Rhythm is the speech property related to the temporal organization of sounds. Considerable evidence is now available for suggesting that dementia of Alzheimer's type is associated with impairments in speech rhythm. The aim of this study is to assess the use of an automatic computerized system for measuring speech rhythm characteristics in an oral reading task performed by 45 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared with those same characteristics among 82 healthy older adults without a diagnosis of dementia, and matched by age, sex and cultural background. Ranges of rhythmic-metric and clinical measurements were applied. The results show rhythmic differences between the groups, with higher variability of syllabic intervals in AD patients. Signal processing algorithms applied to oral reading recordings prove to be capable of differentiating between AD patients and older adults without dementia with an accuracy of 87% (specificity 81.7%, sensitivity 82.2%), based on the standard deviation of the duration of syllabic intervals. Experimental results show that the syllabic variability measurements extracted from the speech signal can be used to distinguish between older adults without a diagnosis of dementia and those with AD, and may be useful as a tool for the objective study and quantification of speech deficits in AD.

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Este trabajo estudia las noticias que la prensa española dedicó al famoso neurofisiólogo español José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado (1915Delgado ( -2011, entre 1943 y 2011. Con tal fin, se analizan los periódicos que gozaron durante ese periodo de un mayor número de lectores, prestando especial atención a los diarios ABC y La Vanguardia. La presencia de Delgado en la prensa española contribuyó, desde muy pronto, a construir una imagen enormemente positiva del investigador afincado en Yale, y fomentaron su popularidad extraordinariamente durante los años previos a su retorno a España. Particularmente significativo resulta el incremento de sus apariciones entre 1970 y 1975, periodo clave en el que su trabajo se desarrollaba entre España y los EE.UU., y en el que las autoridades del agonizante régimen de Franco parecían decididas a recuperar a tan valioso científico. Tomando a Delgado como ejemplo, en este artículo se reflexiona sobre cómo los medios de comunicación de masas pueden intervenir en el curso de la propia historia de la ciencia y se pretende advertir acerca de los múltiples factores, no solo intelectuales, que participan en la construcción de cualquier trama histórica. Popular Press, Science, and History: Case Study of Rodríguez Delgado in Spain. A B S T R A C TThis paper studies the news published by the Spanish press between 1943 and 2011, in relation to the famous Spanish neurophysiologist Jose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado (1915Delgado ( -2011. We analyze the newspapers with the highest readership at that moment, paying specific attention to daily ABC and La Vanguardia. The presence of Delgado in the Spanish press contributed, from an early stage, to the construction of an enormously positive image of the researcher, based in Yale at that time, and promoted his popularity extraordinarily during the years prior to his return to Spain. The period between 1970 and 1975 saw a significant increase of Delgado's appearances in the press, a key time in which his work developed between Spain and USA, and in which the authorities of the agonizing regime of Franco seemed determined to recover such a worthy scientist. The history of science is not only the product of intellectual activity, but also a result of many other factors, popular press being one of them. In our opinion, to see how these factors truly influence the history of science, Delgado could be a perfect example. Key wordsJosé Manuel Rodríguez Delgado, popular press, history of science. IntroducciónEl 8 de agosto de 2015 se cumplían cien años del nacimiento en Ronda, Málaga, del neurocientífico español José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado, seguramente uno de los investigadores que gozó de mayor proyección internacional durante la segunda mitad del Siglo XX. Los trabajos del profesor Delgado acerca del cerebro, y sus invenciones tecnológicas destinadas a la estimulación eléctrica, registro de