Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial of Speech After Early Neurostimulation in Parkinson's Disease.

BACKGROUND: The EARLYSTIM trial demonstrated for Parkinson's disease patients with early motor complications that deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) and best medical treatment (BMT) was superior to BMT alone. OBJECTIVE: This prospective, ancillary study on EARLYSTIM compared changes in blinded speech intelligibility assessment between STN-DBS and BMT over 2 years, and secondary outcomes included non-speech oral movements (maximum phonation time [MPT], oral diadochokinesis), physician- and patient-reported assessments. METHODS: STN-DBS (n = 102) and BMT (n = 99) groups underwent assessments on/off medication at baseline and 24 months (in four conditions: on/off medication, ON/OFF stimulation-for STN-DBS). Words and sentences were randomly presented to blinded listeners, and speech intelligibility rate was measured. Statistical analyses compared changes between the STN-DBS and BMT groups from baseline to 24 months. RESULTS: Over the 2-year period, changes in speech intelligibility and MPT, as well as patient-reported outcomes, were not different between groups, either off or on medication or OFF or ON stimulation, but most outcomes showed a nonsignificant trend toward worsening in both groups. Change in oral diadochokinesis was significantly different between STN-DBS and BMT groups, on medication and OFF STN-DBS, with patients in the STN-DBS group performing slightly worse than patients under BMT only. A signal for clinical worsening with STN-DBS was found for the individual speech item of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, Part III. CONCLUSION: At this early stage of the patients' disease, STN-DBS did not result in a consistent deterioration in blinded speech intelligibility assessment and patient-reported communication, as observed in studies of advanced Parkinson's Disease. © 2022 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Correlates of vowel clarity in the spectrotemporal modulation domain: Application to speech impairment evaluation.

This article reports on vowel clarity metrics based on spectrotemporal modulations of speech signals. Motivated by previous findings on the relevance of modulation-based metrics for speech intelligibility assessment and pathology classification, the current study used factor analysis to identify regions within a bi-dimensional modulation space, the magnitude power spectrum, as in Elliott and Theunissen [(2009). PLoS Comput. Biol. 5(3), e1000302] by relating them to a set of conventional acoustic metrics of vowel space area and vowel distinctiveness. Two indices based on the energy ratio between high and low modulation rates across temporal and spectral dimensions of the modulation space emerged from the analyses. These indices served as input for measurements of central tendency and classification analyses that aimed to identify vowel-related speech impairments in French native speakers with head and neck cancer (HNC) and Parkinson dysarthria (PD). Following the analysis, vowel-related speech impairment was identified in HNC speakers, but not in PD. These results were consistent with findings based on subjective evaluations of speech intelligibility. The findings reported are consistent with previous studies indicating that impaired speech is associated with attenuation in energy in higher spectrotemporal modulation bands.

The Online Processing of Korean Case by Native Korean Speakers and Second Language Learners as Revealed by Eye Movements.

Previous experimental studies have reported clear differences between native speakers and second language (L2) learners as concerns their capacity to extract and exploit morphosyntactic information during online processing. We examined the online processing of nominal case morphology in Korean by native speakers and L2 learners by contrasting canonical (SOV) and scrambled (OSV) structures, across auditory (Experiment 1) and written (Experiment 2) formats. Moreover, we compared different instances of nominal case marking: accusative (NOM-ACC) and dative (NOM-DAT). During auditory processing, Koreans showed incremental processing based on case information, with no effect of scrambling or specific case marking. In contrast, the L2 group showed no evidence of predictive processing and was negatively impacted by scrambling, especially for the accusative. During reading, both Koreans and the L2 group showed a cost of scrambling on first pass reading times, specifically for the dative. Lastly, L2 learners showed better comprehension for scrambled dative than accusative structures across formats. The current set of results show that format, the specific case marking, and word order all affect the online processing of nominal case morphology.

Validation of an Intelligibility Test Based on Acoustic-Phonetic Decoding of Pseudo-Words: Overall Results from Patients with Cancer of the Oral Cavity and the Oropharynx.

OBJECTIVES: Loss of intelligibility is a major complaint for patients with speech disorders, as it affects their everyday communication and thus contributes to a decrease in their quality of life. Several tests are available to measure intelligibility, but these tests do not take into account the evaluators' ability to restore distorted sequences. Due to this ability, the evaluator will tend to recognize words despite phonetic distortions, and speech production deficit can go undetected. The results of these tests therefore overestimate the intelligibility of patients and may mask real functional limitations. We propose a new test which uses a large number of pseudowords in order to neutralize the unwanted perceptual effects that cause this overestimation. The purpose of this test is to measure the speech production deficit. It is not intended to assess the communication deficit. Our objective is to validate this test based on acoustic-phonetic decoding of productions from patients with speech disorders. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We tested this method with a population of 39 healthy participants and 78 post-treatment patients with cancers of the oral cavity and the oropharynx (HNC patients). Each speaker produced 52 pseudowords taken from randomly generated lists from large common dictionary, each list of 52 pseudowords containing the same number of phonemes. Forty everyday listeners then transcribed these productions. The orthographic transcriptions were phonetized and compared to the expected phonetic forms. An algorithm provided a Perceived Phonological Deviation score (PPD) based on the number of features that differed between the expected forms and the transcribed items. The PPD thus provided a score representing the loss of intelligibility. RESULTS: The 39 participants in the control group demonstrated significantly lower PPD scores compared to the 41 patients with a T1T2 tumor size or compared to the 37 patients with a T3T4 tumor size. The differences between the three groups were significant. If we use the PPD as a predictor to identify patients versus control group subjects, the AUC of the ROC curve is equal to 0.94, which corresponds to an outstanding group separability. A PPD threshold at 0.6 features per phoneme is the boundary between normal and dysfunctional speech. The analysis showed a close correlation between the PPD and a clinical judgment of the disorder severity obtained from experts. CONCLUSION: This test appears to be effective in measuring the intelligibility of speakers at a phonological level, in particular in the case of head and neck cancers.

Construction of an automatic score for the evaluation of speech disorders among patients treated for a cancer of the oral cavity or the oropharynx: The Carcinologic Speech Severity Index.

BACKGROUND: Speech disorders impact quality of life for patients treated with oral cavity and oropharynx cancers. However, there is a lack of uniform and applicable methods for measuring the impact on speech production after treatment in this tumor location. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this work is to (1) model an automatic severity index of speech applicable in clinical practice, that is equivalent or superior to a severity score obtained by human listeners, via several acoustics parameters extracted (a) directly from speech signal and (b) resulting from speech processing and (2) derive an automatic speech intelligibility classification (i.e., mild, moderate, severe) to predict speech disability and handicap by combining the listener comprehension score with self-reported quality of life related to speech. METHODS: Eighty-seven patients treated for cancer of the oral cavity or the oropharynx and 35 controls performed different tasks of speech production and completed questionnaires on speech-related quality of life. The audio recordings were then evaluated by human perception and automatic speech processing. Then, a score was developed through a classic logistic regression model allowing description of the severity of patients' speech disorders. RESULTS: Among the group of parameters subject to extraction from automatic processing of the speech signal, six were retained, producing a correlation at 0.87 with the perceptual reference score, 0.77 with the comprehension score, and 0.5 with speech-related quality of life. The parameters that contributed the most are based on automatic speech recognition systems. These are mainly the automatic average normalized likelihood score on a text reading task and the score of cumulative rankings on pseudowords. The reduced automatic YC2SI is modeled in this way: YC2SIp  = 11.48726 + (1.52926 × Xaveraged normalized likelihood reading ) + (-1.94e-06 × Xscore of cumulative ranks pseudowords ). CONCLUSION: Automatic processing of speech makes it possible to arrive at valid, reliable, and reproducible parameters able to serve as references in the framework of follow-up of patients treated for cancer of the oral cavity or the oropharynx.

Reliability and Correlations Between Overall Severity, Roughness and Breathiness in the Perception of Dysphonic Voices: Investigating Cognitive Aspects.

OBJECTIVES: this study concerns the subjective perception of the quality of the voice, more particularly in the case of dysphonia. Our general objective is to study the perceptual mechanisms, which constitute Hirano's GRBAS multidimensional perceptual rating scale. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We tested the reliability of the GRB perceptual scale both in terms of test-retest reliability (intra-listener stability) and in terms of inter-listener agreement. We also studied how listeners process the three different parameters of the scale by varying the perceptual rating conditions of G, R, and B. The three attributes were rated simultaneously in one condition and in isolation in a second condition. The experiment was based on texts read by fifty dysphonic speakers. We selected five listeners specialized in voice assessment to provide perceptual judgments of the voices. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that G is strongly correlated with R and/or B. When the GRB rating process is simultaneous, G is almost equal to the maximum score assigned to the R and/or B parameter (R² = 0.97). Conversely, R and B are poorly correlated. While intra-listener variability was limited, inter-judge variability was important even in a homogeneous panel of judges.

Effect of linguistic context on the perception of consonants in Parkinsonian Read French speech.

We examined the effect of linguistic factors on the perceptual identification of intervocalic consonants produced by speakers with Parkinson's Diseases (PD). To neutralize the effect of preceding and following contexts, all the intervocalic consonants were excised with half the preceding and following vowels.We recorded 10 PD and 10 healthy speakers reading a text. An average of 114 VCV sequences per speaker was obtained. In total, our corpus consisted of 2280 stimuli. For the perception test, 20 adults native speakers of French were instructed that they would be presented utterances produced by different speakers and that they were to identify the sequences and write what they heard. No information was given on the sequence type (VCV).The reported consonant was examined in relation to the intended consonant; the score of distorsion was the number of phonetic features differing from the prototypical consonant. The results were examined as a function of the following/or preceding linguistic factors: consonant nature, oral/nasal vocalic context, class of word (function or content) and prosodic position within sentences.Consonant imprecision was confirmed in the speech of PD speakers. Two groups of patients were observed: the former with a low degree of dysarthria severity and scores of consonant identification close to that of healthy speakers; the latter with a high degree of dysarthria severity and a low identification score.Linguistic factors were shown to affect consonant production and perception. In both normal and PD speech, consonants had more features identified when they belonged to content words, word-initial syllables or final-phrase syllables. This suggests that in Parkinson's disease speech disorders relate to motor control and not to a loss of the linguistic knowledge.

Design and Development of a Speech Intelligibility Test Based on Pseudowords in French: Why and How?

Purpose The current intelligibility tests performed on speakers with atypical speech production are limited by the ability of listeners to restore distorted sequences. This results in a measure that is overvalued when compared with the real articulatory performance. In this article, we present a new intelligibility test in order to neutralize the commonly encountered bias in traditional perception-based assessments. We present the construction of the acoustic-phonetic decoding task and its first test during a perceptual judgment test of intelligibility and during a result comparison with a global perceptual evaluation. Method We developed a very large pseudoword directory including about 90,000 forms that respect French phonotactic constraints. From this directory, we have created lists of pseudowords intended to be recorded for the constitution of the corpus. These lists are established due to an algorithm integrating predefined linguistic constraints and produced by 47 speakers (nine healthy and 38 patients). We then performed a perceptual judgment of intelligibility test with 20 listeners who transcribed these productions. Results At the end of the data processing stage, we obtained a Perceived Phonological Deviation (PPD) score for each speaker that reflects the average number of features altered per phoneme. We then compared the PPD score with a global intelligibility score derived from a global perceptual assessment of intelligibility and of the alteration severity. Conclusions The current findings confirm that a speech intelligibility test based on pseudowords in French achieves fine-grained PPD scores, which enables discrimination between patients and healthy speakers. Moreover, the PPD score is related to the global intelligibility score, especially in severity. Further studies are needed to better understand the discrimination power of this intelligibility test based on an acoustic-phonetic decoding task.

Effects of cognitive impairment on prosodic parameters of speech production planning in multiple sclerosis.

Cognitive impairment (CI) affects 40-65% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). CI can have a negative impact on a patient's everyday activities, such as engaging in conversations. Speech production planning ability is crucial for successful verbal interactions and thus for preserving social and occupational skills. This study investigates the effect of cognitive-linguistic demand and CI on speech production planning in MS, as reflected in speech prosody. A secondary aim is to explore the clinical potential of prosodic features for the prediction of an individual's cognitive status in MS. A total of 45 subjects, that is 22 healthy controls (HC) and 23 patients in early stages of relapsing-remitting MS, underwent neuropsychological tests probing specific cognitive processes involved in speech production planning. All subjects also performed a read speech task, in which they had to read isolated sentences manipulated as for phonological length. Results show that the speech of MS patients with CI is mainly affected at the temporal level (articulation and speech rate, pause duration). Regression analyses further indicate that rate measures are correlated with working memory scores. In addition, linear discriminant analysis shows the ROC AUC of identifying MS patients with CI is 0.70 (95% confidence interval: 0.68-0.73). Our findings indicate that prosodic planning is deficient in patients with MS-CI and that the scope of planning depends on patients' cognitive abilities. We discuss how speech-based approaches could be used as an ecological method for the assessment and monitoring of CI in MS.

Perceptual evaluation of dysphonic voices: can a training protocol lead to the development of perceptual categories?

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a training protocol for the perceptual evaluation of dysphonia. A group of 38 inexperienced listeners participated in a three-phase experiment: a pretest to evaluate their initial performance on categorization of dysphonic voices, a training phase, and a posttest to detect training-related changes in performance. In parallel, a different group of 14 listeners who were experts in voice assessment took a test that was identical to the posttest taken by the inexperienced subjects. The corpus used for the tests was made up of recordings of 142 voices of women reading aloud, with a sampling of voice qualities ranging from normal to severely degraded. The learners' performance on judgments of moderate and severe dysphonia improved between the pretest and the posttest. No improvement was observed for normal voices, whose initial detection was already good, nor for slight dysphonias, which appear to be the most difficult to learn. The improvements were still present on a delayed posttest taken a week later. Unexpectedly, the inexperienced listeners' initial performance was similar to that of the experts. After the training phase, their scores for severely deteriorated voices were even better than the experts'. In conclusion, our training protocol seems to be effective and could therefore be proposed to voice therapists. However, judging intermediate degrees of dysphonia remains fragile and therefore needs to be reinforced by repeated training.

Is the perception of dysphonia severity language-dependent? A comparison of French and Italian voice assessments.

In this cross-language study, six Italian and six French voice experts evaluated perceptually the speech of 27 Italian and 40 French patients with dysphonia to determine if there were differences based on native language. French and Italian voice specialists agreed substantially in their evaluations of the overall grade of dysphonia and moderately concerning roughness and breathiness. No statistically significant effects were found related to the language of the speakers with the exception of breathiness, a finding that was interpreted as being due to different voice pathologies in the patient groups. It was concluded that the perception of the overall grade of dysphonia and breathiness is not language-dependent, whereas the significant difference in the perception of roughness may be related to a perception/adaption process.

Stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus area in Parkinson's disease: effects on speech and intelligibility.

Improvement of gait disorders following pedunculopontine nucleus area stimulation in patients with Parkinson's disease has previously been reported and led us to propose this surgical treatment to patients who progressively developed severe gait disorders and freezing despite optimal dopaminergic drug treatment and subthalamic nucleus stimulation. The outcome of our prospective study on the first six patients was somewhat mitigated, as freezing of gait and falls related to freezing were improved by low frequency electrical stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus area in some, but not all, patients. Here, we report the speech data prospectively collected in these patients with Parkinson's disease. Indeed, because subthalamic nucleus surgery may lead to speech impairment and a worsening of dysarthria in some patients with Parkinson's disease, we felt it was important to precisely examine any possible modulations of speech for a novel target for deep brain stimulation. Our results suggested a trend towards speech degradation related to the pedunculopontine nucleus area surgery (off stimulation) for aero-phonatory control (maximum phonation time), phono-articulatory coordination (oral diadochokinesis) and speech intelligibility. Possibly, the observed speech degradation may also be linked to the clinical characteristics of the group of patients. The influence of pedunculopontine nucleus area stimulation per se was more complex, depending on the nature of the task: it had a deleterious effect on maximum phonation time and oral diadochokinesis, and mixed effects on speech intelligibility. Whereas levodopa intake and subthalamic nucleus stimulation alone had no and positive effects on speech dimensions, respectively, a negative interaction between the two treatments was observed both before and after pedunculopontine nucleus area surgery. This combination effect did not seem to be modulated by pedunculopontine nucleus area stimulation. Although limited in our group of patients, speech impairment following pedunculopontine nucleus area stimulation is a possible outcome that should be considered before undertaking such surgery. Deleterious effects could be dependent on electrode insertion in this brainstem structure, more than on current spread to nearby structures involved in speech control. The effect of deep brain stimulation on speech in patients with Parkinson's disease remains a challenging and exploratory research area.

Top-down mechanisms in dysphonia perception: the need for blind tests.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the information a therapist or a physician has about a dysphonic speaker, particularly whether he or she is in the pretreatment or posttreatment period, can influence judgments of the patient's voice. The voices of 53 dysphonic speakers were used in the study. For each speaker, we selected a pair of voice samples recorded under different circumstances. Seven listeners who were speech therapists, ear, nose, and throat surgeons, or voice pathologists took blind-listening tests in which they were asked to compare the two voices in each pair (phase 1: blind listening). A few weeks later, the listeners took the very same test again, except that this time, they were given bogus information about whether the speaker had/had not been treated by laryngeal surgery or speech therapy (phase 2: influenced listening). The information given for each voice sample either reinforced the judgment made in phase 1 (eg, the voice judged to be better on the blind test was said to be posttreatment) or countered that judgment (eg, the voice rated as better on the blind test was said to be pretreatment). The influenced-listening results showed that in the reinforced condition, the original ratings were significantly amplified. By contrast, in the countering-influence condition, decision changes were frequent: we found that judgment reversals and the countering-information scores were almost independent of the blind-listening scores. These findings point out the dire need to use a blind protocol in perceptual assessments of dysphonia.

Visual and linguistic determinants of the eyes' initial fixation position in reading development.

Two eye-movement experiments with one hundred and seven first- through fifth-grade children were conducted to examine the effects of visuomotor and linguistic factors on the recognition of words and pseudowords presented in central vision (using a variable-viewing-position technique) and in parafoveal vision (shifted to the left or right of a central fixation point). For all groups of children, we found a strong effect of stimulus location, in both central and parafoveal vision. This effect corresponds to the children's apparent tendency, for peripherally located targets, to reach a position located halfway between the middle and the left edge of the stimulus (preferred viewing location, PVL), whether saccading to the right or left. For centrally presented targets, refixation probability and lexical-decision time were the lowest near the word's center, suggesting an optimal viewing position (OVP). The viewing-position effects found here were modulated (1) by print exposure, both in central and parafoveal vision; and (2) by the intrinsic qualities of the stimulus (lexicality and word frequency) for targets in central vision but not for parafoveally presented targets.

Análise das medidas aerodinâmicas no português brasileiro por meio do método multiparamétrico de avaliação vocal objetiva assistida (EVA) / Analysis of aerodynamic measures in Brazilian portuguese through multiparameter assessment method vocal objective assist (EVA)

OBJETIVO: definir medidas aerodinâmicas em falantes do português brasileiro, sem queixas vocais, obtidas pelo programa EVA. MÉTODO: participaram do estudo 20 homens e 20 mulheres, que tiveram suas vozes analisadas. RESULTADOS: os valores médios referentes à pressão subglótica para vozes femininas e masculinas foram, respectivamente: Pressão subglótica= 5,84 hPa e 6,7 hPa, média da intensidade= 79,21 dB e 81,7 dB, média do fluxo oral= 0,09 dm³/s e 0,16 dm³/s, eficiência glótica= 13,87 dB/hPa e 12,78 dB/hPa, eficiência laríngea= 188,08 dB/(hPa.dm³/s) e 97,11 dB/(hPa.dm³/s), resistência laríngea= 96,26 hPa/(dm³/s) e 52,64 hPa/(dm³/s), média da frequência fundamental (F0)= 208,28 Hz e 136,56 Hz e pico da pressão do fluxo oral= 0,093 e 0,098. Houve diferença estatisticamente significante em relação ao gênero para as medidas de média de intensidade, eficiência laríngea, resistência laríngea e média da frequência fundamental. Os valores médios referentes ao fluxo oral para vozes femininas e masculinas foram respectivamente: Pressão subglótica= 6,05 hPa e 6,6 hPa, média da intensidade= 65,50 dB e 66,3 dB, média do fluxo oral= 0,10 dm³/s e 0,13 dm³/s, eficiência glótica= 11,12 dB/hPa e 11,77 dB/hPa, eficiência laríngea= 144,83 dB/(hPa.dm³/s) e 97,89 dB/(hPa.dm³/s), resistência laríngea= 78,98 hPa/(dm³/s) e 61,81 hPa/(dm³/s), média da F0= 222,52 Hz e 139,20 Hz e pico da pressão do fluxo oral= 0,047 e 0,053. CONCLUSÃO: o EVA é um programa ainda novo no Brasil, e a análise de medidas aerodinâmicas, em falantes do português brasileiro, permite a obtenção de valores de referência, possibilitando assim comparações com estudos futuros.

PURPOSE: to define aerodynamic measures in Brazilian Portuguese speakers without voice complaints, obtained by the EVA program. METHOD: the study included 20 men and 20 women who had their voices analyzed. RESULTS: the mean values with subglottic pressure for female and male voices were: Subglottic pressure = 5.84 hPa and 6.7 hPa; average intensity = 79.21dB and 81.7dB; oral mean flow = 0.09 dm3/s and 0.16 dm3/s; glottic efficiency = 13.87dB/hPa and 12.78 dB/hPa; laryngeal efficiency = 188.08 dB/(hPa.dm3/s) and 97.11dB/(hPa.dm3/s); laryngeal resistance = 96.26 hPa/(dm3/s) and 52.64 hPa/(dm3/s); mean fundamental frequency (F0) = 208.28 Hz and 136.56 Hz and peak mouth pressure flow = 0.093 and 0.098. There was a statistically significant difference in relation to gender for the measures of average intensity, efficiency, larynx, laryngeal resistance and mean fundamental frequency. The average flow for the oral female and male voices were: subglottic pressure = 6.05 hPa and 6.6 hPa; average intensity = 65.50 dB and 66.3 dB; oral mean flow = 0, 10 dm3/s and 0.13 dm3/s; glottic efficiency = 11.12 dB/hPa and 11.77 dB/hPa; laryngeal efficiency = 144.83 dB/( hPa.dm3/s) and 97.89 dB/( hPa.dm3/s); laryngeal resistance = 78.98 hPa/(dm3/s) and 61.81 hPa/( dm3/s); average F0 = 222.52 Hz and 139.20 Hz and peak pressure oral flow = 0.047 and 0.053. CONCLUSION: EVA is a new program in Brazil, and analysing the aerodynamic measures in Brazilian Portuguese speakers, allows us to obtain reference values, thus allowing comparisons with future studies.

Electroglottography of speakers of Brazilian Portuguese through Objective Multiparameter Vocal Assessment (EVA).

UNLABELLED: EVA was designed to study various speech production parameters. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to define the mean values for electroglottography tests of Brazilian Portuguese speakers on EVA. MATERIALS AND METHOD: The voices of 20 men and 20 women without voice-related complaints were analyzed through electroglottography so as to obtain reference values for normality. CASE STUDY: this is a descriptive cross-sectional study. RESULTS: The mean values for normal male voices were: F0 = 127.77 Hz; F0 coefficient of variation = 2.51%; absolute jitter = 1.707 Hz; relative average perturbation = 0.0083; jitter factor = 1.34%; jitter ratio = 13.45%; QF = 0.447. The values for female voices were: F0 = 204.87 Hz; F0 coefficient of variation = 1.58%; absolute jitter = 3.30Hz; relative average perturbation = 0.0102; jitter factor = 1.60%; jitter ratio = 16.23%; QF= 0.443. Wave type for the entire sample was categorized as tilted pulse. CONCLUSION: Statistically significant differences were found for gender on parameters average FO and absolute jitter. While using acoustic analysis software, users must be based on parameters inherent to the software program when analyzing the collected data.

Medidas eletroglotográficas em falantes do português brasileiro por meio do Método Multiparamétrico de Avaliação Vocal Objetiva Assistida (EVA) / Electroglottography of speakers of Brazilian Portuguese through Objective Multiparameter Vocal Assessment (EVA)

O Método Multiparamétrico de Avaliação Vocal Objetiva Assistida (EVA) foi projetado para o estudo da maioria dos parâmetros de produção da fala. OBJETIVO: Definir as medidas médias dos parâmetros eletroglotográficos em falantes do português brasileiro para o EVA. MATERIAL E MÉTODO: Foram analisadas 40 vozes, 20 homens e 20 mulheres sem queixa vocal, extraindo-se as medidas eletroglotográficas, a fim de obter valores de referência de normalidade. Estudo de caso: estudo descritivo com corte transversal. RESULTADOS: Os valores médios de normalidade encontrados nas vozes masculinas foram: F0 = 127,77 Hz, coeficiente de variação de F0 = 2,51%, jitter absoluto = 1,707 Hz, perturbação média relativa = 0,0083, jitter factor = 1,34%, jitter ratio = 13,45%, e QF = 0,447. Para vozes femininas, foram: F0 = 204,87 Hz, coeficiente de variação de F0 = 1,58%, jitterabsoluto = 3,30 Hz, perturbação média relativa = 0,0102, jitter factor = 1,60%, jitter ratio = 16,23%, e QF = 0,443. O tipo de onda foi em 100% da amostra classificada como pulso inclinado em ambos os gêneros. CONCLUSÃO: Houve diferença estatisticamente significante em relação ao gênero para os parâmetros de média F0 e jitterabsoluto. Ao utilizar um programa de análise acústica, os usuários devem basear-se em parâmetros inerentes ao próprio programa para realizar a análise dos dados coletados.

EVA was designed to study various speech production parameters. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to define the mean values for electroglottography tests of Brazilian Portuguese speakers on EVA. MATERIALS AND METHOD: The voices of 20 men and 20 women without voice-related complaints were analyzed through electroglottography so as to obtain reference values for normality. Case study: this is a descriptive cross-sectional study. RESULTS: The mean values for normal male voices were: F0 = 127.77 Hz; F0 coefficient of variation = 2.51%; absolute jitter = 1.707 Hz; relative average perturbation = 0.0083; jitter factor = 1.34%; jitter ratio = 13.45%; QF = 0.447. The values for female voices were: F0 = 204.87 Hz; F0 coefficient of variation = 1.58%; absolute jitter = 3.30Hz; relative average perturbation = 0.0102; jitter factor = 1.60%; jitter ratio = 16.23%; QF= 0.443. Wave type for the entire sample was categorized as tilted pulse. CONCLUSION: Statistically significant differences were found for gender on parameters average FO and absolute jitter. While using acoustic analysis software, users must be based on parameters inherent to the software program when analyzing the collected data.

[The effect of time-compressed speech on the perception of ataxic dysarthria: a report of two cases]. / Effet de l'accélération artificielle du signal de parole sur la perception des dysarthries cérébelleuses: à propos de deux cas.

AIM: In cerebellar dysarthria, the lack of precision in the articulatory motions leads to a temporal dysregulation with a decreased rate of speech. That is, our hypothesis is that the signal distortions are linked to the slowness of speech and that the acceleration of the rate improves the intelligibility of speech. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Two patients with a cerebellar pathology and an ataxic dysarthria participated in the present study. Speech intelligibility was assessed subjectively by a visual analog scale, and objectively by the constant-stimulus method associated with an identification task of a target phoneme in real time. The SOLA algorithm was used to accelerate the speech stimuli. 144 test sentences were created at 3 speed rates: 48 sentences at 'natural speed' (without compression, VN), 48 sentences at 'intermediate speed' (50% of the maximum rate, VI) and 48 sentences at 'maximum speed' (mean rate of a control group of speakers, VM). The 144 test sentences, in 3 experimental conditions, were distributed over 3 lists, each listener hearing each sentence only once; 8 subjects were assigned to each list. The sentences were presented in random order. A subjective assessment was performed for the whole corpus. The statistical analysis was performed with a mixed logit model for the subjective scores and the reaction time and with a chi2 test for the errors. RESULTS: For each patient, the odds of an improved intelligibility were significantly greater for the VI or VM condition than for the VN condition. The effect tended to be stronger for patient Z. From the VN to the VI condition, the satisfaction rate regarding the intelligibility increased from 78 to 87% for patient B and from 46 to 63% for patient Z (p = 0.03). There were fewer errors for the accelerated speech for patient Z. The acceleration had no effect on the reaction times in the phoneme identification task (F 2,(1,024) = 2.14, p = 0.12). CONCLUSIONS: In 2 cases of ataxic dysarthria, the perceived intelligibility was improved by a temporal acceleration of the speech disorders.

Coordination between posture and phonation in vocal effort behavior.

BACKGROUND: Postural correlates of vocal effort are rarely described in the literature, while they are extensively dealt with in speech therapy. OBJECTIVES: This study aims at determining whether body movement is a side effect of vocal effort or an integral part of communication effort behavior. The answer to this question is mainly based on correlations between posture and phonation. METHOD: Twenty healthy subjects participated in this study. They had to communicate with a listener under 3 conditions requiring different levels of vocal effort. RESULTS: The vocal parameters increased and confirmed that the subjects had made a vocal effort. The kinematic parameters (amplitude and duration of body movement) increased with vocal effort. Lastly, vocal and kinematic characteristics were significantly correlated. CONCLUSION: The close correlation of posture with vocal production shows that movement is not a mere consequence of vocal effort. Posture and voice are coordinated in communication behavior, and each body segment plays its specific role in the vocal effort behavior.

Eye-movement patterns of readers with down syndrome during sentence-processing: an exploratory study.

Eye movements were examined to determine how readers with Down syndrome process sentences online. Participants were 9 individuals with Down syndrome ranging in reading level from Grades 1 to 3 and a reading-level-matched control group. For syntactically simple sentences, the pattern of reading times was similar for the two groups, with longer reading times found at sentence end. This "wrap-up" effect was also found in the first reading of more complex sentences for the control group, whereas it only emerged later for the readers with Down syndrome. Our results provide evidence that eye movements can be used to investigate reading in individuals with Down syndrome and underline the need for future studies.