Lingual Kinematics in Dysarthric and Nondysarthric Speakers with Parkinson's Disease

Articulatory dysfunction is recognised as a major contributor to the speech disturbances seen in Parkinson's disease (PD). The present study aimed to compare lingual kinematics during consonant production within a sentence in eight dysarthric (DPD) and seven nondysarthric (NDPD) speakers with PD with those of eleven nonneurologically impaired normal participants. The tongue tip and tongue back movements of the participants during sentence production were recorded using electromagnetic articulography (EMA). Results showed that both the DPD and NDPD had deviant articulatory movement during consonant production that resulted in longer duration of consonant production. When compared with the NDPD group, the DPD group primarily exhibited increased range of lingual movement and compatible duration of production with an accompanying increase in maximum velocity, maximum acceleration, and maximum deceleration. These findings are contrary to proposed theories that suggest articulatory imprecision in dysarthric speakers with PD is the outcome of reduced range of articulatory movement

Simulation-based Learning Experiences in Stuttering Management Delivered Online: What Do Students, Clinical Educators and Simulated Patients Think?

Speech pathology students are required to demonstrate competency across a range of practice areas. There are, however, limited opportunities for students to access clinical placements in the area of stuttering. Simulation-based learning (SBL) activities have proven to be effective in increasing students’ clinical experience in this area. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the delivery of in-person SBL programs was not feasible, resulting in a shift to online provision. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of students, clinical educators and simulated patients who participated in an online adult stuttering SBL experience. Ten first-year graduate entry Masters program speech pathology students participated in the study alongside four clinical educators and four simulated patients. The experience involved two online SBL sessions and one online tutorial via videoconferencing from separate locations. Each participant group engaged in focus group interviews exploring their perceptions of the online SBL activity. Thematic network analysis of the focus group interview data was conducted. Overall interpretation of the data from the perspectives of students, clinical educators and simulated patients revealed an overarching global theme that online SBL offers a positive, comfortable and comparable experience to enable students to build client-centred, clinical and telepractice skills. The positive outcomes of this study suggest that together with in-person clinical experiences, online SBL has an important role in the education of speech pathology students.

Unravelling subcortical linguistic substrates: Comparison of thalamic versus cerebellar cognitive-linguistic regulation mechanisms

The basal ganglia and cerebellum traditionally constitute motor-dedicated neural systems that facilitate movement via basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical and cerebellar ponto-thalamo-cortical pathways. Lesions of the basal ganglia typically result in poverty of movement (e.g., akinesia) or excessive movement (e.g., hyperkinesia), and lesions of the cerebellum result in incoordination of movement (e.g., ataxia). However, recent research has revealed that in addition to the primary motor cortex, the basal ganglia and cerebellum also demonstrate projection zones to the premotor cortex, frontal eye field , and prefrontal, inferotemporal, and posterior parietal cortices, suggesting a supplementary role for these structures (i.e., basal ganglia and cerebellum) in the regulation of cognitive processes. Subcortical cognitive deficits paralleling motor impairments such as difficulty in shifting attentional set and difficulty in coordinating mental activity have been described in the neuropsychological literature. However, correlates relative to "hypolinguistic" or dysmetric language processes are yet to be adequately defined. Aims: The aim of the current research, therefore, was to compare and contrast the language profiles of individuals with thalamic versus cerebellar lesions. Methods & Procedures: Two cases with surgically induced lesions of the left ventral intermediate thalamus, and two cases with spontaneous vascular infarcts in the left cerebellar hemisphere, served as experimental subjects in this research. General and high-level language profiles were compiled for each subject and performance compared to a roup of 16 non-neurologically impaired controls (NC). The criterion for anomalous performance was established as >= 2 SD below the NC group mean. Outcomes & Results : Evident deficits were largely restricted to complex language functions, irrespective of lesion type. Of note, however, was that thalamic lesions were associated with a higher overall proportion of significantly reduced test scores, as well as greater magnitudes of decline from normal when compared to cerebellar lesions. Conclusions: These results lend support to working theories of subcortical participation in language that promote a superordinate role for the thalamus in the regulation of higher-level lexical-semantic processes. Further more , the present findings also highlight the need to consider a novel role for the left cerebellar hemisphere in coordinating cognitive-linguistic systems

Tongue function in nondysarthric speakers with Parkinson's disease: An electromagnetic articulography investigation

Articulatory imprecision in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been attributed to reduced range of movement, rigidity, and abnormal speed of movement of the articulatory structures. Previous studies provided acoustic and kinematic evidence of lip muscle rigidity, reduced amplitude, and velocity of lip and jaw movement, mainly based on nonspeech measures. Very limited studies have documented the effects of PD on lingual kinematics during speech production. The present study aimed to investigate lingual kinematics during sentence production in a group of 7 nondysarthric speakers with PD using the electromagnetic articulograph (AG-200 EMA). Tongue-tip and tongue-back movements were recorded by the EMA system during sentence production. Seven non-neurologically impaired participants matched for age and sex served as a control group. Results revealed no significant difference on the distance of tongue movement. However, the PD group did show significantly reduced maximum velocity, maximum acceleration, maximum deceleration, and significantly longer duration of tongue movement. Rates of sentence production were also slower for the PD group. The subclinical differences in tongue kinematics of the nondysarthric speakers with PD documented in this study support that limitations in the range of tongue movement leading to articulatory undershoot may be a major contributor to articulatory impairment in dysarthric speakers with PD. Copyright © 2010 Delmar Cengage Learning

Kinematic analysis of lingual function in dysarthric speakers with Parkinson's disease: An electromagnetic articulograph study

Dysarthria in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) has been widely studied. However, a limited number of studies have investigated lingual function during speech production in this population. This study aimed to investigate lingual kinematics during speech production using electromagnetic articulography (AG-200 EMA). The PD group consisted of eight dysarthric speakers with PD and was matched with a group of eight controls. The tongue tip and tongue back movements of all participants during sentence production were recorded by EMA. Results showed that, perceptually, the participants with PD were mildly dysarthric. Kinematic results documented comparable (for alveolar sentence production) and increased (for velar sentence production) range of lingual movement in the PD group when compared to the control group. Lingual movement velocity, acceleration, and deceleration were also increased in the PD group, predominantly for the release phase of consonant production during sentence utterances. The PD group had longer duration in the production of alveolar consonant and comparable duration in the production of velar consonant. The results of the present study suggest the presence of impaired lingual control in individuals with PD. Increased range of articulatory movement, primarily in the release phase of consonant production, may account for articulatory imprecision in this population. © 2010 The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited