Autonomic Nervous System Activity During a Speech Task

Previous research has reported that different coping types (active or passive) are required depending on the stress-inducing task. The aim of this study was to examine the autonomic nervous response during speech tasks that require active coping, by using Lorenz plot analysis. Thirty-one university students participated in this study (M = 21.03 years, SD = 2.27). This study included 3 phases: (1) resting phase, (2) silent reading phase, and (3) reading aloud phase. Autonomic nervous system responses were recorded in each phase. We asked participants to evaluate their subjective states (arousal, valence, and mood) after the silent reading phase and the reading aloud phase. We observed that the cardiac sympathetic index (CSI) for the sympathetic nervous response was significantly higher during the reading aloud phase than during the silent reading phase. In contrast, the cardiac vagal index (CVI) for the parasympathetic nervous response was significantly higher during the reading aloud phase than during the resting phase. There were no significant differences between the resting phase and the silent reading phase in both cardiac sympathetic and CVIs. We also observed that the degree of arousal was significantly higher after the reading aloud phase than after the silent reading phase. Our findings indicate that the psychological load during silent reading is ineffective for activating the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous response was activated in the reading aloud phase. Also, the parasympathetic nervous response in the reading aloud phase was activated compared with the resting phase. Reading aloud is necessary to adequately activate the parasympathetic nervous system by requiring participants to respire (i.e., expiration) more than during resting and silent reading tasks. The increase in the CVI likely stems from activating the parasympathetic nervous system during expiration. Although the speech task required participants to perform active coping, it was designed to activate both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems during expiration

A Validation Study of the Japanese Version of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised

The aim of this study was to validate the Japanese version of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) [Mori: Japanese Edition of Hodges JR's Cognitive Assessment for Clinicians, 2010] designed to detect dementia, and to compare its diagnostic accuracy with that of the Mini-Mental State Examination. The ACE-R was administered to 85 healthy individuals and 126 patients with dementia. The reliability assessment revealed a strong correlation in both groups. The internal consistency was excellent (α-coefficient = 0.88). Correlation with the Clinical Dementia Rating sum of boxes score was significant (rs = −0.61, p < 0.001). The area under the curve was 0.98 for the ACE-R and 0.96 for the Mini-Mental State Examination. The cut-off score of 80 showed a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 94%. Like the original ACE-R and the versions designed for other languages, the Japanese version of the ACE-R is a reliable and valid test for the detection of dementia

Reliability and Validity of Speech Evaluation in Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia

Objectives. In order to establish a reliable diagnostic tool for adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD), it is necessary to determine the proper terms representing its characteristic voice symptoms and to relate them to objective measures such as acoustic parameters or speech perturbation. The aim of this study was to evaluate speech in patients with ADSD by perceptual evaluations and acoustic measures, and to examine the reliability and validity of the measures by comparison with normal controls. Methods. Twenty-four patients with ADSD and 24 healthy volunteers matched to the ADSD patients with regard to age and sex participated in the study. Speech materials, consisting of three short sentences, were constructed from serial voiced syllables to elicit abductor voice breaks. Three otolaryngologists specializing in phoniatrics rated the degree of voice symptoms using a visual analog scale (VAS). VAS sheets with five 100-mm horizontal lines were given to each rater. The ends of the lines were labeled normal versus severe, and the five lines were labeled as overall severity and each of the four voice symptoms; strangulation, interruption, tremor and strained speech. Nine words were selected from the speech materials for acoustic analysis, and abnormal acoustic events were classified into one of the three categories; percentage of frequency shifts, percentage of aperiodic segments, or percentage of phonation breaks. Acoustic measures were performed by a speech-language-hearing therapist specializing in voice disorders and five healthy university students. To evaluate the intra- and inter-rater/measurer reliability of the VAS scores or acoustic measures, Pearson r correlations were calculated. To examine the validity of perceptual evaluations and acoustic measures, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated. Results. Pearson r correlation coefficients for overall severity showed the highest intra- and inter-rater reliability, and reliability coefficients for one of the four voice symptoms, strangulation (r = 0.816-0.937), were slightly higher than those for the other symptoms. For acoustic events, intra-measurer reliabilities were r = 0.645 (frequency shifts), r = 0.969 (aperiodic segments), and r = 1.0 (phonation breaks), and inter-measurer reliability ranged from r = 0.102 to r = 1.0 (average r = 0.861). The Pearson r correlation coefficient for phonation breaks was higher than those for the other acoustic events. Perceptual evaluation using VAS showed high sensitivity (91.7 %) and specificity (100 %), and acoustic analysis showed low sensitivity (70.8 %) and high specificity (100 %). Eight of the 24 patients were judged to be within normal limits by one or both evaluation methods. Conclusions. Both perceptual evaluation and acoustic measures alone were found to be likely to miss true ADSD patients. It is important to obtain a range of speech materials and to use a combination of perceptual evaluation and acoustic measures based on our understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of both methods