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PubMed1989

A preliminary comparison of flat affect schizophrenics and brain-damaged patients on measures of affective processing.

Flat affect is a major component of schizophrenia and is often also seen in neurological disorders. A preliminary set of comparisons were conducted to delineate neuropsychological mechanisms underlying flat affect in schizophrenia, and new measures are described for the assessment of affective deficits in clinical populations. Subjects were schizophrenic with flat affect (SZs), right brain-damaged (RBD), Parkinson's Disease (PDs), and normal control (NC) right-handed adults. Subjects were administered affective measures of expression and perception in both facial and vocal channels. For both perceptual and expressive tasks the SZs performed significantly less accurately than the NCs and the PDs but did not differ from the RBDs. This was the case for both face and voice. This finding lends support to the speculation that right hemisphere mechanisms, especially cortical ones, may be compromised among schizophrenics with flat affect.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

A fundamental frequency investigation of children ages 6-10 years old.

The fundamental frequency characteristics of 30 children between the ages of 6 and 10 years were investigated in a variety of speech tasks. The results indicated that average fundamental frequency across tasks for the boys is approximately 262 Hz, and for girls approximately 281 Hz. Statistical analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in the fundamental frequency of boys and girls in this age range. High vowels were found to have higher fundamental frequency values than low vowels. Sustained vowels had higher fundamental frequency values than either spontaneous speech or reading for both groups of speakers. The results of this investigation are discussed in terms of maturational processes, and in comparison to corresponding adult information.

Child↗
PubMed1989

Harsh voice: vocal effort perceptual ratings and spectral noise levels of hearing-impaired children.

This study investigated the relationship between spectral noise levels and ratings of perceived vocal effort in the voices of severely to profoundly hearing-impaired children as compared to normal-hearing children, aged 6-11. Spectral noise levels served as an index of the inharmonic (noise) components present from 100 to 2500 Hz for sustained vowels. A nine-point perceptual rating scale was devised as the subjective measure of vocal effort. The severely to profoundly hearing-impaired children could be differentiated on the basis of significantly higher ratings for perceived vocal effort in addition to higher physical measurements of spectral noise levels. Tentative therapeutic implications are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1990

Dysarthria of motor neuron disease: clinician judgments of severity.

Motor Neuron Disease (MND) is a terminal, demyelinating disease affecting upper- and lower-motor neurons and producing muscular weakness resulting in a characteristic spastic-flaccid dysarthria of speech. The present study investigates the relationship between the temporal-acoustic parameters of the speech of 15 individuals with MND as they relate to the progression of the disease and clinicians' judgments of dysarthria severity. When temporal-acoustic parameters are used to predict the progression of MND, it becomes apparent that victims provide compensatory gestures to mark voicing distinctions. When the same acoustic parameters are used to predict clinician judgments of severity, it is found that clinicians tend to use the same temporal cues that mark actual disease progression. Differences between the two sets of predictions relate to the linguistic systems of both speaker and judge, and the implications of this are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Systematic sound preference in phonological disorders: a case study.

Systematic sound preference, where a group of sounds with the same manner of articulation is represented by one or two sounds in the production, is one of the characteristics of children with phonological disorders. This article examines the hypotheses advanced by Weiner (1981) for the phenomenon in the light of the data from a 7-year old Portuguese speaking child. The findings support some of the hypotheses, while providing counter evidence for one of them. They also point to the importance of word position and stress patterns in the systematicity of systematic sound preference.

Articulation Disorders↗
PubMed1991

Toward implementation of a flexible hearing aid measurement system.

An evaluation of a computerized hearing aid measurement system was performed with input and output compression hearing aids stimulated using high-quality audio equipment. The results of the computer measurements were compared to those from a manual technique using conventional laboratory instrumentation. The results from the computerized and manual methods matched very closely. However, the computer system was found to be considerably more flexible than conventional instrumentation and was much easier to use.

Equipment Design↗
PubMed1991

Phonatory and phonetic characteristics of prelinguistic vocal development in cri du chat syndrome.

A longitudinal case study of a child with cri du chat syndrome was undertaken to provide descriptive data on early phonatory and phonetic development in comfort state vocalizations. Vocal samples collected when the child was between 8 and 26 months of age were analyzed using perceptual and acoustic methods. Results indicated that the high vocal fundamental frequently documented in cries of infants with cri du chat syndrome was also a characteristic of comfort state vocalizations of this child. An analysis of intonation patterns indicated there was a predominance of falling intonation contours and limited interutterance variation of fundamental frequency. Phonetic development was quite delayed, with major acquisitions in babbling showing marked delay relative to chronological age. Acquisition of the first spoken word had not occurred by the age of twenty-six months. Results suggest that significant cognitive and/or motor delays may have an influence on the integrity of early vocal development, which calls into question the notion that babbling development proceeds relatively independently of other developmental domains.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1991

The use of an autochromatic tuner for the measurement of vocal fundamental frequency.

Comparative measures of vocal fundamental frequency were made with three different instruments, the Visi-Pitch. FLORIDA 1, and a Korg Autochromatic Tuner. The purpose of these measures was to determine whether an autochromatic tuner, a relatively inexpensive device designed to assist musicians in fast-tuning their instruments, would provide a valid and reliable measure of vocal fundamental frequency. Subjects for this study included 15 males and 15 females. They were recorded while sustaining vowels, reading a phonetically balanced passage, and singing to their lowest and highest pitch levels. Spearman's Rho correlations indicated that measures taken with the autochromatic tuner significantly correlated with measures taken with the other instruments. Results indicate that the use of an autochromatic tuner to measure vocal fundamental frequency is an effective and inexpensive alternative to other methods for clinical purposes.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Production of linguistic prosody by normal and speech-disordered children.

Features associated with the production of linguistic prosody were investigated in seven speech-disordered children and seven children with age-appropriate speech abilities. All subjects were required to imitate 40 stimuli containing either a rising or falling terminal contour. Half of the stimuli were meaningful sentences whereas the other half were nonmeaningful repetitions of a single syllable. Both types of stimuli were produced with the same suprasegmental features. Acoustic analyses were used to measure a variety of prosodic features associated with the intonation (Fo) and timing characteristics of the imitated stimuli. The primary differences between the two groups of children focused on timing characteristics of the imitated responses. Differences in Fo characteristics also were identified, but in some instances interacted with timing deviations. Results are discussed in reference to potential physiologic and/or linguistic processes that might contribute to dysprosody in speech-disordered children.

Child↗
PubMed1994

Intonation and speech rate in dysarthric speech.

Ten dysarthric speakers of various etiologies, type, and severity were compared to age-matched and gender-matched nondysarthric speakers on 40 short sentences. These sentences were presented in both declarative and interrogative versions. Measures of (1) mean intonation difference (average difference in fundamental frequency between the last syllables of interrogative and declarative sentences) and (2) speech rate were obtained using the IBM Speech Viewer system. Analyses of variance were performed on the resulting measures with subject group, sentence type, and sentence sets as independent variables. Results indicate that (1) intonation values are significantly reduced in the dysarthric group as compared to those for the nondysarthric group; (2) rate varies as a function of subject group, sentence type, and sentence set. Moreover, intonation varies with severity of dysarthria, but not speech rate. These findings concur with the notion that dysarthria is a deficit in performance rather than in competence. The results are also discussed in reference to "breath-group" theory for intonation (Lieberman, 1967).

Brain Damage, Chronic↗
PubMed1994

Age-related differences in speech variability among women.

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in variability of several measures of the speech produced by two groups of women, one aged 20-35 years and one aged 75 years and over. The subjects read the first paragraph of the "Rainbow Passage," sustained vowels at three loudness levels, and repeated a carrier phrase in which a series of 18 syllables were embedded. Data were gathered on intraoral pressure (PIO), vocal intensity, speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), voice onset time (VOT), and phoneme duration. The F-max test and ANOVA statistics revealed that the older women exhibited greater within-subject variability than the younger women for PIO, SFF, VOT, and consonant duration. These factors required more precise temporal, respiratory, phonatory, or articulatory adjustments than did the vocal intensity tasks or vowel duration. The variability differences found in this study may reflect individual patterns of acoustic and physiologic change in the speech produced by older women.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Infants' perception of timbre: classification of complex tones by spectral structure.

Infants 7 to 8.5 months of age were tested for their discrimination of timbre or sound quality differences in the context of variable exemplars. They were familiarized with a set of complex tones with specified spectral structure; members of the set varied in fundamental frequency, intensity, or duration. Infants were then tested for their detection of tones that contrasted in spectral structure but were similar in other respects. They successfully differentiated the two spectral structures in the context of these variations, indicating that they can classify tonal stimuli on the basis of timbre. When the stimuli were organized into arbitrary categories, infants were unable to differentiate these categories, indicating that their performance with nonarbitrary categories was not attributable to memorization of the familiarized set.

Female↗
PubMed1985

Speech adaptation: an aerodynamic study of adults with a childhood history of articulation defects.

Three groups of subjects were studied; former lispers, persons with a history of /l/ or /r/ distortion, and normal subjects with no history of speech defects. All were normal-sounding adult speakers of English at the time of participation. Subjects were asked to wear an experimental removable dental prosthesis that provided 4 mm of thickness in the alveolar region. Measurements of oral air flow and intraoral pressure during the reading of sentence material were made, with the focus on the consonants /s/ and /t/. The sibilant /s/ was experienced as the greatest problem for speech adaptation, regardless of the type of former articulation defect. Both groups of subjects with a history of articulation defects showed evidence of slower adaptation and use of compensatory strategies for /s/. They tended as a group to have the same minimum airflow values for /s/ after 2 weeks of practice speaking with the prosthesis as after 1 day of practice. Aerodynamic calculation of the size of the constriction for /s/ also showed little or no change for most of the former speech-defective subjects. Evidence based on intraoral pressure indicated that particular effort was expended for /s/ even after 2 weeks of practice in speaking with the prosthesis.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1987

Spectral analysis of temporomandibular joint sounds.

Results demonstrated significant differences in the spectra of TMJ sounds due to differences in subject, in patients' clinical status, type of jaw movement, and specific axis of motion. We suggest that some of these differences are caused by motion of larger or smaller component structures of the joint. It is apparent that significant additional work is needed to correlate specific features of the sound spectra with anatomic and clinical information. In future work, we plan to do sound spectral analysis recording in conjunction with nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of the joint. Such data will allow us to identify specific frequency bands that correlate with specific structures in the joint or events occurring during the jaw motion, for example, the motion produced by a sudden change in the condyle/meniscus relationship. Once such baseline information is obtained, specific individual subjects can be followed up over a period of time to determine the effects of treatment. We hope that changes in specific frequency bands can be used as quantitative indices of the results of specific treatments. In addition to the guidance afforded the dentist from such quantitative information, a permanent quantitative record of the jaw joint status thus obtained could be of value for clinical as well as legal purposes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Acoustic analyses of speech changes after maxillectomy and prosthodontic management.

Acoustic speech patterns of five maxillofacial surgery patients were examined before and after prosthodontic reconstruction to determine the effectiveness of a maxillary prosthesis for eliminating (or reducing) nasal resonances. Vowel formant frequencies were measured for /i/ (as in seep) and /u/ (as in in soup). Within-subject, across test-session comparisons were made by using analysis of variance techniques. Prosthodontic restoration significantly reduced the nasal resonances in all patients by either (1) completely eliminating the resonances, (2) reducing the amplitude of the resonances, or (3) changing the frequency of the resonances to more nearby regions of the vowels.

Dentures↗
PubMed1990

Differential effects of speech prostheses in glossectomized patients.

Five patients representing different categories of glossal resection were fitted with prostheses specifically designed to improve speech. Speech recordings made for subjects with and without their prostheses were subjected to a variety of analyses. Prosthetic influence on listeners' judgments of severity level/intelligibility, number of consonants in error, and on the acoustic measure F2 range of vowels was evaluated. Findings indicated that all subjects demonstrated improvement on the speech measures. However, the extent of improvement on each measure varied across speakers and resection categories. Implications of the findings for prosthetic speech rehabilitation in this population are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Evaluation of a technique for recording temporomandibular joint sounds.

Analysis of temporomandibular joints sounds may contribute to the differential diagnosis of temporomandibular joint disorders. In this article an advanced system for the recording of joint sounds is presented. The method proved to be reliable. The problem of filtering out artifacts has been solved to a great extent but not completely. Temporomandibular joint sounds measured with this technique vary considerably in energy, frequency spectrum, and peak-to-peak amplitude over 3 months, as well as within 1 day. These differences seem to reflect natural variations in joint sounds caused by the physical impossibility of performing identical jaw movements. The results indicate that joint sound characteristics do not yet offer a solid basis for inferences concerning the development of temporomandibular joint abnormalities in the clinical setting.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Speaking behavior and voice sound characteristics in depressive patients during recovery.

Based on a sample of 30 depressive patients, we have investigated the time course of recovery from depression in so far as this time course was assessable through changes in psychopathology syndrome scores and through changes in speaking behavior and voice sound characteristics. Specifically, our study design provided 6 repeated assessments over 2 weeks and at a fixed time in the morning each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, plus a final assessment at the patients' releases from hospital. Thus, we were able to determine the degree to which single-parameter approaches to speaking behavior and voice sound characteristics reflect the individual time course of recovery from depression. In this context, we could rely upon a calibration sample with repeated assessments on 192 healthy volunteers which yielded all necessary information concerning reproducibility and sensitivity of speech parameters. Our analysis revealed several prominent features of speaking behavior and voice sound characteristics to be closely related to the time course of recovery from depression. In particular, the parameters "F0-amplitude", "F0-6db-bandwidth" and "F0-contour" which assess important characteristics of a speaker's voice timbre, as well as the parameters "energy" and "dynamics" which assess a speaker's mean loudness and the variation of loudness over time, displayed consistently high correlations with depression syndromes. Moreover, the results of single-case analysis turned out to be in remarkable accordance with those of the cross-sectional one: in almost two-thirds of patients there existed a significant relationship over time between the global depression scores and major speech parameters. As to the remaining one-third of patients who did not fit the picture of high correlations between psychopathology and speech parameters, we found an overproportionally large number of non-improvers characterized by irregular patterns of slight improvement with subsequent deterioration, or of deterioration followed by slight improvement. In other words, one-third of patients displayed time courses of depression whose psychopathology is difficult to assess through standard exploration techniques. Accordingly, it is not clear whether the observed lack of correlation in these patients is due to insufficient data or to an actual discordance between the time development of psychopathology and that of speech parameters.

Adjustment Disorders↗