Correlation Between Vowel Centralisation and Incomplete Stop Articulation in Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury

• Authors: Monika Połczyńska , Yishai Tobin , Shimon Sapir
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often results in dysarthria, a motor speech disorder. Two processes often linked with TBI dysarthria are vowel centralisation and incomplete stop articulation. It is not clear to what extent these two processes are interrelated and to what extent they might serve as indices of the severity of dysarthria secondary to TBI. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that patients who centralise vowels will also have difficulties producing stop consonants with complete stricture. Polish dysarthric speakers post TBI (n=6) and ten age-matched healthy controls with normal speech (n=10) performed the Polish Dysarthria Test for TBI Patients (PDTTP) (Połczyńska-Fiszer and Pufal 2006). Three of the TBI subjects had moderate dysarthria and three mild dysarthria. The test investigates phonemes in isolation as well as in diverse phonetic contexts in different elicitation tasks, including spontaneous speech. The data from the PDTTP were transcribed phonetically and analysed acoustically. Vowel centralisation and incomplete stop articulation appear to be strongly correlated (r=0.90). It was found that the degree of TBI dysarthria correlates with the frequency of occurrence of these two processes. Thus, the two processes may serve as important indices of severity of dysarthria in TBI.

Keywords

EN

Traumatic Brain Injury; dysarthria; underacticulation; speech acoustics

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Journal: Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 281-299

Dates

published

2009-06-01

online

2009-06-25

Contributors

author

Monika Połczyńska

• Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

author

Yishai Tobin

• Ben-Gurion University of the negev, Be'er Sheva

author

Shimon Sapir

• University of Haifa

References

• Boersma, P., and D. Weenink. 2005. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. (Version 4.3.22.)
• Bogacka, A., G. Schwartz, P. Zydorowicz, M. Połczyńska, and P. Orzechowska. 2006. "The production and perception of schwa in second language acquisition: The case of Polish learners of English". In: Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, K. (ed.), IFAtuation: A life in IFA. A festschrift for Professor Jacek Fisiak on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM. 71-84.
• Bunton, K. and G. Weismer. 2001. "The relationship between perception and acoustics for a high-low vowel contrast produced by speakers with dysarthria". Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 44. 1215-1228.
• Cahill, L., B. Murdoch and D. Theodoros. 1996. "Differential patterns of hyperfunctional laryngeal impairment in dysarthric speakers following severe closed head injury". In Robid, D.A., K.M. Yorkstorn and D.R. Beukelman (eds.), Disorders of motor speech: Assessment, treatment, and clinical charcterisation. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. 205-227.
• Diver, W. 1979. "Phonology as human behavior". In: Aaronson, D. and R. Reiber (eds.), Psycholinguistic research: Implications and applications. Hillside NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 161-186.
• Dressler, W.U. 1985. "Explaining Natural Phonology". Phonology Yearbook. 29-50.
• Dressler, W.U. and K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk. 1995. "Syllable and morpheme in aphasia". In: Dressler, W.U. and C. Burani (eds.), Crossdisciplinary approaches to morphology. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akedemie der Wissenschaften. 115-130.
• Duffy J.R. 1995. Motor speech disorders. Substrates, differential diagnosis and management. St Louis: Mosby.
• Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, K. 2002. Beats-and-Binding Phonology. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.[WoS]
• Grunwell, P. 1987. Clinical phonology. Kent: Croom-Helm.
• Higgins, C. and M. Hodge. 2002. "Vowel area and intelligibility in children with and without dysarthria". Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology 10. 271-277.
• Ingram, D. 1990. Phonological disability in children. London: Whurr.
• Liu, H., F. Tsao and P. Kuhl. 2005. "The effect of reduced vowel working space on speech intelligibility in Mandarin-speaking young adults with cerebral palsy". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 117. 3879-3889.
• Kent, R.D. and A.D. Murray. 1982. "Acoustic feature of infant vocalic utterances at 3, 6 and 9 months". Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 72. 353-363.
• McHenry, M.A. 2000. "Acoustic characteristics of voice after severe traumatic brain injury". Laryngoscope 110. 1157-1161.
• Pąchalska, M., B.D. MacQueen, G. Jastrzębowska and A. Pufal. 2004. "Disturbances of speech and language in patients aroused from long-term coma subsequent to traumatic brain injury". Ortopedia Traumatologia Rehabilitacja 4. 315-329.
• Połczyńska-Fiszer, M. 2006. First and second language dysarthria in TBI patients after prolonged coma. (Unpublished PhD dissertation, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań.
• Połczyńska-Fiszer, M. and A. Pufal. 2006. "Classification of dysarthria in Polish TBI patients using acoustic analysis". Acta Neuropsychologica 4(4). 257-285.
• Połczynska M. In press. "Dysarthric processes in first and second language used by patients with traumatic brain injury". The Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing.
• Rosen, K., R. Kent, A. Delaney and J. Duffy. 2006. "Parametric quantitative acoustic analysis of conversation produced by speakers with dysarthria and healthy speakers". Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 49. 395-411.
• Sapir, S., J. Spielman, L. Ramig, B. Story and C. Fox. 2007. "Effects of intensive voice treatment (the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment [LSVT]) on vowel articulation in Dysarthric individuals with idiopathic Parkinson disease: Acoustic and perceptual findings". Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research 50. 899-912.
• Stampe, D. 1972. A dissertation on natural phonology. New York: Garland.
• Stemberger, J. 1992. "Vocalic underspecification in English language production". Language 68(3). 492-524.
• Theodoros, D.G. and B.E. Murdoch. 1996. "Differential patterns of hyperfunctional laryngeal impairment in dysarthric speakers following severe closed head injury". In: Robin, D.A., K.M. Yorkston and D.R. Beukelman (eds.), Disorders of motor speech: Assessment, treatment, and clinical characterization. Baltimore: Paul H Brookes. 205-227.
• Tobin, Y. 2002. "Phonology as human behavior: Theoretical implications and cognitive and clinical applications". In: Fava, E. (ed.), Linguistic theory, speech and language pathology, speech therapy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 3-22.
• Tobin, Y. 1997 Phonology as human behavior: Theoretical implications and clinical applications. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Vihmann, M.M. 1996. The origins of language in the child. Phonological development. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Vorperian, H.K., R.D. Kent, M.J. Lindstrom, C.M. Kalina, L.R. Gentry and B.S. Yandell. 2005. "Development of oral tract length during early childhood: A magnetic resonance imaging study". Journal of Acoustical Society of America 117(1). 338-349.
• Wang, Y., R. Kent, J. Duffy and J. Thomas. 2005. "Dysarthria in traumatic brain injury: A breath group and intonational analysis". Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 57. 59-89.
• Weismer, G., J.-Y. Jeng, J. Laures and R. Kent. 2001. "Acoustic and intelligibility characteristics of sentence production in neurogenic speech disorders". Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 53. 1-18.
• Ziegler, W. and D. von Cramon. 1983. "Vowel distortion in traumatic dysarthria: A formant study". Phonetica 40. 63-78.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10010-009-0016-4