Automated Scoring of the Speech Intelligibility Test Using Autoscore.

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to develop and test extensions to Autoscore, an automated approach for scoring listener transcriptions against target stimuli, for scoring the Speech Intelligibility Test (SIT), a widely used test for quantifying intelligibility in individuals with dysarthria.

Method: Three main extensions to Autoscore were created including a compound rule, a contractions rule, and a numbers rule. We used two sets of previously collected listener SIT transcripts ( = 4,642) from databases of dysarthric speakers to evaluate the accuracy of the Autoscore SIT extensions.

Targeted deep brain stimulation of the motor thalamus improves speech and swallowing motor functions after cerebral lesions.

Speech and swallowing are complex motor acts that depend upon the integrity of input neural signals from motor cortical areas to control muscles of the head and neck. Lesions damaging these neural pathways result in weakness of key muscles causing dysarthria and dysphagia, leading to profound social isolation and risk of aspiration and suffocation. Here we show that Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) of the motor thalamus improved speech and swallowing functions in two participants with dysarthria and dysphagia.

Tipping the Scales: Indiscriminate Use of Interval Scales to Rate Diverse Dysarthric Features.

Purpose: Error related to incorrect use of rating scales is problematic in the assessment and treatment of dysarthria. The main purpose of this project was to determine scale fit for cardinal speech features of hypokinetic dysarthria. A secondary aim was to determine rater reliability for the two different scales explored.

No differential effects of subthalamic nucleus vs. globus pallidus deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease: Speech acoustic and perceptual findings.

Background: Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in the Subthalamic Nucleus (STN) or the Globus Pallidus Interna (GPI) is well-established as a surgical technique for improving global motor function in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (PD). Previous research has indicated speech deterioration in more than 30% of patients after STN-DBS implantation, whilst speech outcomes following GPI-DBS have received far less attention. Research comparing speech outcomes for patients with PD receiving STN-DBS and GPI-DBS can inform pre-surgical counseling and assist with clinician and patient decision-making when considering the neural targets selected for DBS-implantation.

Oral diadochokinetic markers of X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism.

Introduction: X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism (XDP) is a neurodegenerative disorder that may result in severe speech impairment. The literature suggests that there are differences in the speech of individuals with XDP and healthy controls. This study aims to examine the motor speech characteristics of the mixed dystonia-parkinsonism phase of XDP.

Improving Perceptual Speech Ratings: The Effects of Auditory Training on Judgments of Dysarthric Speech.

Purpose: Auditory training has been shown to reduce rater variability in perceptual voice assessment. Because rater variability is also a central issue in the auditory-perceptual assessment of dysarthria, this study sought to determine if training produces a meaningful change in rater reliability, criterion validity, and scaling magnitude of four features: overall speech impairment, articulatory imprecision, monotony, and slow rate.

Method: Forty-four nonexperts randomized to training and nontraining listener groups completed a pretest and posttest.

The association between longitudinal declines in speech sound accuracy and speech intelligibility in speakers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The purpose of this study was to examine how neurodegeneration secondary to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) impacts speech sound accuracy over time and how speech sound accuracy, in turn, is related to speech intelligibility. Twenty-one participants with ALS read the Bamboo Passage over multiple data collection sessions across several months. Phonemic and orthographic transcriptions were completed for all speech samples.

Lexical Characteristics of the Speech Intelligibility Test: Effects on Transcription Intelligibility for Speakers With Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose: Lexical characteristics of speech stimuli can significantly impact intelligibility. However, lexical characteristics of the widely used Speech Intelligibility Test (SIT) are unknown. We aimed to (a) define variation in neighborhood density, word frequency, grammatical word class, and type-token ratio across a large corpus of SIT sentences and tests and (b) determine the relationship of lexical characteristics to speech intelligibility in speakers with multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease (PD), and neurologically healthy controls.

Clear Speech Variants: An Investigation of Intelligibility and Speaker Effort in Speakers With Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of three clear speech variants on sentence intelligibility and speaking effort for speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and age- and sex-matched neurologically healthy controls.

Method: Fourteen speakers with PD and 14 neurologically healthy speakers participated. Each speaker was recorded reading 18 sentences from the Speech Intelligibility Test in their habitual speaking style and for three clear speech variants: clear (SC; given instructions to speak clearly), hearing impaired (HI; given instructions to speak with someone with a hearing impairment), and overenunciate (OE; given instructions to overenunciate each word).

Acoustic and Kinematic Assessment of Motor Speech Impairment in Patients With Suspected Four-Repeat Tauopathies.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to use acoustic and kinematic speech measures to characterize type of motor speech impairment-apraxia of speech (AOS) versus dysarthria-in individuals with four-repeat tauopathy (4RT)-associated syndromes, including nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), primary progressive AOS (PPAOS), corticobasal syndrome (CBS), and progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome (PSPs).

Method: Twenty patient participants were recruited and stratified into two groups: (a) a motor-speech-impaired group of individuals with nfvPPA, PPAOS, CBS, or PSPs and suspected 4RT pathology ("MSI+") and (b) a non-motor-speech-impaired group of individuals with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia ("MSI-"). Ten healthy, age-matched controls also participated in the study.

Validity of Off-the-Shelf Automatic Speech Recognition for Assessing Speech Intelligibility and Speech Severity in Speakers With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Purpose: There is increasing interest in using automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems to evaluate impairment severity or speech intelligibility in speakers with dysarthria. We assessed the clinical validity of one currently available off-the-shelf (OTS) ASR system (i.e.

Minimally Detectable Change of Speech Intelligibility in Speakers With Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose: This study sought to determine the minimally detectable change (MDC) of sentence intelligibility for speakers with multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson's disease (PD).

Method: Speakers included 78 participants consisting of 32 neurologically healthy control speakers, 30 speakers with MS, and 16 speakers with PD. All speakers were recorded reading 11 sentences comprising the Speech Intelligibility Test (SIT), which were subsequently transcribed by inexperienced listeners.

Longitudinal Recovery of Speech Motor Function Following Facial Transplantation: A Prospective Observational Study.

Objectives: Although facial transplantation is considered effective for restoring facial appearance, research on speech outcomes following surgery is limited. More research is critically needed to inform patients of expected rates and extent of recovery, and to develop interventions aimed at improving speech outcomes.

Methods: Four patients in early recovery (3 weeks-24 months postsurgery) and three patients in late recovery (36-60 months postsurgery) were included.

The Relationship Between Single-Word Speech Severity and Intelligibility in Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between perceived single-word speech severity and intelligibility in children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), with and without comorbid language impairment (LI), and to investigate the contribution of different CAS signs to perceived single-word speech severity and single-word intelligibility.

Method: Thirty children with CAS, 18 with comorbid LI, completed the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-Second Edition (GFTA-2). Trained judges coded children's responses for signs of CAS and percent phonemes correct.

Intelligibility Across a Reading Passage: The Effect of Dysarthria and Cued Speaking Styles.

Objective: Reading a passage out loud is a commonly used task in the perceptual assessment of dysarthria. The extent to which perceptual characteristics remain unchanged or stable over the time course of a passage is largely unknown. This study investigated crowdsourced visual analogue scale (VAS) judgments of intelligibility across a reading passage as a function of cued speaking styles commonly used in treatment to maximize intelligibility.

Effects of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in adductor laryngeal dystonia: a safety, feasibility, and pilot study.

Purpose: The effects of neuromodulation are virtually unexplored in adductor laryngeal dystonia (AdLD), a disorder characterized by involuntary contraction of intrinsic laryngeal muscles. Recent findings indicated that intracortical inhibition is reduced in people with AdLD. Low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) induces prolonged intracortical inhibition, but the effects in AdLD are unexplored.

"You Say Severe, I Say Mild": Toward an Empirical Classification of Dysarthria Severity.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to create an empirical classification system for speech severity in patients with dysarthria secondary to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by exploring the reliability and validity of speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') ratings of dysarthric speech.

Method: Ten SLPs listened to speech samples from 52 speakers with ALS and 20 healthy control speakers. SLPs were asked to rate the speech severity of the speakers using five response options: normal, mild, moderate, severe, and profound.

Validation of an Acoustic-Based Framework of Speech Motor Control: Assessing Criterion and Construct Validity Using Kinematic and Perceptual Measures.

Purpose: This study investigated the criterion (analytical and clinical) and construct (divergent) validity of a novel, acoustic-based framework composed of five key components of motor control: Coordination, Consistency, Speed, Precision, and Rate.

Method: Acoustic and kinematic analyses were performed on audio recordings from 22 subjects with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis during a sequential motion rate task. Perceptual analyses were completed by two licensed speech-language pathologists, who rated each subject's speech on the five framework components and their overall severity.

Psychometric Analysis of an Ecological Vocal Effort Scale in Individuals With and Without Vocal Hyperfunction During Activities of Daily Living.

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of an ecological vocal effort scale linked to a voicing task. Method Thirty-eight patients with nodules, 18 patients with muscle tension dysphonia, and 45 vocally healthy control individuals participated in a week of ambulatory voice monitoring. A global vocal status question was asked hourly throughout the day.

The effects of continuous oromotor activity on speech motor learning: speech biomechanics and neurophysiologic correlates.

Sustained limb motor activity has been used as a therapeutic tool for improving rehabilitation outcomes and is thought to be mediated by neuroplastic changes associated with activity-induced cortical excitability. Although prior research has reported enhancing effects of continuous chewing and swallowing activity on learning, the potential beneficial effects of sustained oromotor activity on speech improvements is not well-documented. This exploratory study was designed to examine the effects of continuous oromotor activity on subsequent speech learning.

Speech and swallowing deficits in X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism.

Introduction: X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism (XDP) is a progressive, disabling disease characterized by the devastating impairment of bulbar function, including speech and swallowing. Despite these detrimental impacts, bulbar impairments in this population are not well characterized.

Objectives: To identify impairments in the bulbar system measured by oromotor performance in individuals with XDP relative to healthy controls.

Two Distinct Clinical Phenotypes of Bulbar Motor Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Understanding clinical variants of motor neuron diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is critical for discovering disease mechanisms and across-patient differences in therapeutic response. The current work describes two clinical subgroups of patients with ALS that, despite similar levels of bulbar motor involvement, have disparate clinical and functional speech presentations. Participants included 47 healthy control speakers and 126 speakers with ALS.