Acoustic Realization of Contrastive Stress in Individuals with Parkinson\u27s Disease

This study investigated the acoustic correlates of contrastive stress produced by individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) to learn more about their ability to modulate acoustic cues to mark contrastive stress. Speech materials from 10 individuals with PD and 10 gender- and age-matched neurologically healthy controls (HC) were recorded and analyzed. The four acoustic measures (peak intensity, peak F0, vowel duration, and acoustic vowel space area) of stressed and unstressed syllables were compared to determine which acoustic parameters are preferentially employed by each group to mark contrastive stress. The results indicated that individuals with PD exhibited significant changes in vowel duration and intensity of stressed/unstressed words to mark contrastive stress in similar ways to their HC counterparts. Unlike the HC group, individuals with PD did not demonstrate an expanded vowel space area (VSA) or employed changes in F0 to mark contrastive stress. Findings on which abilities are better preserved in the PD population for the purposes of marking contrastive stress add to our knowledge of prosodic deficits in this dysarthric population and can aid in the planning and executing of intervention services

The Dysarthric Expressed Emotional Database (DEED): an audio-visual database in British English

The Dysarthric Expressed Emotional Database (DEED) is a novel, parallel multimodal (audio-visual) database of dysarthric and typical emotional speech in British English which is a first of its kind. It is an induced (elicited) emotional database that includes speech recorded in the six basic emotions: “happiness”, “sadness”, “anger”, “surprise”, “fear”, and “disgust”. A “neutral” state has also been recorded as a baseline condition. The dysarthric speech part includes recordings from 4 speakers: one female speaker with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy and 3 speakers with dysarthria due to Parkinson’s disease (2 female and 1 male). The typical speech part includes recordings from 21 typical speakers (9 female and 12 male). This paper describes the collection of the database, covering its design, development, technical information related to the data capture, and description of the data files and presents the validation methodology. The database was validated subjectively (human performance) and objectively (automatic recognition). The achieved results demonstrated that this database will be a valuable resource for understanding emotion communication by people with dysarthria and useful in the research field of dysarthric emotion classification. The database is freely available for research purposes under a Creative Commons licence at: https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/dee

Models and analysis of vocal emissions for biomedical applications

This book of Proceedings collects the papers presented at the 3rd International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications, MAVEBA 2003, held 10-12 December 2003, Firenze, Italy. The workshop is organised every two years, and aims to stimulate contacts between specialists active in research and industrial developments, in the area of voice analysis for biomedical applications. The scope of the Workshop includes all aspects of voice modelling and analysis, ranging from fundamental research to all kinds of biomedical applications and related established and advanced technologies

Data Representativeness in Accessibility Datasets: A Meta-Analysis

As data-driven systems are increasingly deployed at scale, ethical concerns have arisen around unfair and discriminatory outcomes for historically marginalized groups that are underrepresented in training data. In response, work around AI fairness and inclusion has called for datasets that are representative of various demographic groups. In this paper, we contribute an analysis of the representativeness of age, gender, and race & ethnicity in accessibility datasets - datasets sourced from people with disabilities and older adults - that can potentially play an important role in mitigating bias for inclusive AI-infused applications. We examine the current state of representation within datasets sourced by people with disabilities by reviewing publicly-available information of 190 datasets, we call these accessibility datasets. We find that accessibility datasets represent diverse ages, but have gender and race representation gaps. Additionally, we investigate how the sensitive and complex nature of demographic variables makes classification difficult and inconsistent (e.g., gender, race & ethnicity), with the source of labeling often unknown. By reflecting on the current challenges and opportunities for representation of disabled data contributors, we hope our effort expands the space of possibility for greater inclusion of marginalized communities in AI-infused systems.Comment: Preprint, The 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2022), 15 page

The effectiveness of PROMPT therapy for children with cerebral palsy

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a motor speech treatment approach (PROMPT) in the management of motor-speech impairment in children with cerebral palsy. Two main objectives were addressed: (1) to evaluate changes in speech intelligibility and, (2) evaluate changes in kinematic movements of the jaw and lips using three dimensional (3D) motion analysis.A single subject multiple-baseline-across-participants research design, with four phases: Baseline (A1), two intervention phases (B and C) and maintenance (A2), was implemented.Six participants, aged 3-to-11-years (3 boys, 3 girls) with moderate to severe speech impairment were recruited through The Centre for Cerebral Palsy, Western Australia (TCCP). Inclusion criteria were: diagnosis of cerebral palsy, age 3 – 14 years, stable head control (supported or independent), spontaneous use of at least 15 words, speech impairment ≥1.5 standard deviations, hearing loss no greater than 25dB, developmental quotient ≥70 (Leiter-Brief International Performance Scale R) and no previous exposure to PROMPT. Thirteen typically-developing peers were recruited to compare the trend of kinematic changes in jaw and lip movements to those of the children with cerebral palsy.Upon achievement of a stable baseline, participants completed two intervention phases both of 10 weeks duration. Therapist fidelity to the PROMPT approach was determined by a blinded, independent PROMPT Instructor.Perceptual outcome measures included the administration of weekly speech probes, containing trained and untrained vocabulary at the two targeted levels of intervention plus an additional level. These were analysed for both perceptual accuracy (PA) and the motor speech movement parameter. End of phase measures included: 1. Changes in phonetic accuracy as measured using a measure of percentage phonemes correct; 2. Speech intelligibility measures, using a standardised assessment tool; and 3. Changes to activity/participation using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM).Kinematic data were collected at the end of each study phase using 3D motion analysis (Vicon Motus 9.1). This involved the collection of jaw and lip measurements of distance, duration and velocity, during the production of 11 untrained stimulus words. The words contained vowels that spanned the articulatory space and represented motor-speech movement patterns at the level of mandibular and labial-facial control, as classified according to the PROMPT motor speech hierarchy.Analysis of the speech probe data showed all participants recorded a statistically significant improvement. Between phases A1-B and B-C 6/6 and 4/6 participants respectively, recorded a statistically significant increase in performance level on the motor speech movement patterns (MSMPs) targeted during the training of that intervention priority (IP). The data further show that five participants (one participant was lost to follow-up) achieved a statistically significant increase at 12- weeks post-intervention as compared to baseline (phase A1).Four participants achieved a statistically significant increase in performance level in the PA of the speech probes of both IP1 and IP2 between phases A1-B. Whilst only one participant recorded a statistically significant increase in PA between phases BC, five participants achieved a statistically significant increase in IP2 between phases A1-C. The data further show all participants achieved a statistically significant increase in PA on both intervention priorities at 12-weeks post-intervention. All participants recorded data that indicated improved perceptual accuracy across the study phases. This was indicated by a statistically significant increase in the percentage phonemes correct scores F(3,18) = 5.55, p<.05.All participants achieved improved speech intelligibility. Five participants recorded an increase in speech intelligibility greater than 14% at the end of the first intervention (phase B). Continued improvement was observed for 5 participants at the end of the second intervention (phase C)