Dysarthria

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

Intensive treatment of dysarthria secondary to stroke

Abstract: This study investigated the impact of a well-defined behavioral dysarthria treatment on acoustic and perceptual measures of speech in four adults with dysarthria secondary to stroke. A single-subject A–B–A experimental design was used to measure the effects of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT® LOUD) on the speech of individual participants. Dependent measures included vocal sound pressure level, phonatory stability, vowel space area, and listener ratings of speech, voice and intelligibility. Statistically significant improvements (p < 0.05) in vocal dB SPL and phonatory stability as well as larger vowel space area were present for all participants. Listener ratings suggested improved voice quality and more natural speech post-treatment. Speech intelligibility scores improved for one of four participants. These data suggest that people with dysarthria secondary to stroke can respond positively to intensive speech treatments such as LSVT. Further studies are needed to investigate speech treatments ...

Computerized speech recognition: influence of intelligibility and perceptual consistency on recognition accuracy

Abstract: The effects of intelligibility and consistency on the recognition accuracy of a speaker-adaptable speech recognition system (IBM VoiceType Version 1.0) were evaluated. Six participants who had dysarthria of speech across three severity levels (i.e., mild, moderate, severe) and six age- and gender-matched peers without speech impairments participated in the study. Productions of sentences were evaluated across five assessment sessions. Recognition accuracy was significantly higher for the speakers in the control group than for the speakers with dysarthria across severity levels. High levels of intelligibility correlated significantly with high recognition accuracy scores. Perceptual rankings of speech consistency did not correlate significantly with recognition accuracy scores. Results suggest that for speaker-adaptable systems, the more intelligible a speaker, the greater his or her success with the voice recognition system. Results also suggest that perceived inconsistencies in the speech productions of ...

Acquired dysarthria in conversation: identifying sources of understandability problems.

Abstract: Background: Acquired progressive dysarthria is traditionally assessed, rated, and researched using measures of speech perception and intelligibility. The focus is commonly on the individual with dysarthria and how speech deviates from a normative range. A complementary approach is to consider the features and consequences of dysarthric speech as it is produced as a turn‐at‐talk in everyday interaction and in particular the ways in which this talk may be identified by its recipient as problematic to understand.Aims: To investigate how dysarthric turns‐at‐talk in everyday conversation may be problematic to understand. Further, to describe how recipients of dysarthric talk identify the source of problematic understandings to the dysarthric speaker.Methods & Procedures: Video data of natural conversation from two dyads were selected for this paper. The dyads were video‐recorded at home, at 3‐monthly intervals, over a maximum period of 18 months. Using the methods of conversation analysis a collection of seque...

Cortical dysarthria and dysprosody of speech

Abstract: The natuLre and indeed the existence of a syndrome of cortical dysarthria has been the subject of considerable argument in the past 50 years: some of it acrimonious, and much of it dissolving into semantic discussion. The matter has been concisely reviewed by Critchley (1952) in considering articulatory defects in aphasia. There is no doubt that whatever the descriptive term used occasional cases occur in which a known and limited cortical lesion produces a change in speech which is largely confined to articulation and presents as dysarthria with little or no dysphasic element. The case reported here showed just such a speech defect, and in addition a change in 'accentation' and melody (dysprosody) of speech, with alteration in the use of gesture which gave the impression of someone talking a foreign language. The cause of these symptoms appeared to be an intracerebral haemorrhage from a small angioma in the territory of the left middle cerebral artery. Angiography and operative treatment of the clot allowed an unusually precise localization of the lesion. The anatomical information and unusual clinical features are thought to justify a detailed report.