Temporal Acoustic Measures of Dysarthria Associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate stop-gap duration, voice onset time (VOT), and vowel duration in intelligible speakers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Broadband sound spectrograms were used to measure 8 normal and 8 ALS speakers' intelligible speech productions of monosyllabic words containing word-initial stop-plosive consonants (/p, t, k, b, d, g/). Significant differences were found between the two groups for both vowel duration and stop-gap duration; moreover, correlational analysis indicated that the ALS speakers, as a group, exhibited a direct relationship between stop-gap and vowel durations associated with productions of /t/ and /k/. No significant differences were found between the two talker groups for VOT. Results will be related to the neuroanatomical and physiological mechanisms involved in dysarthric (ALS) speech.

Acoustic and Intelligibility Characteristics of Sentence Production in Neurogenic Speech Disorders

“…These findings are consistent with previous studies [9,[13][14][15] and general clinical observations which point to slow speaking rate as a prominent characteristic of the dysarthria in ALS. As discussed by Weismer et al [28], the typically slow rates in ALS are not easy to explain in terms of orofacial muscle weakness and/or wasting of vocal tract structures.…”

“…For sentence production, the number of studies is substantially smaller. Caruso and Burton [14] reported longer stop closures and vowel durations in the speech of persons with ALS, as compared to normals. Turner et al [15] evaluated the acoustic vowel space for ALS speech and found smaller vowel space areas as compared to normal speakers.…”

“…There are several investigations of the dysarthria associated with ALS, including perceptual characteristics [9], speech intelligibility, and speech acoustic characteristics [10][11][12][13][14]. However, most of these studies have been limited to analyses of single words.…”

Evaluation of fundamental frequency (F0) characteristics of speech in dysarthrias: A comparative study

“…There have been many reports on the acoustic characteristics of dysarthric speech [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. However, their findings about the acousic correlates to the speech disorders have been limited.…”

Characterization of Divergence in Impaired Speech of ALS Patients

“…Similarly, Kent et al (Kent et al, 1990) found place and manner of articulation for some consonants, and regulation of tongue height for vowels to diverge from asymptomatic speech; these were expected to result in imprecise consonants and distorted vowels. Caruso and Burton (1987) observed that ALS speakers and asymptomatic speakers exhibited significant differences in stop-gap durations as well as in vowel durations. have also previously shown a correlation between speaking rate and physiological measures of ALS, specifically ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS).…”