Speech timing in ataxic disorders

Abstract

We studied syllabic timing in patients with ataxia (10 with cerebellar atrophy, 6 with Friedreich's ataxia) under two conditions: in a "natural" sentence production context and in the context of a rapid syllable repetition task. The two tasks included comparable articulatory maneuvers. We measured syllable durations from the speech signal and analyzed variables describing average syllabic rate and within-trial variation of syllable durations. Among the observed measures, slowed syllable repetition was a particularly powerful predictor of the severity of dysarthric impairment. In sentence production, patients often performed at normal syllabic rates. Irregular pacing of syllable repetitions was frequent. Different patterns of between-articulator variation emerged in the two tasks. All patients except one were slower in rapid repetitive articulation than in sentence production. These data suggest that sentence production and rapid repetitive articulation are governed by basically different motor processes. The disproportionate slowing of ataxic patients in the repetitive task can be ascribed to adaptation to novel motor tasks being impaired in cerebellar disease.

Characteristics of Diadochokinesis in Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease

“…The slowed articulatory rates for speakers with MS were further evidenced by lengthened syllable and gap durations. These findings are in agreement with previous studies reporting slowed DDK rates for individuals with ataxic and spastic dysarthria [e.g., 6,9,12,13,15,16]. In contrast to previous research [12], however, qualitative inspection of the data indicated that speakers with ataxic dysarthria did not disproportionately lengthen gap durations nor did speakers with spastic dysarthria disproportionately lengthen syllable durations.…”

“…Increased temporal variability or irregularity of DDK is thought to be most characteristic of ataxic dysarthria [13][14][15]. However, increased temporal variability also has been reported for speakers with spastic and hypokinetic dysarthria, relative to healthy controls [6,9,13,16].…”

Phonarticulatory diadochokinesis in young and elderly individuals

“…. In the literature there are reports on speed reduction, worsen of accuracy and inconsistency of oral diadochokinesia in a large range of neurological disorders and even in some functional disorders 3,8,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . Generally, the ataxias seem to produce a greater impact on the diadochokinesia with an important reduction of the speech rate 16 , despite of some differences pointed out in Parkinson' s disease 15 .…”

“…Generally, the ataxias seem to produce a greater impact on the diadochokinesia with an important reduction of the speech rate 16 , despite of some differences pointed out in Parkinson' s disease 15 . The diadochokinesia test has been correlated with clear articulation 3 , dysartria severity and speech inteligibility 13 . Although it is a relatively simple test, there…”

Oralmotor slowing in multiple sclerosis: Relationship to neuropsychological tasks requiring an oral response

“…One limitation to this study, however, is the use of subjective ratings based on an unvalidated measure of dysarthria. In the present study we endeavored to improve upon prior research by widening the scope of cognitive testing and using an objective measure of oral motor speed known as the Maximum Repetition Rate of Syllables and Multisyllabic Combinations task (MRR; Kent et al, 1987), which has well-established reliability (Kreul, 1972) and validity (Dworkin et al, 1980;Portnoy & Aronson, 1982;Tatsumi et al, 1979;Ziegler & Wessel, 1996).…”