Dysarthria

About: Dysarthria is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2402 publications have been published within this topic receiving 56554 citations.

The Impact of Lexical and Articulatory Factors in the Automatic Selection of Test Materials for a Web-Based Assessment of Intelligibility in Dysarthria.

Abstract: Purpose The clinical assessment of intelligibility must be based on a large repository and extensive variation of test materials, to render test stimuli unpredictable and thereby avoid expectancies and familiarity effects in the listeners. At the same time, it is essential that test materials are systematically controlled for factors influencing intelligibility. This study investigated the impact of lexical and articulatory characteristics of quasirandomly selected target words on intelligibility in a large sample of dysarthric speakers under clinical examination conditions. Method Using the clinical assessment tool KommPaS, a total of 2,700 sentence-embedded target words, quasirandomly drawn from a large corpus, were spoken by a group of 100 dysarthric patients and later transcribed by listeners recruited via online crowdsourcing. Transcription accuracy was analyzed for influences of lexical frequency, phonological neighborhood structure, articulatory complexity, lexical familiarity, word class, stimulus length, and embedding position. Classification and regression analyses were performed using random forests and generalized linear mixed models. Results Across all degrees of severity, target words with higher frequency, fewer and less frequent phonological neighbors, higher articulatory complexity, and higher lexical familiarity received significantly higher intelligibility scores. In addition, target words were more challenging sentence-initially than in medial or final position. Stimulus length had mixed effects; word length and word class had no effect. Conclusions In a large-scale clinical examination of intelligibility in speakers with dysarthria, several well-established influences of lexical and articulatory parameters could be replicated, and the roles of new factors were discussed. This study provides clues about how experimental rigor can be combined with clinical requirements in the diagnostics of communication impairment in patients with dysarthria.

Variability in upper motor neurone-type dysarthria: an examination of five cases with dysarthria following cerebrovascular accident

Abstract: The degree of diversity in the nature and extent of the physiological deficits which occur in subjects with dysarthria with similar neurological damage is demonstrated through the individual assessment profiles of five subjects with dysarthria following upper motor neurone (UMN) damage. The perceptual profiles of each subject were compiled using perceptual ratings of deviant speech parameters, intelligibility ratings from the Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech (ASSIDS), and perceptual judgements of subsystem function determined from the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment (FDA). For each individual, the perceptual profile of their speech impairments was compared and contrasted with the objective results of spirometric and kinematic assessments of respiratory function, aerodynamic and electroglottographic evaluations of laryngeal function, pressure and strain gauge evaluations of articulatory function, and nasal accelerometric assessments of nasality. The outcomes of the individual perceptual and physiological profiles are discussed with respect to the presence of differential subsystem impairments both within each subject and between subjects with similar underlying pathophysiological deficits. The importance of interpreting the instrumental findings with respect to the interdependency of each of the motor speech subsystems, the limitations of perceptual assessments, and the advantages of utilising both perceptual and physiological analyses in the process of identifying treatment goals is discussed.

Variability in Speech Outcome Following Severe Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury: A Report of Three Cases

Abstract: The aim of the present paper was to demonstrate the variation in the nature and extent of the physiological and perceptual speech impairments that can occur in children following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Three children who presented with different speech profiles following severe TBI were discussed. The four speech subsystems were comprehensively evaluated using physiological measures of respiratory (Respitrace), laryngeal (Laryngograph, Aerophone II), velopharyngeal (accelerometry), and articulatory (lip and tongue pressure transduction systems) function. Perceptual speech evaluations included the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment, the Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech, and a perceptual analysis of a speech sample. The findings for each case were compared with those of a non-neurologically impaired control group or a control subject matched for age and sex. Although demonstrating similar severity of injury, each subject was found to have a differing profile of speech subsystem deficits, highlighting the need for a full physiological and perceptual assessment of speech production.

Heredofamilial syndrome of spastic paraplegia, dysarthria and cutaneous lesions in ive siblings.

Abstract: Five children, three sisters and two brothers aged between three months and 12 years, are described. They all developed a facial desquamating rash of butterfly distribution at the age of about two months, and motor retardation which later was characterized by spasticity, predominantly affecting the lower limbs. The three children who were old enough for speech to be tested had dysarthria. There was no family history of neurological disease, nor was there consanguinity among the parents or grandparents. EEGs were diffusely abnormal in four of the five children, but did not show any specific or diagnostic features. Plasma immunoglobulin tests were normal, and tests for collagen disease were negative. The authors are not aware of previous reports of this condition, but believe that it is a variant of familial spastic paraplegia, with atypical features.