Growth and sexual dimorphism of the hyoid bone and its relationship to the mandible from birth to 19 years: A three-dimensional computed tomography study

Speech Development Between 30 and 119 Months in Typical Children III: Interaction Between Speaking Rate and Intelligibility

PURPOSE

Earlier work has established developmental benchmarks for intelligibility and articulation rate, but the intersection of these two variables, especially within individual children, has received limited attention. This study examines the interaction between intelligibility and speaking rate in typically developing children between the ages 2;6 and 9;11 (years;months) and evaluates whether children show a speed-accuracy trade-off in their habitual speech production.

METHOD

Speech samples of varying lengths were collected from 538 typically developing children. Intelligibility was measured as the number of words correctly transcribed by untrained adult listeners, and speaking rate was calculated in number of syllables per second. Regression models estimated the effects of age, utterance length, and speaking rate on intelligibility.

RESULTS

Intelligibility and speaking rate were positively correlated overall but weakly correlated after adjusting for age. In regression analyses, intelligibility increased with age and decreased with utterance length, and there was a trend for intelligibility to decrease with increased speaking rate, especially in longer utterances. At the individual level, for most children, there was a negative effect of speaking rate on intelligibility.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings provide evidence from a large-scale sample for the hypothesis that children's speech is subject to a speed-accuracy trade-off where increased speaking rate leads to reduced articulatory accuracy and hence reduced intelligibility. Further research is needed on how to apply this trade-off in a clinical setting.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27964125.

Age-dependent changes in the hyoid bone morphology in children

PURPOSE

This radiologic work aimed to display the alteration in the hyoid bone (HB) morphology in the pediatric population with advancing age.

METHODS

This pediatric examination consisted of computed tomography images of 129 subjects (49 males / 80 females) aged 1-17 years.

RESULTS

The anterior-posterior length of HB, the lengths of right and left greater horns, the width and height of HB's body, and the distance between the midpoints of the posterior ends of the greater horns increased with advancing age (p < 0.001), but the angle of the right and left greater horns (p = 0.022) decreased. Four configurations regarding HB shape were observed: Type A (U-shaped HB) in 8.5% (11 HBs) out of 129 children, Type B (B-shaped HB) in 33.3% (43 HBs), Type C (D-shaped HB) in 45% (58 HBs), and Type D (V-shaped HB) in 13.2% (17 HBs). HB shape types correlated with the pediatric age (p < 0.001), but not gender (p = 0.153).

CONCLUSIONS

Most of the parameters increased until the postpubescent period, but the angle of the right and left greater horns decreased after the late childhood. Our linear functions representing the growth pattern of HB in children may be useful to estimate HB size.

Artificial intelligence model for predicting sexual dimorphism through the hyoid bone in adult patients

The objective of this study was to develop a predictive model using supervised machine learning to determine sex based on the dimensions of the hyoid bone. Lateral cephalometric radiographs of 495 patients were analyzed, collecting the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the hyoid bone, as well as the distance from the hyoid to the mandible. The following algorithms were trained: Logistic Regression, Gradient Boosting Classifier, K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multilayer Perceptron Classifier (MLP), Decision Tree, AdaBoost Classifier, and Random Forest Classifier. A 5-fold cross-validation approach was used to validate each model. Model evaluation metrics included areas under the curve (AUC), accuracy, recall, precision, F1 score, and ROC curves. The horizontal dimension of the hyoid bone demonstrated the highest predictive power across all evaluated models. The AUC values of the different trained models ranged from 0.81 to 0.86 on test data and from 0.78 to 0.84 in cross-validation, with the random forest classifier achieving the highest accuracy rates. The supervised machine learning model showed good predictive accuracy, indicating the model's potential for sex determination in forensic and anthropological contexts. These findings suggest that the application of artificial intelligence methods can enhance the accuracy of sex estimation, contributing to significant advancements in the field.

Sex determination through maxillary dental arch and skeletal base measurements using machine learning

BACKGROUND

Cranial, facial, nasal, and maxillary widths have been shown to be significantly affected by the individual's sex. The present study aims to use measurements of dental arch and maxillary skeletal base to determine sex, employing supervised machine learning.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Maxillary and mandibular tomographic examinations from 100 patients were analyzed to investigate the inter-premolar width, inter-molar width, maxillary width, inter-pterygoid width, nasal cavity width, nostril width, and maxillary length, obtained through Cone Beam Computed Tomography scans. The following machine learning algorithms were used to build the predictive models: Logistic Regression, Gradient Boosting Classifier, K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multi-Layer Perceptron Classifier (MLP), Decision Tree, and Random Forest Classifier. A 10-fold cross-validation approach was adopted to validate each model. Metrics such as area under the curve (AUC), accuracy, recall, precision, and F1 Score were calculated for each model, and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed.

RESULTS

Univariate analysis showed statistical significance (p < 0.10) for all skeletal and dental variables. Nostril width showed greater importance in two models, while Inter-molar width stood out among dental measurements. The models achieved accuracy values ranging from 0.75 to 0.85 on the test data. Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Decision Tree, and SVM models had the highest AUC values, with SVM showing the smallest disparity between cross-validation and test data for accuracy metrics.

CONCLUSION

Transverse dental arch and maxillary skeletal base measurements exhibited strong predictive capability, achieving high accuracy with machine learning methods. Among the evaluated models, the SVM algorithm exhibited the best performance. This indicates potential usefulness in forensic sex determination.

Maturation of the Female Pharyngeal Airway from Adolescence to Adulthood

BACKGROUND

The present study aimed to investigate developmental changes in the female pharyngeal airway from adolescence to adulthood, considering variations in the anatomical structures related to the airway dimensions.

METHODS

Lateral cephalograms of 214 females were analyzed and categorized into five developmental stages: early adolescence (10-13 years), middle adolescence (14-17 years), late adolescence (18-21 years), early adulthood (22-30 years), and middle adulthood (31-50 years). The focus of the analysis included the point A-Nasion-point B (ANB) angle, tongue pharyngeal airway space (TPS), epiglottis pharyngeal airway space (EPS), soft palate airway space (SPS), and the horizontal and vertical positions of the hyoid bone.

RESULTS

The ANB angle exhibited significant variation across groups, being significantly larger in the early-adolescence group (4.22°) compared to the middle-adolescence, late-adolescence, and early-adulthood groups. The TPS and EPS were significantly shorter in the early-adolescence group. Negative correlations were observed between the ANB angle and the lengths of the pharyngeal airway spaces (SPS, TPS, and EPS). The horizontal and vertical positions of the hyoid bone remained stable after middle adolescence.

CONCLUSION

The maturation of the ANB angle and pharyngeal airway in females seems nearly completed during middle adolescence (14-17 years). Additionally, a significant and negative correlation was identified between the ANB angle and the lengths of various pharyngeal airway spaces (SPS, TPS, and EPS). The horizontal and vertical positions of the hyoid bone showed stability after middle adolescence.