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PubMed2004

Diagnostic Assessment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech Using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Methods.

We report findings from two feasibility studies using automatic speech recognition (ASR) methods in childhood speech sound disorders. The studies evaluated and implemented the automation of two recently proposed diagnostic markers for suspected Apraxia of Speech (AOS) termed the Lexical Stress Ratio (LSR) and the Coefficient of Variation Ratio (CVR). The LSR is a weighted composite of amplitude area, frequency area , and duration in the stressed compared to the unstressed vowel as obtained from a speaker's productions of eight trochaic word forms. Composite weightings for the three stress parameters were determined from a principal components analysis. The CVR expresses the average normalized variability of durations of pause and speech events that were obtained from a conversational speech sample. We describe the automation procedures used to obtain LSR and CVR scores for four children with suspected AOS and report comparative findings. The LSR values obtained with ASR were within 1.2% to 6.7% of the LSR values obtained manually using Computerized Speech Lab (CSL). The CVR values obtained with ASR were within 0.7% to 2.7% of the CVR values obtained manually using Matlab. These results indicate the potential of ASR-based techniques to process these and other diagnostic markers of childhood speech sound disorders.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Speech and language therapy for dysarthria due to non-progressive brain damage.

BACKGROUND: Dysarthria is a common sequel of non-progressive brain damage (typically stroke and traumatic brain damage). Impairment-based therapy and a wide variety of compensatory management strategies are undertaken by speech and language therapists with this patient population. OBJECTIVES: To determine the efficacy of speech and language therapy interventions for adults with dysarthria following non-progressive brain damage. SEARCH STRATEGY: This review has drawn on the search strategies developed for the following Cochrane Groups as a whole: Stroke, Injuries, and Infectious Diseases. Relevant trials were identified in the Specialised Registers of Controlled Trials (see Review Group Details for more information). We also searched the trials register of the Cochrane Rehabilitation and Related Therapies Field. The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycLIT, and Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts were electronically searched. Hand-searching of The International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders and of reference lists from relevant articles and conference proceedings was also undertaken. Colleagues were approached to identify other possible published and unpublished studies. Date of most recent searches: May 2000. SELECTION CRITERIA: Unconfounded randomised controlled trials. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: One reviewer assessed trial quality. Two co-reviewers were available to examine any potential trials for possible inclusion in the review. MAIN RESULTS: No trials of the required standard were identified. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: There is no evidence of the quality required by this review to support or refute the effectiveness of Speech and Language Therapy interventions for dysarthria following non-progressive brain damage. There is an urgent need for good quality research in this area.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Task-related factors in oral motor control: speech and oral diadochokinesis in dysarthria and apraxia of speech.

This study was focused on the potential influence of task-related factors on oral motor performance in patients with speech disorders. Sentence production was compared with a nonspeech oral motor task, i.e., oral diadochokinesis. Perceptual and acoustic measures of speech impairment were used as dependent variables. Between-task comparisons were made for subsamples of a population of 140 patients with different motor speech syndromes, including apraxia of speech and cerebellar dysarthria. In a further analysis subgroups were matched for speaking rate. Overall, dysdiadochokinesis was correlated with the degree of speech impairment, but there was a strong interaction between task type and motor speech syndrome. In particular, cerebellar pathology affected DDK to a relatively greater extent than sentence production, while apraxic pathology spared the ability of repeating syllables at maximum speed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Speech and pause characteristics following speech rate reduction in hypokinetic dysarthria.

The effect of speech rate reduction on speech and pause characteristics during a reading task was examined for speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and a group of control speakers. Duration of utterances and characteristics of pausing (duration, interpause phrase length, and location) were determined. At habitual reading rate, subjects with PD had shorter speech duration and greater time per pause than control subjects. At reduced reading rates, subjects with PD increased speech duration so that it was equivalent to the control speakers at habitual rate. Both groups had the majority of their pause occurring at appropriate syntactic boundaries. Subjects with PD had a greater proportion of pauses occurring at syntactically inappropriate locations than did the controls. When speech rates were reduced, both groups showed a decrease in pauses located at appropriate syntactic boundaries. The implication of these findings on speech intelligibility is discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

Phonetic processing areas revealed by sinewave speech and acoustically similar non-speech.

The neural substrates underlying speech perception are still not well understood. Previously, we found dissociation of speech and nonspeech processing at the earliest cortical level (AI), using speech and nonspeech complexity dimensions. Acoustic differences between speech and nonspeech stimuli in imaging studies, however, confound the search for linguistic-phonetic regions. Presently, we used sinewave speech (SWsp) and nonspeech (SWnon), which replace speech formants with sinewave tones, in order to match acoustic spectral and temporal complexity while contrasting phonetics. Chord progressions (CP) were used to remove the effects of auditory coherence and object processing. Twelve normal RH volunteers were scanned with fMRI while listening to SWsp, SWnon, CP, and a baseline condition arranged in blocks. Only two brain regions, in bilateral superior temporal sulcus, extending more posteriorly on the left, were found to prefer the SWsp condition after accounting for acoustic modulation and coherence effects. Two regions responded preferentially to the more frequency-modulated stimuli, including one that overlapped the right temporal phonetic area and another in the left angular gyrus far from the phonetic area. These findings are proposed to form the basis for the two subtypes of auditory word deafness. Several brain regions, including auditory and non-auditory areas, preferred the coherent auditory stimuli and are likely involved in auditory object recognition. The design of the current study allowed for separation of acoustic spectrotemporal, object recognition, and phonetic effects resulting in distinct and overlapping components.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Speech recognition with the MPEAK and SPEAK speech-coding strategies of the Nucleus Cochlear Implant.

The Spectra 22 Speech Processor and spectral peak (SPEAK) speech-coding strategy provide Nucleus 22 Channel Cochlear Implant (Cochlear, Corp., Englewood, Colo.) users with a better understanding of speech than the previous Mini Speech Processor and Multipeak (MPEAK) speech-coding strategy. On the NU-6 Monosyllabic Word Test, subjects scored 13% higher for words and 14% higher for phonemes with the SPEAK strategy than with the MPEAK strategy. On the Connected Speech Test and the CID Everyday Sentence Test, subjects scored 32% and 37% higher, respectively, with SPEAK than with MPEAK.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Quantifying the relation between speech quality and speech intelligibility.

The purpose of the present research was to examine the relation between speech quality and speech intelligibility. Speech quality measurements were made using continuous discourse and a category rating procedure for the following dimensions: intelligibility, pleasantness, loudness, effort, and total impression. Measurements were made using a group of listeners with normal hearing for a set of stimulus conditions in which intelligibility varied, and for a set of stimulus conditions in which intelligibility was held constant near 100%. When ratings were made for a set of stimulus conditions in which intelligibility was allowed to vary (a) intersubject reliability was high (i.e., different listeners interpreted the dimensions in a similar manner); and (b) the speech quality dimensions of intelligibility, effort, and loudness were indistinguishable. When ratings were made for a set of stimulus conditions in which intelligibility was held constant (a) intersubject reliability was reduced, indicating that different listeners interpreted the dimensions in different ways; (b) most listeners rated each dimension differently, indicating that the dimensions were unique; and (c) across listeners, no single dimension was highly correlated with total impression. These results can be used in order to examine the relation between speech quality and speech intelligibility.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

An investigation into the effect of limiting the frequency bandwidth of speech on speech recognition in adult cochlear implant users.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the limited-frequency bandwidth employed by telephones (300-3400Hz) on speech recognition in adult cochlear implant users. The Four Alternative Auditory Feature (FAAF) test was used in four conditions: unfiltered and in three filtered conditions of 300-4500Hz, 300-3400Hz and 300-2500Hz. Ten subjects implanted with the Nucleus C124M device and 10 normal-hearing listeners were assessed to examine differences between word discrimination scores in each condition. Scores obtained from the 300-3400-Hz and 300-2500-Hz filtered conditions were significantly worse than those with unfiltered speech for the cochlear implant subjects, decreasing by 17.7% and 21.4%, respectively, from scores with unfiltered speech. By contrast, the normal-hearing listeners did not experience difficulties in discriminating between words in any of the conditions. Analysis of the word errors demonstrated that the reduction in implant subject scores with bandwidth arose from errors in place of articulation. Filtering speech in this way has a significant effect on speech recognition for cochlear implant subjects but not normal-hearing listeners. Hence, the limitations of the normal telephone bandwidth can be expected to have a negative effect on speech recognition for cochlear implant users using the telephone.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Speech recognition ability of children with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss as a function of amplification, speech stimuli and listening condition.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine three types of audiological recommendations [unaided, CROS (contralateral routing of signals) and personal FM system] and their impact upon speech recognition ability of children with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Each of these recommendations was tested under three listening conditions encountered in a classroom [monaural direct (MD), monaural indirect (MI), midline signal/omnidirectional noise (MS/ON)] with two types of speech materials (Nonsense Syllable Test and an American English adaptation on the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Sentence Lists). These experimental conditions were simulated in a classroom, recorded on audiotape, and played back to subjects under headphones to control such factors as signal-to-noise ratio, earmold fit, and head shadow effects. Six school-age children with unilateral hearing losses between 56 and greater than 120 dB HL (PTA) were evaluated using a repeated measures design. The children experienced the most listening difficulty in the MI condition when they were unaided. The CROS aid improved speech recognition in this condition but degraded speech recognition in the MD condition. The FM system was the only audiological recommendation to produce uniformly high speech recognition scores across all listening conditions with both types of speech materials. Implications for the audiological management of unilaterally hearing-impaired children in the classroom are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed2002

Conversion from the SPEAK to the ACE strategy in children using the nucleus 24 cochlear implant system: speech perception and speech production outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to assess whether speech perception and speech production in children using the Nucleus 24 cochlear implant system improved with a change in speech processing strategy from the SPEAK to the Advanced Combination Encoder (ACE) strategy. The major difference between the two strategies is that ACE uses a higher stimulation rate (in this study the stimulation rate was 900 Hz per channel) compared with the SPEAK strategy, where the stimulation rate is 250 Hz per channel. Information also was obtained regarding the adjustment period after conversion to the ACE strategy. DESIGN: An ABA experimental design was used where scores were initially obtained using the SPEAK strategy' (in the initial A time interval), and subsequently performance was assessed using the ACE strategy (B time interval) and then again with the SPEAK strategy (second A time interval). The duration of the B interval was 10 wk, and the duration for the second A interval was 4 wk. Seven children aged between 9 and 16 yr who had at least 6 mo experience with the SPEAK strategy participated. Open-set monosyllabic CNC word perception in quiet and Speech Intelligibility Test sentence perception in noise was evaluated at the end of each of the time intervals. Word perception was also monitored at fortnightly intervals during the B time interval. Speech production was assessed at the end of the initial A time interval and at the end of the B time interval. RESULTS: Mean word and phoneme scores for open-set words in quiet for the group of seven children were significantly higher with the ACE strategy as compared with the SPEAK strategy scores obtained in both of the A time intervals. For sentences in noise, mean scores using the ACE strategy as well as the SPEAK strategy at the second A evaluation point were significantly higher than the scores using the SPEAK strategy measured at the first A time interval. This suggests that learning effects may have influenced outcomes. For some subjects, an initial decrease in scores was found during the initial 2-wk period after fitting the ACE strategy; however, scores subsequently were found to be similar to or higher than those when using the initial SPEAK strategy. Analysis of speech production assessments showed an improvement in the medial consonant scores after using the ACE strategy. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that some children were able to benefit from the additional information provided by the ACE strategy as compared with the SPEAK strategy. However, the differences in overall performance between the two strategies appear to be relatively small.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Neural correlates of intelligibility in speech investigated with noise vocoded speech--a positron emission tomography study.

Functional imaging studies of speech perception in the human brain have identified a key role for auditory association areas in the temporal lobes (bilateral superior temporal gyri and sulci) in the perceptual processing of the speech signal. This is extended to suggest some functional specialization within this bilateral system, with a particular role for the left anterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) in processing intelligible speech. In the current study, noise-vocoded speech was used to vary the intelligibility of speech parametrically. This replicated the finding of a selective response to intelligibility in speech in the left anterior superior temporal sulcus, in contrast to the posterior superior temporal sulcus, which showed a response profile insensitive to the degree of intelligibility. These results are related to theories of functional organization in the human auditory system, which have indicated that there are separate processing streams, with different functional roles, running anterior and posterior to primary auditory cortex. Specifically, it is suggested that an anterior stream processing intelligibility can be distinguished from a posterior stream associated with transient representations, important in spoken repetition and working memory.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1992

Structural design of hidden Markov model speech recognizer using multivalued phonetic features: comparison with segmental speech units.

A novel approach to speech recognition, on the basis of a multidimensional multivalued phonetic-feature description of speech signals, is presented and evaluated. The hidden Markov model (HMM) framework is used to provide the recognition algorithm, which assumes that the underlying Markov chain tracks the temporal evolution of the features. It is shown that this approach can naturally accommodate such coarticulatory effects as feature spreading and formant transition in the functionality of the recognizer, and can provide a high degree of acoustic data sharing that makes effective use of training data. Use of phonetic features as the basic speech units creates a framework where the Markov model's state topology in the recognizer can be designed with guidance of detailed speech knowledge. Details of such a design for a stop consonant-vowel vocabulary are described. Experimental results on the task of speaker-dependent stop consonant discrimination, evaluated from speech data from a total of ten male and five female speakers, demonstrate effectiveness of this feature-based recognizer. Over the 15 speakers, the error rates were shown to be reduced by 23%, 37%, 42%, and 38%, respectively, compared with the conventional HMM-based recognition methods using words, phonemes, allophones, and microsegments as the primary speech units.

Communication↗
PubMed1997

A computerized adaptive testing system for speech discrimination measurement: the Speech Sound Pattern Discrimination Test.

A computerized, adaptive test-delivery system for the measurement of speech discrimination, the Speech Sound Pattern Discrimination Test, is described and evaluated. Using a modified discrimination task, the testing system draws on a pool of 130 items spanning a broad range of difficulty to estimate an examinee's location along an underlying continuum of speech processing ability, yet does not require the examinee to possess a high level of English language proficiency. The system is driven by a mathematical measurement model which selects only test items which are appropriate in difficulty level for a given examinee, thereby individualizing the testing experience. Test items were administered to a sample of young deaf adults, and the adaptive testing system evaluated in terms of respondents' sensory and perceptual capabilities, acoustic and phonetic dimensions of speech, and theories of speech perception. Data obtained in this study support the validity, reliability, and efficiency of this test as a measure of speech processing ability.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

[Esophageal speech and TE shunt speech--a comparison using the same subjects].

The behaviors of esophageal speech and tracheoesophageal shunt (TE shunt) speech were compared using two laryngectomized subjects who were able to perform both phonation methods. Through X-ray fluorography and fiberscopic observation of the PE segment, it was confirmed that the location and the shape of the vibrating PE segment (pseudoglottis) were consistent during esophageal speech and TE shunt speech in each patient. It was suggested that the mechanism of formation of the pseudoglottis does not differ between the two phonation methods. The aerodynamics were examined using one of the two subjects. There was a positive relationship between subpseudoglottic pressure and vocal pitch and also between subpseudoglottic pressure and pseudoglottic resistance. The vocal pitch and pseudoglottic resistance were significantly higher in esophageal speech than TE shunt speech, when compared within the same subpseudoglottic pressure range. It was suggested that the tension and the effective mass of the pseudoglottis was modulated differently between the two phonation methods.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

[Speech therapy intervention in phonological disorders from the psycholinguistic paradigm of speech processing].

The aim of this study is to present a survey of speech therapy intervention in phonological disorders (PD). We will examine the concepts of normal phonological development and those involved in PD in order to understand how they have been dealt with, historically, in speech therapy intervention. Lastly, we will describe how evaluation and intervention are carried out from the speech processing paradigm. Phonetic phonological skills allow people to decode the phonic strings they hear so as to be able to gain access to their phonological form and meaning. These abilities also enable them to encode these strings from lexical representations to pronounce words. The greater part of their development takes place during approximately the first four years of life. Speech processing difficulties affect the phonetic phonological skills and occur throughout almost all language pathologies, although the effect they exert is not always the same. This can range from a lack of the capacity to speak to important problems of intelligibility or mild problems with certain phonemes. Their influence on learning to read and write has been shown in recent decades. Speech therapy intervention began from a model based on articulatory phonetics. In the 70s a linguistic model based on the process of speech simplification and phonological analysis was added and this gave rise to a marked improvement in the systems used for evaluation and intervention. At present we have assumed a psycholinguistic model that links the perceptive skills with productive ones and top-down or bottom-up processing (from lexical representations to perception or production of phonemes and vice-versa).

Articulation Disorders↗
PubMed1997

An exploratory study of an undefined acquired neuromotor speech disorder within the context of the four level framework for speech sensorimotor control.

In this study, the speech of a 28-year-old male with acquired brain injury and who presents with an undefined neuromotor speech disorder which cannot be categorised as either apraxia of speech or dysarthria, is described. Voice onset time, vowel duration, utterance duration and vowel formant analyses were done acoustically. A perceptual analysis and intelligibility rating were also executed. The subject was found to present with unique perceptual symptoms, intelligible speech, prolonged sound duration and distorted vowel quality. The results are interpreted within the context of the Four Level Framework of Speech Sensorimotor Control (Van der Merwe, 1997).

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Silent speech activates prefrontal cortical regions asymmetrically, as well as speech-related areas in the dominant hemisphere.

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured simultaneously over the right and left hemispheres by 2 x 32 detectors in 30 healthy volunteers with a two-dimensional iv xenon-133 technique, during (1) rest and during (2) audible and (3) silent counting (101, 102,...). Mean hemisphere CBF increased significantly in both hemispheres during the activations. Audible speech activated rolandic and temporoparietal regions mainly on the right side. This pattern covers auditory and para-auditory as well as motor (tongue/larynx) regions. Most likely those regions are involved in auditory feedback and voice control. Silent speech (internal speech) gave a clearly different activation pattern involving (1) left-sided regions related to speech perception and speech motor control (including the SMA) and (2) a right dorsolateral prefrontal area that may be related to attention mechanisms. The silent speech pattern appears to demonstrate aspects of internal (cognitive) feedback activity in which prefrontal cortical regions are activated significantly. Audible and silent counting may represent two principally different types of cerebral feedback systems, one for overt sensory-motor activity and one for a pure internal cognitive feed-back.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

[On open nasal speech following operative procedures in the oro- and nasopharynx. A combined speech and cephalometric analysis (author's transl)].

A combined speech and cephalometric analysis was performed on 60 patients with class III malocclusion to evaluate the interaction between the cranio-facial skeleton and the disorder of an open nasal speech. There was an increase of durable open nasal speech after tonsillectomy but not after adenoidectomy. This predisposition to open nasal speech in class III patients appeared to be increased by the formation of the surrounding bony structures. In dependency to the cranio-facial morphology in the vertical dimension, the configuration of the bony nasopharynx and the sagittal jaw relationship were of significant importance. The cephalometric measurements confirmed the results of the speech analysis that the position and function of the soft palate are of essential significance for the development of an open nasal speech.

Adenoidectomy↗