Lingual kinematics in a Cantonese speaker with dysarthria

Includes bibliographical references (p. 26-29).Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2009."A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2009."published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

The Phonetics of Speech Production and Medical Research

The production of speech requires the interplay of a number of cognitive and motoric activities, which make it an interesting object of study from both a linguistic and a medical point of view. In this paper, we discuss, first, the features and domain of application of the most used technologies in linguistic research on speech production, focusing on those that have been applied to medicine. Second, we offer an insight into the main results that have been obtained so far in studying dysarthria in Italian Parkinson's Disease, as an example of the interdisciplinary, experimental research at the border between linguistics and medicine

Kinematic and correlational analyses on labial and lingual functions during syllable repetitions in Cantonese dysarthric speakers with Parkinson's disease of varying severity using electromagnetic articulography (EMA)

Articulatory imprecision in Parkinson patients with hypokinetic dysarthria has been attributed to articulatory undershooting. However, contradictory results in terms of acoustics and instrumental investigation has been reported in the literature throughout the years. The present study aimed to investigate labial and lingual kinematics in dysarthric Cantonese speakers with Parkinson’s disease (PD) of different severity (in terms of dysarthria) during rapid syllable repetitions and compared the measures with that of healthy age-matched controls using a 3-dimensional Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA). Dysarthria severity was also correlated with labial and lingual kinematics. Tongue tip, tongue back, upper and lower lips and jaw motion in five PD and six normal participants during repetitions of /pa/, /ta/ and /ka/ were recorded. Participants were also rated perceptually on their dysarthria severity. When compared to the normal group, the PD group showed reduced velocity in lingual movement and reduced distance travelled and velocity in labial movements. Correlational analysis between dysarthria severity and kinematic data revealed positive correlation for duration of lingual movement. Negative correlation was identified for the velocity and rate of lingual movement, and for distance travelled and velocity of labial movement. The present results supported the hypothesis of articulatory undershooting as a contributing factor of articulatory imprecision in hypokinetic dysarthria, while tongue and lip tremor might also cause such consonant imprecision. Possible differential effect of dopamine deficiency on the different cranial nerves has been hypothesized. Keywords:published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Articulation in time : Some word-initial segments in Swedish

Speech is both dynamic and distinctive at the same time. This implies a certain contradiction which has entertained researchers in phonetics and phonology for decades. The present dissertation assumes that articulation behaves as a function of time, and that we can find phonological structures in the dynamical systems. EMA is used to measure mechanical movements in Swedish speakers. The results show that tonal context affects articulatory coordination. Acceleration seems to divide the movements of the jaw and lips into intervals of postures and active movements. These intervals are affected differently by the tonal context. Furthermore, a bilabial consonant is shorter if the next consonant is also made with the lips. A hypothesis of a correlation between acoustic segment duration and acceleration is presented. The dissertation highlights the importance of time for how speech ultimately sounds. Particularly significant is the combination of articulatory timing and articulatory duration

Multi‐speaker experimental designs: Methodological considerations

Research on language use has become increasingly interested in the multimodal and interactional aspects of language – theoretical models of dialogue, such as the Communication Accommodation Theory and the Interactive Alignment Model are examples of this. In addition, researchers have started to give more consideration to the relationship between physiological processes and language use. This article aims to contribute to the advancement in studies of physiological and/or multimodal language use in naturalistic settings. It does so by providing methodological recommendations for such multi-speaker experimental designs. It covers the topics of (a) speaker preparation and logistics, (b) experimental tasks and (c) data synchronisation and post-processing. The types of data that will be considered in further detail include audio and video, electroencephalography, respiratory data and electromagnetic articulography. This overview with recommendations is based on the answers to a questionnaire that was sent amongst the members of the Horizon 2020 research network ‘Conversational Brains’, several researchers in the field and interviews with three additional experts.H2020 Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Actions http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010665Peer Reviewe

Interaction between Phrasal Structure and Vowel Tenseness in German: An Acoustic and Articulatory Study

Phrase-final lengthening affects the segments preceding a prosodic boundary. This prosodic variation is generally assumed to be independent of the phonemic identity. We refer to this as the ‘uniform lengthening hypothesis’ (ULH). However, in German, lax vowels do not undergo lengthening for word stress or shortening for increased speech rate, indicating that temporal properties might interact with phonemic identity. We test the ULH by comparing the effect of the boundary on acoustic and kinematic measures for tense and lax vowels and several coda consonants. We further examine if the boundary effect decreases with distance from the boundary. Ten native speakers of German were recorded by means of electromagnetic articulography (EMA) while reading sentences that contained six minimal pairs varying in vowel tenseness and boundary type. In line with the ULH, the results show that the acoustic durations of lax vowels are lengthened phrase-finally, similarly to tense vowels. We find that acoustic lengthening is stronger the closer the segments are to the boundary. Articulatory parameters of the closing movements toward the post-vocalic consonants are affected by both phrasal position and identity of the preceding vowel. The results are discussed with regard to the interaction between prosodic structure and vowel tenseness.Peer Reviewe

EMG-to-Speech: Direct Generation of Speech from Facial Electromyographic Signals

The general objective of this work is the design, implementation, improvement and evaluation of a system that uses surface electromyographic (EMG) signals and directly synthesizes an audible speech output: EMG-to-speech

Coordination and timing of speech gestures in Parkinson’s disease

Many individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience articulatory difficulties, which often have a considerable impact on their quality of life. It is currently poorly understood which mechanisms underlie these articulatory difficulties. In order to learn more about these mechanisms, this dissertation examined the coordination and timing of speech gestures in PD speech. Both these aspects are intrinsic to articulation, but at current it is unknown how they relate to the articulatory difficulties observed in PD speech. The studies in this dissertation address this issue using state-of-the-art methods. In the first study of this thesis, the effect of levodopa on vowel articulation in PD was examined. The results from this study suggest that articulation of vowels is not influenced by levodopa. In the following two studies, spatial and temporal aspects of speech gestures have been examined. The results from these studies suggest that the timing of speech gestures, and also the coupling between speech gestures is impaired in PD. In the final study of this dissertation, the prevalence and nature of tongue tremor in individuals with PD were investigated. Using a computer algorithm, we found different types of tongue tremor in our data, which we believe may affect the timing of speech gestures. Together, the studies in this dissertation show that coordination and timing are indeed impaired in the speech of (at least some) individuals with PD. We believe that this impairment may be caused by the presence of malfunctioning regulatory mechanisms in PD speech