were analysed in relationship to DME speech intelligibility ratings and, among PD speakers, disease stage utilising nonparametric statistical analysis. Result: Mean DME intelligibility ratings were lower among PD speakers compared to healthy controls. Mean aVAI scores were nearly the same between speaker groups. DME intelligibility ratings and aVAI were strongly correlated within the PD speaker group. aVAI and DME intelligibility ratings were moderately correlated with disease stage as measured by the Hoehn and Yahr scale. Conclusion: aVAI was observed to be a promising tool for analysing vowel articulation in PD speakers. Further research is warranted on the application of aVAI as an objective measure of severity of speech impairment in the clinical setting, with varying patient populations and speech samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate how speech fluency in typical and atypical speech is perceptually assessed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Our research questions were as follows: (a) How do SLPs rate fluency in speakers with and without neurological communication disorders? (b) Do they differentiate the speaker groups? and (c) What features do they hear impairing speech fluency? Method: Ten SLPs specialized in neurological communication disorders volunteered as expert judges to rate 90 narrative speech samples on a Visual Analogue Scale (see Kempster, Gerratt, Verdolini Abbott, Barkmeier-Kraemer, & Hillman, 2009; p. 127). The samples--randomly mixed--were from 70 neurologically healthy speakers (the control group) and 20 speakers with traumatic brain injury, 10 of whom had neurogenic stuttering (designated as Clinical Groups A and B). Results: The fluency rates were higher for typical speakers than for speakers with traumatic brain injury; however, the agreement among the judges was higher for atypical fluency. Auditory-perceptual assessment of fluency was significantly impaired by the features of stuttering and something else but not by speech rate. Stuttering was also perceived in speakers not diagnosed as stutterers. A borderline between typical and atypical fluency was found. Conclusions: Speech fluency is a multifaceted phenomenon, and on the basis of this study, we suggest a more general approach to fluency and its deviations that will take into account, in addition to the motor and linguistic aspects of fluency, the metalinguistic component of expression as well. The results of this study indicate a need for further studies on the precise nature of borderline fluency and its different disfluencies.

This study aims to reveal dynamic changes in prosodic prominence patterns associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). To fulfill this purpose, the study proposes an exploratory methodology involving measuring a novel syllable-based prosody index (SPI) and performing functional principal component analyses (fPCAs) in a semi-automatic manner. First, SPI trajectories were collected from 31 speakers with PD before and after speech therapy and from 36 healthy controls. Then, the SPI trajectories were converted to continuous functions using B-splines. Finally, the functional SPIs were examined using fPCAs. The results showed that PD was associated with an increase of overall prominence for male speakers. The findings regarding higher prominence patterns in PD were supported by traditional phonetic measurements. For female speakers, however, there were no significant differences in prosodic prominence between speakers with PD and healthy controls. The results encourage to explore the proposed methodology also in analyses of other forms of atypical speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess prosodic features in Finnish speakers with (n = 16) and without (n = 20) Parkinson's disease (PD), as there are no published studies to date of prosodic features in Finnish speakers with PD. Chosen metrics were articulation rate (syllables/second), pitch (mean F0) and pitch variability (standard deviation F0), energy proportion below 1 kHz (epb1kHz), normalised pairwise variability index (nPVI), and a novel syllabic prosody index (SPI). Four statistically significant results were found: (1) energy was distributed more to lower frequencies in speakers with PD compared to control speakers, (2) male PD speakers had higher pitch and (3) higher syllabic prosody index compared to control males, and (4) female PD speakers had narrower pitch variability than controls. In this study, PD was manifested as less emphatic and breathier voice. Interestingly, male PD speakers' dysprosody was manifested as an effortful speaking style, whereas female PD speakers exhibited dysprosody with a monotonous speaking style. A novel syllable-based prosody index could be a potentially useful tool in analysing prosody in disordered speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study first aimed to investigate disfluency clusters in typical and atypical Finnish adult speakers. Secondly, it aimed to observe possible fluency strategies in speakers representing different fluency levels. In addition to individual disfluency types, we examined different characteristics of disfluency clusters produced by 23 speakers in a fluency continuum. Three adult speaker groups participated in this study: typical speakers with high disfluency frequencies (GA), typical and atypical speakers with very high disfluency frequencies (GB) and atypical speakers with the highest disfluency frequencies (GC). Data were based on a narrative speech task, and disfluency clusters were analysed with both traditional methods and alternative methods. Two statistically significant differences between the speaker groups were found: 1) the length of the clusters was highest in GC compared to other groups, and 2) speakers in GC formulated their utterances more than other groups. Other results, although nonsignificant, were that 3) speakers in GA revised utterances more often than interrupted them compared to GB and GC speakers, and 4) clusters using repetitive words and phrases to maintain fluency were found in GA and GB only. In this study, different fluency levels revealed different strategies in both the production of single disfluencies and in disfluency clusters. It seems that more fluent speakers formulate their messages differently than less fluent speakers, and repetitions can be used to maintain fluency and possibly prevent difficult clusters, as noted with more fluent speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of this pilot study was to examine voice quality changes in individuals with early-stage Parkinson's disease (PD) utilizing the Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) and Acoustic Breathiness Index (ABI) over approximately a 1-year period., Study Design: Follow-up study., Methods: Baseline and follow-up data were gathered from the PDSTUlong speech corpus. The data for both time points included: speaker background information, sustained vowels, reading samples, and measures of PD severity (Hoehn and Yahr scores and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale III scores [UPDRS-III]). All speakers (N = 12) were native Finnish speakers. AVQIv03.01 and ABI analysis were completed in VOXplot v2.0.1. Changes in AVQI and ABI scores between baseline and follow-up were examined via causal analysis. Further, AVQI and ABI were analyzed in relation to measures of PD severity., Results: Baseline mean AVQI score was 1.79 (range 0.14-4.83, SD=1.60), whereas follow-up mean AVQI score was 2.25 (range 0.55-4.53, SD=1.36). Baseline mean ABI score, in turn, was 2.92 (range 1-27 - 5.31, SD=1.57), whereas follow-up mean ABI score was 3.42 (range 1.40-5.40, SD=1.38). A significant difference was found between baseline and follow-up measures for both AVQI (Z = -2.002, P = 0.045) and ABI (Z = -2.197, P = 0.028). A significant difference in smoothed cepstral peak prominence (Z = -2.118, P = 0.034) and harmonics-to-noise ratio (Z = -1.961, P = 0.050) was also found between the two measurement periods. Change in AVQI and ABI were not correlated with the change in measures of PD severity., Conclusion: Over approximately 1-year, a statistical change was observed in AVQI and ABI scores, even in such a small dataset. The specific qualities of breathiness and hoarseness showed the most significant progression. Changes in voice quality were more prominent in ABI analysis., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest No author has personal or financial interests that affects their objectivity or serves as a potential conflict in this research., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)