Parkinson’s Disease Progression Assessment From Speech

ABSTRACT: In recent years the interest in the analysis of speech of Parkinson's disease patients have been increasing. Different approaches have been proposed in order to detect several voice problems in Parkinson's patients. However, a relative low number of the contributions are focused on tracking the state of the disease over the time. In this thesis is proposed a new methodology to assess the progression of the disease per speaker. The speech of the patients is modeled individually considering speech recordings captured in different sessions. Voice impairments are analyzed considering a particular model that reflects articulatory problems of the patients. The proposed approach shows that is possible to track the disease progression from speech with a relative high correlation value

Adult cochlear implant users versus typical hearing persons: an automatic analysis of acoustic–prosodic pparameters

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the speech prosody of postlingually deaf cochlear implant (CI) users compared with control speakers without hearing or speech impairment. Method: Speech recordings of 74 CI users (37 males and 37 females) and 72 age-balanced control speakers (36 males and 36 females) are considered. All participants are German native speakers and read Der Nordwind und die Sonne (The North Wind and the Sun), a standard text in pathological speech analysis and phonetic transcriptions. Automatic acoustic analysis is performed considering pitch, loudness, and duration features, including speech rate and rhythm. Results: In general, duration and rhythm features differ between CI users and control speakers. CI users read slower and have a lower voiced segment ratio compared with control speakers. A lower voiced ratio goes along with a prolongation of the voiced segments' duration in male and with a prolongation of pauses in female CI users. Rhythm features in CI users have higher variability in the duration of vowels and consonants than in control speakers. The use of bilateral CIs showed no advantages concerning speech prosody features in comparison to unilateral use of CI. Conclusions: Even after cochlear implantation and rehabilitation, the speech of postlingually deaf adults deviates from the speech of control speakers, which might be due to changed auditory feedback. We suggest considering changes in temporal aspects of speech in future rehabilitation strategies

Psychometric evidence of a brief measure of resilience in non-institutionalized Peruvian older adults

Resilience is understood as the domain of personal resources and contextual factors that allow for a successful coping and enhance positive adaptation to the different stressors during the lifespan, thereby being important for a healthy and successful aging. Nowadays, several brief instruments have been developed to measure resilience, such as the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), an instrument that measures the ability of people to confront stress in an adaptive way. In this vein, the study provides evidence of the validity and reliability of the BRCS in non-institutionalized older adults in Peru. Two hundred thirty-six elderly people of both genders, 78.4% women and 21.6% men, with a mean age of 72.8 years (SD= 6.90), who answered the Spanish version of the BRCS and other scales to measure satisfaction with life, humor as coping, and depression. Confirmatory factor analysis corroborates the one-dimensional structure of the BRCS. The coefficients of internal consistency, Chronbach's alpha and omega, indicated an adequate reliability of the BRCS. Both the adjustment indices of the model and the values of the coefficients of reliability were higher compared to those reported in the literature. The BRCS showed positive and significant correlations with satisfaction with life and humor as coping (p < .01). Likewise, negative and significant correlations were observed with depression (p < .01). The results show that the BRCS has proved valid and reliable, supporting its use as a short measure of resilience in older Peruvians.La resiliencia es comprendida como el dominio de recursos personales y factores contextuales que permiten un afrontamiento exitoso y el logro de una adaptación positiva ante los diferentes estresores que aparecen a lo largo de la vida, siendo así importante dentro del proceso de envejecimiento saludable y exitoso. En la actualidad se han desarrollado instrumentos breves para la medición de la resiliencia como la escala breve de resiliencia (BRCS - Brief Resilient Coping Scale) que evalúa la capacidad de los individuos para hacer frente al estrés de manera adaptativa. En este sentido, el estudio ofrece evidencia de validez y fiabilidad de la BRCS en adultos mayores no institucionalizados peruanos. Se contó con la participación de 236 adultos mayores con una edad promedio de 72.8 años (DT = 6.90) de los cuales el 78.4% eran mujeres y el 21.6% hombres, quienes respondieron la versión en español del BRCS y otras escalas para medir la satisfacción con la vida, humor como afrontamiento y depresión. Mediante el análisis factorial confirmatorio se corrobora la estructura unidimensional de la BRCS. Los coeficientes de consistencia interna alfa de Cronbach y omega indicaron una adecuada fiabilidad de la BRCS. Tanto los índices de ajuste del modelo como los valores de los coeficientes de fiabilidad fueron mejores en comparación con los reportados en la literatura. La BRCS mostró una correlación positiva significativa con la satisfacción con la vida y el humor como afrontamiento (p < .01). Asimismo, se observó una correlación negativa significativa con depresión (p < .01). Los resultados muestran que la BRCS cuenta con evidencias de validez y fiabilidad que avala su empleo como medida breve de la resiliencia en adultos mayores peruanos

Psychometric evidence of a brief version of the Coping Humor Scale in elderly peruvians]

Introducción: El humor tiene un papel importante en la promoción de un envejecimiento exitoso y saluda-ble. Sin embargo, su estudio científico es aún limitado, en parte debido a la ausencia de medidas validadaspara su uso en el ámbito latinoamericano. El objetivo del estudio fue traducir al espa˜nol y examinar lasevidencias de fiabilidad y validez basadas en la estructura interna, convergente y discriminante de laversión peruana de la Coping with Humor Scale-5 ítems.Materiales y métodos: Los participantes fueron 236 adultos mayores peruanos (78,4% mujeres y 21,6%hombres) con un promedio de edad de 72,8 años (DE = 6,90).Revisión por pare

INNOVA Research Journal

La clase de matemáticas está en un proceso de evolución, las clases tradicionales centradas en el profesor van perdiendo vigencia en la educación ecuatoriana, dando paso a clases que priorizan al estudiante y sus aprendizajes. Tradicionalmente el docente de matemáticas ha tenido formación profesional en áreas técnicas y poca capacitación en aspectos pedagógicos que le den habilidades para llevar adelante una clase fundada en paradigmas constructivistas del aprendizaje, centrados en el estudiante y la calidad de sus aprendizajes. Una clase constructivista de matemáticas implica tener un estudiante con una visión diferente a su formación tradicional, debe estar motivado por alcanzar aprendizajes significativos, para esto debe ser capaz de investigar, analizar, reflexionar, plantear soluciones creativas, resolver situaciones del contexto, formado en valores y que aporta al crecimiento de la sociedad

Cepstral Analysis and Hilbert-Huang Transform for Automatic Detection of Parkinson's Disease

Most patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) develop speech deficits, including reduced sonority, altered articulation, and abnormal prosody. This article presents a methodology to automatically classify patients with PD and Healthy Control (HC) subjects. In this study, the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) and Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) were considered to model modulated phonations (changing the tone from low to high and vice versa) of the vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/. The HHT was used to extract the first two formants from audio signals with the aim of modeling the stability of the tongue while the speakers were producing modulated vowels. Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests were used to eliminate redundant and non-relevant features in order to improve classification accuracy. PD patients and HC subjects were automatically classified using a Radial Basis Support Vector Machine (RBF-SVM). The results show that the proposed approach allows an automatic discrimination between PD and HC subjects with accuracies of up to 75 % for women and 73 % for men

Evidencias Psicométricas de una Medida Breve de Resiliencia en Adultos Mayores Peruanos no Institucionalizados

La resiliencia es comprendida como el dominio de recursos personales y factores contextuales que permiten un afrontamiento exitoso y el logro de una adaptación positiva ante los diferentes estresores que aparecen a lo largo de la vida, siendo así importante dentro del proceso de envejecimiento saludable y exitoso. En la actualidad se han desarrollado instrumentos breves para la medición de la resiliencia como la escala breve de resiliencia (BRCS - Brief Resilient Coping Scale) que evalúa la capacidad de los individuos para hacer frente al estrés de manera adaptativa. En este sentido, el estudio ofrece evidencia de validez y fiabilidad de la BRCS en adultos mayores no institucionalizados peruanos. Se contó con la participación de 236 adultos mayores con una edad promedio de 72.8 años (DT = 6.90) de los cuales el 78.4% eran mujeres y el 21.6% hombres, quienes respondieron la versión en español del BRCS y otras escalas para medir la satisfacción con la vida, humor como afrontamiento y depresión. Mediante el análisis factorial confirmatorio se corrobora la estructura unidimensional de la BRCS. Los coeficientes de consistencia interna alfa de Cronbach y omega indicaron una adecuada fiabilidad de la BRCS. Tanto los índices de ajuste del modelo como los valores de los coeficientes de fiabilidad fueron mejores en comparación con los reportados en la literatura. La BRCS mostró una correlación positiva significativa con la satisfacción con la vida y el humor como afrontamiento (p < .01). Asimismo, se observó una correlación negativa significativa con depresión (p < .01). Los resultados muestran que la BRCS cuenta con evidencias de validez y fiabilidad que avala su empleo como medida breve de la resiliencia en adultos mayores peruanos

The phonetic footprint of Parkinson's disease

As one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders, Parkinson's disease (PD) has a significant impact on the fine motor skills of patients. The complex interplay of different articulators during speech production and realization of required muscle tension become increasingly difficult, thus leading to a dysarthric speech. Characteristic patterns such as vowel instability, slurred pronunciation and slow speech can often be observed in the affected individuals and were analyzed in previous studies to determine the presence and progression of PD. In this work, we used a phonetic recognizer trained exclusively on healthy speech data to investigate how PD affected the phonetic footprint of patients. We rediscovered numerous patterns that had been described in previous contributions although our system had never seen any pathological speech previously. Furthermore, we could show that intermediate activations from the neural network could serve as feature vectors encoding information related to the disease state of individuals. We were also able to directly correlate the expert-rated intelligibility of a speaker with the mean confidence of phonetic predictions. Our results support the assumption that pathological data is not necessarily required to train systems that are capable of analyzing PD speech.Comment: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S088523082100116

Cognitive determinants of dysarthria in Parkinsons disease. An automated machine learning approach

Background: Dysarthric symptoms in Parkinson's disease vary greatly across cohorts. Abundant research suggests that such heterogeneity could reflect subject-level and task-related cognitive factors. However, the interplay of these variables during motor speech remains underexplored, let alone by administering validated materials to carefully matched samples with varying cognitive profiles and combining automated tools with machine learning methods. Objectives: We aimed to identify which speech dimensions best identify Parkinson's disease patients in cognitively heterogeneous, cognitively preserved, and cognitively impaired groups through tasks with low (reading) and high (retelling) processing demands. Methods: We used support vector machines to analyze prosodic, articulatory, and phonemic identifiability features. Patient groups were compared with healthy controls and against each other in both tasks, using each measure separately and in combination. Results: Relative to controls, patients in cognitively heterogeneous and cognitively preserved groups were best discriminated by combined dysarthric signs during reading (accuracy = 84% and 80.2%). Conversely, cognitively impaired patients were maximally discriminated from controls when considering phonemic identifiability during retelling (accuracy = 86.9%). This same pattern maximally distinguished between cognitively spared and impaired patients (accuracy = 72.1%). Also, cognitive (executive) symptom severity was predicted by prosody in cognitively preserved patients and by phonemic identifiability in cognitively heterogeneous and impaired groups. No measure predicted overall motor dysfunction in any group. Conclusions: Predominant dysarthric symptoms seem best captured through undemanding tasks in cognitively heterogeneous and preserved cohorts and through cognitively loaded tasks in cognitively impaired patients. Further applications of this framework could enhance dysarthria assessments in Parkinson's disease.Fil: García, Adolfo Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Educación Elemental y Especial; Argentina. Universidad de San Andrés; Argentina. Universidad de Santiago de Chile; Chile. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Arias Vergara, Tomás. Universidad de Antioquia; Colombia. Universitat Erlangen Nuremberg; Alemania. Ludwig Maximilians Universitat; AlemaniaFil: Vásquez Correa, Juan Camilo. Universidad de Antioquia; Colombia. Universitat Erlangen Nuremberg; AlemaniaFil: Nöth, Elmar. Universitat Erlangen Nuremberg; AlemaniaFil: Schuster, Maria. Ludwig Maximilians Universitat; AlemaniaFil: Welch, Ariane. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Bocanegra, Yamile. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Baena, Ana. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Orozco Arroyave, Juan Rafael. Universidad de Antioquia; Colombia. Universitat Erlangen Nuremberg; Alemani

Psychometric Evidence of the Diener’s Satisfaction with Life Scale in Peruvian Elderly

Introduction: In recent years, satisfaction with life has aroused the interest of gerontological research, thus being one of the most used concepts to measure subjective well-being, in addition to being an indicator of successful ageing. Materials and methods: The psychometric properties of the Diener’s Satisfaction with Life Scale were assessed in Peruvian elderly individuals. The instrument was applied to 236 elderly from the city of Trujillo (78.4 % female and 21.6 % male), with an average age of 72.8 years old, and their de = 6.90 (Standard Differentiation, by its initials in Spanish). In order to obtain convergent and discriminant validity, the tests Single Item of Satisfaction with Life Scale, Brief Resilient Coping Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale were conducted. Results: The Satisfaction with Life Scale shows a one-dimensional structure (χ2 = 10.960, DF = 5, p = .05, χ2/DF = 2.192, GFI = .983, CFI = .994, NFI = .988; RMSEA = .071 [CI 90 % .000, .129]; and SMRM = .013), presenting positive correlations with resilience and negative correlations with depression. Moreover, it presents a high reliability index estimated by the method of internal consistency with the Cronbach’s Alpha Test (α = .93), Omega coefficient (ω = .93; ci 95%: .92 -.95) and GIB = .94. Conclusion: For purposes of research —among other—, we recommend the use of the Diener’s Satisfaction with Life Scale for Peruvian elderly persons.Introdução: nos últimos anos, a satisfação com a vida tem despertado o interesse da investigação gerontológica, sendo um dos conceitos mais utilizados para medir o bem-estar subjetivo, para além de construir um indicador do envelhecimento bem-sucedido. Materiais e métodos: avaliaram-se as propriedades psicométricas da Escala de Satisfação com a Vida em idosos peruanos. Participaram 236 pessoas (78.40% mulheres; 21.60% homens). A idade média foi de 72.8 anos e de = 6.90. para obter evidência de validez convergente e discriminante, se aplicaram a prova de Item Único de Satisfação com a Vida, o Brief Resilient Coping Scale e a Escala de Depressão Geriátrica. Resultados: encontra-se que a Escala de Satisfação com a Vida mostra uma estrutura unidimensional (χ2 = 10.960, DF = 5, p = .05, χ2/df = 2.192, GFI = .983, CFI = .994, NFI = .988; RMSEA = .071 [ic90 2 % .000, .129]; e SRMR = .013), se relaciona positivamente com a resiliência e negativamente com a depressão. Para além disso, apresenta altos índices de consistência interna (alfa = .93; IC 95%:.90-.94; omega=.93; IC 95 %: .92-.95 e GLB = .94). Conclusão: pelo menos para propósitos de pesquisa, recomenda-se o uso da Escala de Satisfação com a Vida em idosos peruanos.Introducción: En los últimos años, la satisfacción con la vida ha despertado el interés de la investigación gerontológica, siendo uno de los conceptos más utilizados para medir el bienestar subjetivo, además de constituir un indicador del envejecimiento exitoso. Materiales y métodos: se evaluaron las propiedades psicométricas de la Escala de Satisfacción con la Vida en adultos mayores peruanos. Participaron 236 personas (78.40% mujeres; 21.60% hombres). La edad promedio fue de 72.8 años y su de = 6.90. Para obtener evidencia de validez convergente y discriminante se aplicaron la prueba de Ítem Único de Satisfacción con la Vida, la Brief Resilient Coping Scale y la Escala de Depresión Geriátrica. Resultados: se encuentra que la Escala de Satisfacción con la Vida muestra una estructura unidimensional (χ2 = 10.960, DF = 5, p = .05, χ2/DF = 2.192, GFI = .983, CFI = .994, NFI = .988; RMSEA = .071 [IC 90% .000, .129]; y SRMR = .013), se relaciona positivamente con la resiliencia y negativamente con la depresión. Además, presenta altos índices de consistencia interna (alfa = .93; IC 95 %: .90-.94; omega = .93; IC 95 %: .92-.95 y GLB =.94). Conclusión: cuando menos, para propósitos de investigación se recomienda el uso de la Escala de Satisfacción con la Vida en adultos mayores peruanos