Functional Role of Temporal Patterning of Articulation in Speech Production: A Novel Perspective Toward Global Timing–Based Motor Speech Assessment and Rehabilitation

Rong, Panying; Heidrick, Lindsey

doi:10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00089

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…Moreover, the delta-theta PSI for masseter shows a large decrease, reflecting reduced harmonic entrainment of masseter to produce syllable stress; additionally, the theta-beta/gamma PSI for all critical-band envelopes exhibit large decreases, revealing reduced harmonic entrainment of acoustic-physiological activities to produce stable temporal structures of syllables. Together, the observed rhythmic disturbances within and across timescales are in keeping with prior finding of impaired entrainment of motor speech activities to the rhythms of the underlying linguistic events ( 59 , 60 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…The rhythmic characteristics of both speech acoustic and sEMG activities were measured using an envelope modulation analysis previously developed by our research team. Technical details can be found in our prior studies ( 59 , 60 ). Briefly here, this analysis characterizes the rhythmic modulation of speech events of different temporal granularities based on the envelope dynamics of motor speech signals at multiple timescales.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rhythmic characteristics of these speech events are measured by the modulation depth at each timescale and the phase synchronization index (PSI) between timescales. Our prior work has shown that, of all rhythm metrics derived within and across the three timescales, ALS exhibits the most consistent effect on theta modulation depth and, to a lesser extent, on PSI between theta and its neighboring timescales (59,60). Hence, this study focused on the three theta-related rhythm metrics.…”

Section: Rhythmmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In addition, reduced voluntary recruitment and number of viable bulbar motor units can also compromise the ability of the bulbar motor system in conveying complex motor commands, which would be manifested by the complexity of the system's outputs at all levels (10, 45). Abnormal discharge patterns of bulbar motor units, as relating to slower and more variable firing rates, more heterogeneous contractile properties, and changes in muscle fiber conduction velocity, can disrupt the rhythms of bulbar motor activities across modalities (49, [58][59][60][61]. Lastly, increased variability and heterogeneity of the firing rates and contractile properties of bulbar motor units tend to globally reduce the regularity of bulbar motor activities across modalities (10, 45).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A multimodal approach to automated hierarchical assessment of bulbar involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Rong,

Heidrick,

Pattee

2024

Front. Neurol.

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IntroductionAs a hallmark feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), bulbar involvement leads to progressive declines of speech and swallowing functions, significantly impacting social, emotional, and physical health, and quality of life. Standard clinical tools for bulbar assessment focus primarily on clinical symptoms and functional outcomes. However, ALS is known to have a long, clinically silent prodromal stage characterized by complex subclinical changes at various levels of the bulbar motor system. These changes accumulate over time and eventually culminate in clinical symptoms and functional declines. Detection of these subclinical changes is critical, both for mechanistic understanding of bulbar neuromuscular pathology and for optimal clinical management of bulbar dysfunction in ALS. To this end, we developed a novel multimodal measurement tool based on two clinically readily available, noninvasive instruments—facial surface electromyography (sEMG) and acoustic techniques—to hierarchically assess seven constructs of bulbar/speech motor control at the neuromuscular and acoustic levels. These constructs, including prosody, pause, functional connectivity, amplitude, rhythm, complexity, and regularity, are both mechanically and clinically relevant to bulbar involvement.MethodsUsing a custom-developed, fully automated data analytic algorithm, a variety of features were extracted from the sEMG and acoustic recordings of a speech task performed by 13 individuals with ALS and 10 neurologically healthy controls. These features were then factorized into 10 composite outcome measures using confirmatory factor analysis. Statistical and machine learning techniques were applied to these composite outcome measures to evaluate their reliability (internal consistency), validity (concurrent and construct), and efficacy for early detection and progress monitoring of bulbar involvement in ALS.ResultsThe composite outcome measures were demonstrated to (1) be internally consistent and structurally valid in measuring the targeted constructs; (2) hold concurrent validity with the existing clinical and functional criteria for bulbar assessment; and (3) outperform the outcome measures obtained from each constituent modality in differentiating individuals with ALS from healthy controls. Moreover, the composite outcome measures combined demonstrated high efficacy for detecting subclinical changes in the targeted constructs, both during the prodromal stage and during the transition from prodromal to symptomatic stages.DiscussionThe findings provided compelling initial evidence for the utility of the multimodal measurement tool for improving early detection and progress monitoring of bulbar involvement in ALS, which have important implications in facilitating timely access to and delivery of optimal clinical care of bulbar dysfunction.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rhythmmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A multimodal approach to automated hierarchical assessment of bulbar involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Rong,

Heidrick,

Pattee

2024

Front. Neurol.

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“…Additional criteria for the PD speaker group included (3) a neurological diagnosis of PD. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment was administered to both speaker groups but did not serve as an inclusion or exclusion criterion (Rong & Taylor, 2023). The study used data from a larger project in the FSU Motor Speech Lab investigating the articulatory correlates of speech intelligibility in dysarthria.…”

Section: Speakersmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multidimensional examination of vowel-related articulatory deficits in Parkinson’s disease

Thompson,

Kim

2024

Preprint

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Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the perceptual, acoustic, and kinematic differences between speakers with and without dysarthria due to Parkinson’s disease (PD) across conversational, less clear, and more clear clarity conditions.Methods: Forty participants, including 22 with PD and 18 controls, read three phrases aloud using conversational, less clear, and more clear speaking conditions. Acoustic and kinematic measures were obtained from the diphthong /aɪ/ and selected vowels in the sentences. A total of 368 listeners from crowdsourcing provided ratings for intelligibility and articulatory precision. Linear mixed-effects models were employed to examine (1) baseline conversational speaker group differences for perceptual, acoustic, and kinematic measures, and (2) clarity-related changes across the selected measures.Results: In the baseline conversational condition, speakers with PD were perceived as less intelligible and precise. However, none of the acoustic or kinematic measures differed between the speakers with and without PD. When asked to modify clarity, both speaker groups successfully modified various acoustic and kinematic measures, resulting in perceptual changes in intelligibility and articulatory precision. However, speakers with PD showed a reduced magnitude of change compared to HC speakers.Conclusions: The findings generally support the efficacy of clear speech as a behavioral treatment cue. However, the findings also highlight a large variability in strategies employed by speakers to modify their speech clarity.

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A Fine-Grained Temporal Analysis of Multimodal Oral Diadochokinetic Performance to Assess Speech Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Rong,

Rasmussen

2024

Am J Speech Lang Pathol

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Purpose: This study used a semiautomated fine-grained temporal analysis to extract features of temporal oral diadochokinetic (DDK) performance across multiple modalities and tasks, from neurologically healthy and impaired individuals secondary to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The aims were to (a) delineate temporal oral DDK deficits relating to the neuromotor pathology of ALS and (b) identify the optimal task–feature combinations to detect speech impairment in ALS. Method: Mandibular myoelectric, kinematic, and acoustic data were acquired from 13 individuals with ALS and 10 healthy controls producing three alternating motion rate tasks and one sequential motion rate task. Twenty-seven features were extracted from the multimodal data, characterizing three temporal constructs: duration/rate, variability, and coordination. The disease impacts on these features were assessed across tasks, and the task eliciting the greatest disease-related change was identified for each feature. Such “optimal” task–feature combinations were fed into logistic regression to differentiate individuals with ALS from healthy controls. Results: Temporal deficits in ALS were characterized by (a) increased duration and variability and reduced coordination of jaw muscle activities, (b) increased duration and variability and altered temporal symmetry of jaw velocity profile, (c) increased muscle-burst-to-peak-velocity duration, and (d) increased motion-to-voice onset duration. These temporal features were differentially affected across tasks. The optimal task–feature combinations, which were further clustered into three composite factors reflecting temporal variability, coarser-grained duration, and finer-grained duration, differentiated ALS from controls with an F1 score of 0.86 (precision = 1.00, recall = 0.75). Conclusions: Temporal oral DDK deficits are likely attributed to a hierarchy of interrelated neurophysiological and biomechanical factors associated with the neuromotor pathology of ALS. These deficits, as assessed crossmodally, provide previously unavailable insights into the multifaceted timing impairment of oromotor performance in ALS. The optimal task–feature combinations targeting these deficits show promise as quantitative markers for (early) detection of speech impairment in ALS.

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Functional Role of Temporal Patterning of Articulation in Speech Production: A Novel Perspective Toward Global Timing–Based Motor Speech Assessment and Rehabilitation

Cited by 5 publications

References 108 publications

A multimodal approach to automated hierarchical assessment of bulbar involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

A multimodal approach to automated hierarchical assessment of bulbar involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

A multidimensional examination of vowel-related articulatory deficits in Parkinson’s disease

A Fine-Grained Temporal Analysis of Multimodal Oral Diadochokinetic Performance to Assess Speech Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

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