Disease-Specific Speech Movement Characteristics of the Tongue and Jaw.

Purpose: To advance our understanding of disease-specific articulatory impairment patterns in speakers with dysarthria, this study investigated the articulatory performance of the tongue and jaw in speakers with differing neurological diseases (Parkinson's disease [PD], amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, and Huntington's disease).

Method: Fifty-seven speakers with dysarthria and 30 controls produced the sentence "Buy Kaia a kite" five times. A three-dimensional electromagnetic articulography was used to record the articulatory movements of the posterior tongue and jaw.

The effects of attentional focus on speech motor control in adults who stutter with and without social evaluative threat.

Purpose: We sought to investigate the effects of cued attentional shifts on speechmotor control in adults who stutter (AWS) and adults who do not stutter (ANS) when speaking under low and high social stress conditions.

Method: Thirteen AWS' and 10 ANS' lip aperture (LA) and posterior tongue (PT) movements were assessed under a Cued-Internal and Cued-External attentional focus condition with and without social stress induction (i.e.

A Preliminary Study of Speech Rhythm Differences as Markers of Stuttering Persistence in Preschool-Age Children.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to determine whether there are speech rhythm differences between preschool-age children who stutter that were eventually diagnosed as persisting (CWS-Per) or recovered (CWS-Rec) and children who do not stutter (CWNS), using empirical spectral analysis and empirical mode decomposition of the speech amplitude envelope, and (b) to determine whether speech rhythm characteristics close to onset are predictive of later persistence.

Method: Fifty children (3-4 years of age) participated in the study. Approximately 2-2.

Articulatory Performance in Dysarthria: Using a Data-Driven Approach to Estimate Articulatory Demands and Deficits.

This study pursued two goals: (1) to establish range of motion (ROM) demand tiers (i.e., low, moderate, high) specific to the jaw (J), lower lip (LL), posterior tongue (PT), and anterior tongue (AT) for multisyllabic words based on the articulatory performance of neurotypical talkers and (2) to identify demand- and disease-specific articulatory performance characteristics in talkers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease (PD).

Dysarthria Subgroups in Talkers with Huntington's Disease: Comparison of Two Data-Driven Classification Approaches.

Although researchers have recognized the need to better account for the heterogeneous perceptual speech characteristics among talkers with the same disease, guidance on how to best establish such dysarthria subgroups is currently lacking. Therefore, we compared subgroup decisions of two data-driven approaches based on a cohort of talkers with Huntington's disease (HD): (1) a statistical clustering approach (STATCLUSTER) based on perceptual speech characteristic profiles and (2) an auditory free classification approach (FREECLASS) based on listeners' similarity judgments. We determined the amount of overlap across the two subgrouping decisions and the perceptual speech characteristics driving the subgrouping decisions of each approach.

Articulatory Correlates of Stress Pattern Disturbances in Talkers With Dysarthria.

Purpose Reduced stress commonly occurs in talkers with Parkinson's disease (PD), whereas excessive and equal stress is frequently associated with dysarthria of talkers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis (MS). This study sought to identify articulatory impairment patterns that underlie these two impaired stress patterns. We further aimed to determine if talkers with the same stress pattern disturbance but different diseases (ALS and MS) exhibit disease-specific articulatory deficits.

Tongue- and Jaw-Specific Articulatory Changes and Their Acoustic Consequences in Talkers With Dysarthria due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Effects of Loud, Clear, and Slow Speech.

Purpose This study aimed to determine how tongue and jaw displacement changes impact acoustic vowel contrast in talkers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and controls. Method Ten talkers with ALS and 14 controls participated in this study. Loud, clear, and slow speech cues were used to elicit tongue and jaw kinematic as well as acoustic changes.

Detection of Articulatory Deficits in Parkinson's Disease: Can Systematic Manipulations of Phonetic Complexity Help?

Purpose This study sought to determine the feasibility of using phonetic complexity manipulations as a way to systematically assess articulatory deficits in talkers with progressive dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD). Method Articulatory kinematics were recorded using three-dimensional electromagnetic articulography from 15 talkers with PD (58-84 years old) and 15 healthy controls (55-80 years old) while they produced target words embedded in a carrier phrase. Majority of the talkers with PD exhibited a relatively mild dysarthria.

Auditory event-related potentials index faster processing of natural speech but not synthetic speech over nonspeech analogs in children.

Given the crucial role of speech sounds in human language, it may be beneficial for speech to be supported by more efficient auditory and attentional neural processing mechanisms compared to nonspeech sounds. However, previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have found either no differences or slower auditory processing of speech than nonspeech, as well as inconsistent attentional processing. We hypothesized that this may be due to the use of synthetic stimuli in past experiments.

Direction-Specific Jaw Dysfunction and Its Impact on Tongue Movement in Individuals With Dysarthria Secondary to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Purpose The current study tested jaw movement characteristics and their impact on tongue movement for speech production in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Specifically, the study examined tongue and jaw movement in multiple directions during jaw opening and closing strokes in individuals with ALS and controls. Method Twenty-two individuals with ALS and 22 controls participated in the current study.

Assessing Oromotor Capacity in ALS: The Effect of a Fixed-Target Task on Lip Biomechanics.

Alternating motion rate (AMR) is a standard measure often included in neurological examinations to assess orofacial neuromuscular integrity. AMR is typically derived from recordings of patients producing repetitions of a single syllable as fast and clear as possible on one breath. Because the task places high demands on oromotor performance, particularly articulatory speed, AMRs are widely considered to be tests of maximum performance and, therefore, likely to reveal underlying neurologic deficits.

Motor speech patterns in Huntington disease.

Objective: Dysarthric speech of persons with Huntington disease (HD) is typically described as hyperkinetic; however, studies suggest that dysarthria can vary and resemble patterns in other neurologic conditions. To test the hypothesis that distinct motor speech subgroups can be identified within a larger cohort of patients with HD, we performed a cluster analysis on speech perceptual characteristics of patient audio recordings.

Methods: Audio recordings of 48 patients with mild to moderate dysarthria due to HD were presented to 6 trained raters.

Tongue- and Jaw-Specific Articulatory Underpinnings of Reduced and Enhanced Acoustic Vowel Contrast in Talkers With Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose This study sought to identify the articulator-specific mechanisms that underlie reduced and enhanced acoustic vowel contrast in talkers with dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD). Method Seventeen talkers with mild-moderate dysarthria due to PD and 17 controls completed a sentence repetition task using typical, slow, loud, and clear speech. Tongue and jaw articulatory movements were recorded using 3D electromagnetic articulography.

Effects of speaking rate, loudness, and clarity modifications on kinematic endpoint variability.

It is virtually impossible for a speaker to produce identical articulatory movements across several repetitions of the same utterance. This study examined how kinematic endpoint variability, defined as the positional variability of an articulator at its positional extremum, changes in response to cued speech behavioral modifications. As a second step, this study examined the strength of association between articulator speed and kinematic endpoint variability.

A comparative study: tongue muscle performance in weightlifters and runners.

Exercise mode (i.e., resistance training, endurance training) is known to yield mode-specific effects on strength and endurance of muscles that are directly targeted during the exercise.

A first investigation of tongue, lip, and jaw movements in persons with dysarthria due to multiple sclerosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis can affect the speech motor system and result in dysarthria.

Objectives: This pilot study sought to identify tongue, lip, and jaw motor deficits in persons with dysarthria due to multiple sclerosis (PwDMS) to better understand the speech motor mechanisms that underlie their aberrant speech.

Methods: Tongue and jaw movements during "ai" and lower lip and jaw movements during "bob"were examined in eleven PwDMS and fourteen age- and sex-matched controls using three-dimensional electromagnetic articulography.

Tongue- and Jaw-Specific Contributions to Acoustic Vowel Contrast Changes in the Diphthong /ai/ in Response to Slow, Loud, and Clear Speech.

Purpose: This study sought to determine decoupled tongue and jaw displacement changes and their specific contributions to acoustic vowel contrast changes during slow, loud, and clear speech.

Method: Twenty typical talkers repeated "see a kite again" 5 times in 4 speech conditions (typical, slow, loud, clear). Speech kinematics were recorded using 3-dimensional electromagnetic articulography.

Spatiotemporal movement variability in ALS: Speaking rate effects on tongue, lower lip, and jaw motor control.

Purpose: Although it is frequently presumed that bulbar muscle degeneration in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is associated with progressive loss of speech motor control, empirical evidence is limited. Furthermore, because speaking rate slows with disease progression and rate manipulations are used to improve intelligibility in ALS, this study sought to (i) determine between and within-group differences in articulatory motor control as a result of speaking rate changes and (ii) identify the strength of association between articulatory motor control and speech impairment severity.

Method: Ten talkers with ALS and 11 healthy controls repeated the target sentence at habitual, fast, and slow rates.

Associations between tongue movement pattern consistency and formant movement pattern consistency in response to speech behavioral modifications.

The degree of speech movement pattern consistency can provide information about speech motor control. Although tongue motor control is particularly important because of the tongue's primary contribution to the speech acoustic signal, capturing tongue movements during speech remains difficult and costly. This study sought to determine if formant movements could be used to estimate tongue movement pattern consistency indirectly.

Tongue strength and endurance: Comparison in active and non-active young and older adults.

Purpose: Tongue strength and endurance are important for swallowing and upper airway patency. Physical activity positively affects targeted and non-targeted skeletal muscles; however, little is known about the indirect effect of physical activity on tongue muscles. This study sought to determine if tongue muscle performance differs between highly active and non-active individuals and if such an effect varies with age.

Articulatory-to-Acoustic Relations in Talkers With Dysarthria: A First Analysis.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to determine the strength of interspeaker and intraspeaker articulatory-to-acoustic relations of vowel contrast produced by talkers with dysarthria and controls.

Methods: Six talkers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), six talkers with Parkinson's disease (PD), and 12 controls repeated a sentence at typical, slow, and fast rates. Tongue displacements and acoustic vowel distances were measured to determine articulatory and acoustic vowel contrasts.

Speaking rate effects on articulatory pattern consistency in talkers with mild ALS.

This study investigated speaking rate effects on articulatory pattern consistency in talkers with mild amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to better understand speech rate declines during the early stages of speech deterioration. Eight talkers with mild ALS and 11 controls repeated a sentence at their typical rate, an accelerated rate, and a reduced rate. Lip and jaw movements were captured using a 3-D motion capture system.

Assessing articulatory speed performance as a potential factor of slowed speech in older adults.

PURPOSE To improve our understanding about the underlying factors of aging-related speaking rate decline, the authors sought to determine if lip and jaw speeds are physiologically constrained in older adults. METHOD Thirty-six females-10 young adults (ages 22-27 years), 9 middle-aged adults (ages 45-55 years), 10 young-old adults (65-74 years), and 7 very old adults (ages 87-95 years)-completed metronome-paced syllable repetitions while moving the lower lip or jaw to a fixed target with each repetition. Metronome paces incrementally increased from 1.

Hydration in older adults: the contribution of bioelectrical impedance analysis.

The sensory and gastrointestinal changes that occur with ageing affect older adults' food and liquid intake. Any decreased liquid intake increases the risk for dehydration. This increased dehydration risk is compounded in older adults with dysphagia.