Speech metrics, general disability, brain imaging and quality of life in multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Background and purpose: Objective measurement of speech has shown promising results to monitor disease state in multiple sclerosis. In this study, we characterize the relationship between disease severity and speech metrics through perceptual (listener based) and objective acoustic analysis. We further look at deviations of acoustic metrics in people with no perceivable dysarthria. Methods: Correlations and regression were calculated between speech measurements and disability scores, brain volume, lesion load and quality of life. Speech measurements were further compared between three subgroups of increasing overall neurological disability: mild (as rated by the Expanded Disability Status Scale ≤2.5), moderate (≥3 and ≤5.5) and severe (≥6). Results: Clinical speech impairment occurred majorly in people with severe disability. An experimental acoustic composite score differentiated mild from moderate (P < 0.001) and moderate from severe subgroups (P = 0.003), and correlated with overall neurological disability (r = 0.6, P < 0.001), quality of life (r = 0.5, P < 0.001), white matter volume (r = 0.3, P = 0.007) and lesion load (r = 0.3, P = 0.008). Acoustic metrics also correlated with disability scores in people with no perceivable dysarthria. Conclusions: Acoustic analysis offers a valuable insight into the development of speech impairment in multiple sclerosis. These results highlight the potential of automated analysis of speech to assist in monitoring disease progression and treatment response.

Speech Pathology-Specific Questionnaire for Persons with Multiple Sclerosis (SMS): adaptation, validation and preliminary assessment of the diagnostic potential.

“…This supports the findings of Scalfari et al who report that the risk of entering the progressive phase of MS, with increased disability, changes proportionally with disease duration and becomes double after ten years from disease onset (Scalfari et al, 2014). The recent reports postulated objective measurement of speech in MS, supported by self-assessment and questionnaire of quality of life to be a marker of disease progression (Noffs et al, 2020, Rusz et al, 2018.…”

An Update on the Measurement of Motor Cerebellar Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis

“…White and GM loss, and damage to the bilateral corticobulbar tracts, cerebellum and midbrain are linked to dysarthria in MS [88,89]. Furthermore, increased severity and frequency of dysarthric symptoms are associated with higher disability [90]. Specific speech subsystems are often affected, including deviations in articulation, prosody and respiratory support, and voice quality [91].…”

“…Acoustic speech analysis has been suggested to overcome the limitations of perceptual assessment [94,103,104]. It provides objective data linking the level of disability and speech impairment, suggesting that it is a suitable measure of MS-related neurological impairment [90]. Furthermore, acoustic speech analysis shows promise in detecting subclinical dysarthria in pwMS [91,94,104].…”

“…Furthermore, acoustic speech analysis shows promise in detecting subclinical dysarthria in pwMS [91,94,104]. However, Noffs et al [90] note that longitudinal research is required to determine whether acoustic speech analysis can be used as a marker for progression in pwMS.…”

The classification of neurodegenerative disease from acoustic speech data

“…To avoid these concerns, the present study examined speech from a DDK task that was performed by healthy controls (HC) and two patient populations (FA, MS) using uniform practices (see Methods). We calculated acoustic features that have been examined in previous studies comparing HCs and various patient populations (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9).…”