Purpose This study sought to determine the feasibility of using phonetic complexity manipulations as a way to systematically assess articulatory deficits in talkers with progressive dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD). Method Articulatory kinematics were recorded using three-dimensional electromagnetic articulography from 15 talkers with PD (58–84 years old) and 15 healthy controls (55–80 years old) while they produced target words embedded in a carrier phrase. Majority of the talkers with PD exhibited a relatively mild dysarthria. For stimuli selection, phonetic complexity was calculated for a variety of words using the framework proposed by Kent (1992) , and six words representative of low, medium, and high phonetic complexity were selected as targets. Jaw, posterior tongue, and anterior tongue kinematic measures that were used to test for phonetic complexity effects included movement speed, cumulative path distance, movement range, movement duration, and spatiotemporal variability. Results Significantly smaller movements and slower movement speeds were evident in talkers with PD, predominantly for words with high phonetic complexity. The effect sizes of between-groups differences were larger for several jaw kinematic measures than those of the tongue. Discussion and Conclusion Findings suggest that systematic manipulations of phonetic complexity can support the detection of articulatory deficits in talkers with PD. Phonetic complexity should therefore be leveraged for the assessment of articulatory performance in talkers with progressive dysarthria. Future work will be directed toward linking speech kinematic and auditory–perceptual measures to determine the clinical significance of the current findings.

There was high prevalence of fragility with cognitive deterioration, multi-medication and social risk; and lower presence of dementia. Women and the most elderly people were most affected.

Tuberculosis infection is less prevalent at school ages than other areas of Spain. In spite of the increase prevalence per school year, the low frequency and sample size did not allow to test for other associations.

Background and Purpose The aim of the study was to compare transcription-based speech intelligibility and scaled speech severity for the detection of mild speech impairments, by studying these metrics across talkers with Parkinson's disease (PD), age- and sex-matched older adults, and younger adults. An additional aim was to determine the impact of listener experience on these clinical measures. Methods Fifteen speakers from each experimental group were asked to read aloud 11 randomly generated sentences from the Speech Intelligibility Test at their typical speaking rate and loudness. Two groups of four listeners each, stratified as experienced or inexperienced listeners based on their clinical experience, judged the sentence samples. To estimate intelligibility, both listener groups were asked to orthographically transcribe exactly what they heard for each sentence. For severity estimates, the listener groups were asked to rate the sentences for overall quality based on voice, resonance, articulation, and prosody, using a visual analog scale. Results Transcription-based intelligibility and scaled severity scores of the PD group differed significantly from those of the older and younger adults. Between-age group differences in intelligibility and scaled severity were not observed. Listener experience had an impact on scaled speech severity, but not speech intelligibility. Between-group differences in speech severity were driven by the inexperienced group and not the experienced listener group. Implications Both transcription-based intelligibility and scaled severity estimates appear to be sensitive to relatively mild speech impairments in PD. Obtaining scaled severity is less labor intensive than transcription; therefore, visual analog scaling may be the preferred paradigm for clinical use. However, listener experience and training are important considerations for scaling techniques to be implemented clinically.