Dysarthria

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

Towards enhancing the acoustic models for dysarthric speech

Abstract: Dysarthria is a set of congenital and traumatic neuromotor disorders that impair the physical production of speech. These impairments reduce or remove the normal control of the vocal articulators. The acoustic characteristics of dysarthric speech is very different from the speech signal collected from a normative population, with relatively larger intra-speaker inconsistencies in the temporal dynamics of the dysarthric speech [1] [2]. These inconsistencies result in poor audible quality for the dysarthric speech, and in low phone/speech recognition accuracy. Further, collecting and labeling the dysarthric speech is extremely difficult considering the small number of people with these disorders, and the difficulty in labeling the database due to the poor quality of the speech. Hence, it would be of great interest to explore on how to improve the efficiency of the acoustic models built on small dysarthric speech databases such as Nemours [3], or use speech databases collected from a normative population to build acoustic models for dysarthric speakers. In this work, we explore the latter approach.

Relevance of Aerodynamic Evaluation in Parkinsonian Dysarthria

Abstract: Parkinsonian dysarthria is generally known under the name of hypokinetic dysarthria. Dysarthria, according to Darley et al (1969), is characterized by all speech disorders related to disturbances of muscular control of the speech organs, whose origin is a central or peripheral nervous system injury. So we must understand by dysarthria all failures related to either different levels of speech production (respiratory, phonatory, articulatory and even prosodic). Parkinsonian dysarthria, meanwhile, is mainly based on rigidity and hypokinesia. That's why it is considered as « hypokinetic » (Darley et al., 1975; Gentil et al., 1995). This term refers not only to reduction of articulatory movements but also to decreasing of speech prosody modulation described as monotonic (Viallet & Teston, 2007). Parkinsonian dysarthria arises, like other signs of Parkinson's disease, the depletion of dopamine in charge of phonatory incompetence by muscular hypokinesia. It is a major handicap factor that may compromise in long-term oral communication of the patient, as worsening over the course of the disease, responding less well to treatment and thereby posing additional difficulties in support. So we thought to better assess this dysarthria in order to gain a better understanding and improve management. This assessment can be done by perceptual analysis. She could also be done by various instrumental methods (acoustic and physiological) focusing on one of the speech production levels mentioned above. Such studies are numerous in literature and we will report some examples in this chapter. What is more rare in literature is assessment of parkinsonian dysarthria in study combined several levels as might allow, for example, the dual approach appealing to physiology of speech production with firstly an aerodynamic component related to pneumophonic coordination (respiratory and phonatory levels) and, secondly, an acoustic component in relation to phonoarticulatory coordination (phonatory and articulatory levels). Through this chapter we want show that it is possible to assess appropriately parkinsonian dysarthria by using aerodynamic parameters that combine respiratory and phonatory levels, so such an experiment that we report in this chapter after having reviewed main methods of evaluation.

Effects of High Cervical Spinal Cord Stimulation on Gait Disturbance and Dysarthropneumophonia in Parkinson’s Disease and Parkinson Variant of Multiple System Atrophy: A Case Series

Abstract: High cervical spinal cord stimulation (HCSCS) was found to have therapeutic effects on Parkinsonian gait disturbance. However, the results were inconsistent and confounded with symptoms of pain. This study aimed to reveal the gait and dysarthric effects of HCSCS in PD (Parkinson’s disease) and MSA-P (Parkinson variant of multiple system atrophy) patients without pain. Three PD and five MSA-P patients without painful comorbidities were assessed for gait performance and speech before SCS surgery and at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Stride length and the time spent in the Timed Up-and-Go task showed little change after HCSCS surgery. Overall voice quality (measured by dysphonia severity index) and perceptual speech intelligence improved significantly at 3 months, but improvements slightly diminished at 6 months postoperatively. Change in quality of life (measured by 8-item Parkinson’s disease questionnaire) was also notable at 3 months but narrowed over time following HCSCS. In conclusion, HCSCS showed therapeutic effects in improving the dysarthria but not gait disturbance in pain-free PD and MSA-P patients.

Articulatory Correlates of Stress Pattern Disturbances in Talkers With Dysarthria

Abstract: 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. Method Fifty-seven talkers participated in the study-33 talkers with dysarthria and 24 controls. Talkers with dysarthria were grouped based on their medical diagnosis: PD (n = 15), ALS (n = 10), MS (n = 8). Participants repeated target words embedded in a carrier phrase. Kinematic data were recorded using electromagnetic articulography. Duration, displacement, peak speed, stiffness, time-to-peak speed, and parameter c were extracted for the initial lower lip opening stroke of each target word, which was either stressed or unstressed. Results Stress effects were significant for all kinematic measures across groups except for stiffness and time-to-peak speed, which were nonsignificant in ALS. For comparisons with controls, more kinematic measures significantly differed in the ALS group than in the PD and MS groups. Additionally, ALS and MS showed mostly similar articulatory impairment patterns. Conclusions In general, significant stress effects were observed in talkers with dysarthria. However, stress-specific between-group differences in articulatory performance, particularly displacement, may explain the perceptual impression of disturbed stress patterns. Furthermore, similar findings for ALS and MS suggest that articulatory deficits underlying similar stress pattern disturbances are not disease-specific.