Differential motor speech outcomes in children treated for mid-line cerebellar tumour.

Primary Objective: To investigate the nature of the motor speech impairments and dysarthria that can arise subsequent to treatment for childhood mid-line cerebellar tumours (CMCT).

Research Design: The motor speech ability of six cases of children with CMCT was analysed using perceptual and physiological measures and compared with that of a group of non-neurologically impaired children matched for age and sex.

Main Outcome And Results: Three of the children with CMCT were perceived to exhibit dysarthric speech, while the remaining three were judged to have normal speech.

Re-appraising contemporary theories of subcortical participation in language: proposing an interhemispheric regulatory function for the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in the mediation of high-level linguistic processes.

Apropos the basal ganglia, the dominant striatum and globus pallidus internus (GPi) have been hypothesized to represent integral components of subcortical language circuitry. Working subcortical language theories, however, have failed thus far to consider a role for the STN in the mediation of linguistic processes, a structure recently defined as the driving force of basal ganglia output. The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of surgically induced functional inhibition of the STN upon linguistic abilities, within the context of established models of basal ganglia participation in language.

Articulatory function following traumatic brain injury in childhood: a perceptual and instrumental analysis.

Primary Objective: To investigate the articulatory function of a group of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI), using both perceptual and instrumental techniques.

Research Design: The performance of 24 children with TBI was assessed on a battery of perceptual (Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment, Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech and speech sample analysis) and instrumental (lip and tongue pressure transduction systems) assessments and compared with that of 24 non-neurologically impaired children matched for age and sex.

Main Outcomes: Perceptual assessment identified consonant and vowel imprecision, increased length of phonemes and over-all reduction in speech intelligibility, while instrumental assessment revealed significant impairment in lip and tongue function in the TBI group, with rate and pressure in repetitive lip and tongue tasks particularly impaired.

Introducing the pressure-sensing palatograph--the next frontier in electropalatography.

Primary Objective: To extend the capabilities of current electropalatography (EPG) systems by developing a pressure-sensing EPG system. An initial trial of a prototype pressure-sensing palate will be presented.

Research Design: The processes involved in designing the pressure sensors are outlined, with Hall effect transistors being selected.

Identification and fine mapping of quantitative trait loci for growth traits on bovine chromosomes 2, 6, 14, 19, 21, and 23 within one commercial line of Bos taurus.

We report the identification and fine mapping of QTL for birth weight (BWT), preweaning ADG (PWADG), and postweaning ADG on feed (ADGF) in a commercial line of Bos taurus using an identical-by-descent haplotype sharing method. One hundred seventy-six calves of 12 bulls (9 to 30 male calves from each sire) of the Beefbooster, Inc., M1 line were typed using 71 genetic markers from bovine chromosomes (BTA) 2, 6, 14, 19, 21, and 23 (8 to 16 markers from each chromosome).

Subtitled videos and mismatch negativity (MMN) investigations of spoken word processing.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the presence of subtitles on a distracting, silent video affects the automatic mismatch negativity (MMN) response to simple tones, consonant-vowel (CV) nonwords, or CV words. Two experiments were conducted in this study, each including ten healthy young adult subjects. Experiment 1 investigated the effects of subtitles on the MMN response to simple tones (differing in frequency, duration, and intensity) and speech stimuli (CV nonwords and CV words with a /d/-/g/ contrast).

Redefining functional models of basal ganglia organization: role for the posteroventral pallidum in linguistic processing?

Traditionally the basal ganglia have been implicated in motor behavior, as they are involved in both the execution of automatic actions and the modification of ongoing actions in novel contexts. Corresponding to cognition, the role of the basal ganglia has not been defined as explicitly. Relative to linguistic processes, contemporary theories of subcortical participation in language have endorsed a role for the globus pallidus internus (GPi) in the control of lexical-semantic operations.

Different measures of energetic efficiency and their phenotypic relationships with growth, feed intake, and ultrasound and carcass merit in hybrid cattle.

Residual feed intake (RFI) has been proposed as an index for determining beef cattle energetic efficiency. Although the relationship of RFI with feed conversion ratio (FCR) is well established, little is known about how RFI compares to other measures of efficiency. This study examined the phenotypic relationships among different measures of energetic efficiency with growth, feed intake, and ultrasound and carcass merit of hybrid cattle (n = 150).

An evaluation of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in the treatment of hypernasality following traumatic brain injury: a report of 3 cases.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in the treatment of hypernasality following traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Design: An A-B-A experimental research design. Assessments were conducted prior to commencement of the program, midway, immediately posttreatment, and 1 month after completion of the CPAP therapy program.

Clinical characteristics of acute dysphagia in pediatric patients following traumatic brain injury.

Primary Objective: To document the clinical characteristics of acute dysphagia in a group of pediatric patients after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Research Design: Prospective group study.

Methods: Fourteen subjects (7 males, 7 females), aged 4 years 1 month to 15 years, with moderate or severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS] < 12).

Automatic auditory processing of english words as indexed by the mismatch negativity, using a multiple deviant paradigm.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to a variety of speech stimuli (/de:/, /ge:/, /deI/ "day", and /geI/ "gay") in a multiple deviant paradigm. It was hypothesized that all speech stimulus contrasts in the multiple deviant paradigm, including the fine acoustic speech contrast [d/g], would elicit robust MMN responses and that consonant vowel (CV) real word deviants (e.g.

Identification and fine mapping of quantitative trait loci for backfat on bovine chromosomes 2, 5, 6, 19, 21, and 23 in a commercial line of Bos taurus.

Backfat thickness is one of the major quantitative traits that affects carcass quality in beef cattle. In this study, we identified and fine-mapped QTL for backfat EBV on bovine chromosomes 2, 5, 6, 19, 21, and 23 using an identical-by-descent haplotype-sharing analysis in a commercial line of Bos taurus. Eleven haplotypes were found to have significant associations with backfat EBV at the comparison-wise P-value threshold, and one at the chromosome-wise P-value threshold on bovine chromosomes 5, 6, 19, 21, and 23.

Perceptual and instrumental evaluation of voice and tongue function after carotid endarterectomy.

Objective: Laryngeal and tongue function was assessed in 28 patients to evaluate the presence, nature, and resolution of superior recurrent laryngeal and hypoglossal nerve damage resulting from standard open primary carotid endarterectomy (CEA).

Methods: The laryngeal and tongue function in 28 patients who underwent CEA were examined prospectively with various physiologic (Aerophone II, laryngograph, tongue transducer), acoustic (Multi-Dimensional Voice Program), and perceptual speech assessments. Measures were obtained from all participants preoperatively, and at 2 weeks and at 3 months postoperatively.

Processing of English words with fine acoustic contrasts and simple tones: a mismatch negativity study.

The purpose of this study was to compare the robustness of the event-related potential (ERP) response, called the mismatch negativity (MMN), when elicited by simple tone stimuli (differing in frequency, duration, or intensity) and speech stimuli (CV nonword contrast /de:/ vs. /ge:/ and CV word contrast /del/ vs. /gel/).

Acoustic investigation of vocal quality following treatment for childhood cerebellar tumour.

The aim of the study was firstly to document the acoustic parameters of voice using the Multidimensional Voice Program (MDVP, Kay Elemetrics) in a group of children with dysarthria subsequent to treatment for cerebellar tumour (CT). Then, secondly, compare the acoustic findings to perceptual voice characteristics as described by the GIRBAS (grade, instability, roughness, breathiness, asthenicity, strain). The assessments were performed on 29 voice samples; 9 cerebellar tumour participants with dysarthria, and 20 control participants.

Perceptual evaluation of motor speech following treatment for childhood cerebellar tumour.

The speech characteristics, oromotor function and speech intelligibility of a group of children treated for cerebellar tumour (CT) was investigated perceptually. Assessment of these areas was performed on 11 children treated for CT with dysarthric speech as well as 21 non-neurologically impaired controls matched for age and sex to obtain a comprehensive perceptual profile of their speech and oromotor mechanism. Contributing to the perception of dysarthria were a number of deviant speech dimensions including imprecision of consonants, hoarseness and decreased pitch variation, as well as a reduction in overall speech intelligibility for both sentences and connected speech.

Assessment of positional candidate genes myf5 and igf1 for growth on bovine chromosome 5 in commercial lines of Bos taurus.

Quantitative trait loci for growth traits in beef cattle have been previously reported and fine-mapped in three chromosomal regions of 0 to 30 cM, 55 to 70 cM, and 70 to 80 cM of bovine chromosome 5. In this study, we further examined the association between gene-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of two positional candidate genes, bovine myogenic factor 5 (myf5) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (igf1), in the QTL regions and the birth weight (BWT), preweaning average daily gain (PWADG), and average daily gain on feed (ADGF) in commercial lines of Bos taurus. The QTL regions for the growth traits identified using a haplotype association analysis, which included the gene-specific SNP markers for both genes in this study, were in agreement with previous studies.

Dopamine and semantic activation: an investigation of masked direct and indirect priming.

To investigate the effects of dopamine on the dynamics of semantic activation, 39 healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to ingest either a placebo (n = 24) or a levodopa (n = 16) capsule. Participants then performed a lexical decision task that implemented a masked priming paradigm. Direct and indirect semantic priming was measured across stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 250, 500 and 1200 ms.

Clinical progression and outcome of dysphagia following paediatric traumatic brain injury: a prospective study.

Objectives: To provide a preliminary clinical profile of the resolution and outcomes of oral-motor impairment and swallowing function in a group of paediatric dysphagia patients post-traumatic brain injury (TBI). To document the level of cognitive impairment parallel to the return to oral intake, and to investigate the correlation between the resolution of impaired swallow function versus the resolution of oral-motor impairment and cognitive impairment.

Participants: Thirteen children admitted to an acute care setting for TBI.

A case study of the resolution of paediatric dysphagia following brainstem injury: clinical and instrumental assessment.

The coexistance of a swallowing impairment can severely impact upon the medical condition and recovery of a child with traumatic brain injury [ref.: Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation 9 (1) (1994) 43]. Limited data exist on the progression or outcome of dysphagia in the paediatric population with brainstem injury.

Defining a role for the subthalamic nucleus within operative theoretical models of subcortical participation in language.

Objective: To investigate the effects of bilateral, surgically induced functional inhibition of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) on general language, high level linguistic abilities, and semantic processing skills in a group of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Methods: Comprehensive linguistic profiles were obtained up to one month before and three months after bilateral implantation of electrodes in the STN during active deep brain stimulation (DBS) in five subjects with Parkinson's disease (mean age, 63.2 years).

Dysarthria and dysphagia as long-term sequelae in a child treated for posterior fossa tumour.

The current case report provides a comprehensive description of the persistent dysarthria and dysphagia evident in a 7.5 year old child treated for recurrent posterior fossa tumour (PFT). AC was assessed on a comprehensive perceptual and instrumental test battery incorporating all components of the speech production system (respiration, phonation, resonance, articulation and prosody) 2 years and 4 months following completion of her treatment.

Effects of speaking rate on EMA-derived lingual kinematics: a preliminary investigation.

Electromagnetic articulography (EMA) was used to investigate how tongue movement characteristics (i.e., velocity, acceleration, duration, distance) change with, or indeed affect, increased rates of speech.