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Bello-Lepe S, Mahmood S, Varley R, Zimmerer V. Speech pauses in speakers with and without aphasia: A usage-based approach. Cortex 2024; 178:287-298. [PMID: 39084164 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Revised: 09/28/2023] [Accepted: 06/24/2024] [Indexed: 08/02/2024]
Abstract
Pauses in speech are indicators of cognitive effort during language production and have been examined to inform theories of lexical, grammatical and discourse processing in healthy speakers and individuals with aphasia (IWA). Studies of pauses have commonly focused on their location and duration in relation to grammatical properties such as word class or phrase complexity. However, recent studies of speech output in aphasia have revealed that utterances of IWA are characterised by stronger collocations, i.e., combinations of words that are often used together. We investigated the effects of collocation strength and lexical frequency on pause duration in comic strip narrations of IWA and non-brain-damaged (NBD) individuals with part of speech (PoS; content and function words) as covariate. Both groups showed a decrease in pause duration within more strongly collocated bigrams and before more frequent content words, with stronger effects in IWA. These results are consistent with frameworks which propose that strong collocations are more likely to be processed as holistic, perhaps even word-like, units. Usage-based approaches prove valuable in explaining patterns of preservation and impairment in aphasic language production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Bello-Lepe
- University College London, Department of Language and Cognition, London, UK; Universidad de Valparaíso, Centro de Investigación del Desarrollo en Cognición y Lenguaje, Valparaiso, Chile
| | - Sabrina Mahmood
- University College London, Department of Language and Cognition, London, UK
| | - Rosemary Varley
- University College London, Department of Language and Cognition, London, UK
| | - Vitor Zimmerer
- University College London, Department of Language and Cognition, London, UK.
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Vonk JMJ, Morin BT, Pillai J, Rolon DR, Bogley R, Baquirin DP, Ezzes Z, Tee BL, DeLeon J, Wauters L, Lukic S, Montembeault M, Younes K, Miller Z, García AM, Mandelli ML, Sturm VE, Miller BL, Gorno-Tempini ML. Digital language markers distinguish frontal from right anterior temporal lobe atrophy in frontotemporal dementia. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.08.29.24312807. [PMID: 39252889 PMCID: PMC11383468 DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.29.24312807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/11/2024]
Abstract
Background and Objectives Within frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the behavioral variant (bvFTD) characterized by frontal atrophy, and semantic behavioral variant (sbvFTD) characterized by right anterior temporal lobe (rATL) atrophy, present diagnostic challenges due to overlapping symptoms and neuroanatomy. Accurate differentiation is crucial for clinical trial inclusion targeting TDP-43 proteinopathies. This study investigated whether automated speech analysis can distinguish between FTD-related rATL and frontal atrophy, potentially offering a non-invasive diagnostic tool. Methods In a cross-sectional design, we included 40 participants with FTD-related predominant frontal atrophy (n=16) or predominant rATL atrophy (n=24) and 22 healthy controls from the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. Using stepwise logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, we analyzed 16 linguistic and acoustic features that were extracted automatically from audio-recorded picture description tasks. Neuroimaging data were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry to examine brain-behavior relationships of regional atrophy with the features selected in the regression models. Results Logistic regression identified three features (content units, lexical frequency, familiarity) differentiating the overall FTD group from controls (AUC=.973), adjusted for age. Within the FTD group, five features (adpositions/total words ratio, arousal, syllable pause duration, restarts, words containing 'thing') differentiated frontal from rATL atrophy (AUC=.943). Neuroimaging analyses showed that semantic features (lexical frequency, content units, 'thing' words) were linked to bilateral inferior temporal lobe structures, speech and lexical features (syllable pause duration, adpositions/total words ratio) to bilateral inferior frontal gyri, and socio-emotional features (arousal) to areas known to mediate social cognition including the right insula and bilateral anterior temporal structures. As a composite score, this set of five features was uniquely associated with rATL atrophy. Discussion Automated speech analysis effectively distinguished the overall FTD group from controls and differentiated between frontal and rATL atrophy. The neuroimaging findings for individual features highlight the neural basis of language impairments in these FTD variants, and when considered together, underscore the importance of utilizing features' combined power to identify impaired language patterns. Automated speech analysis could enhance early diagnosis and monitoring of FTD, offering a scalable, non-invasive alternative to traditional methods, particularly in resource-limited settings. Further research should aim to integrate automated speech analysis into multi-modal diagnostic frameworks.
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Baqué L, Machuca MJ. Dysfluency in primary progressive aphasia: Temporal speech parameters. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2024:1-34. [PMID: 39104133 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2024.2378345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2023] [Revised: 06/28/2024] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 08/07/2024]
Abstract
Analysing spontaneous speech in individuals experiencing fluency difficulties holds potential for diagnosing speech and language disorders, including Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). Dysfluency in the spontaneous speech of patients with PPA has mostly been described in terms of abnormal pausing behaviour, but the temporal features related to speech have drawn little attention. This study compares speech-related fluency parameters in the three main variants of PPA and in typical speech. Forty-three adults participated in this research, thirteen with the logopenic variant of PPA (lvPPA), ten with the non-fluent variant (nfvPPA), nine with the semantic variant (svPPA), and eleven who were healthy age-matched adults. Participants' fluency was assessed through a picture description task from which 42 parameters were computed including syllable duration, speaking pace, the duration of speech chunks (i.e. interpausal units, IPU), and the number of linguistic units per IPU and per second. The results showed that each PPA variant exhibited abnormal speech characteristics reflecting various underlying factors, from motor speech deficits to higher-level issues. Out of the 42 parameters considered, 37 proved useful for characterising dysfluency in the three main PPA variants and 35 in distinguishing among them. Therefore, taking into account not only pausing behaviour but also temporal speech parameters can provide a fuller understanding of dysfluency in PPA. However, no single parameter by itself sufficed to distinguish one PPA group from the other two, further evidence that dysfluency is not dichotomous but rather multidimensional, and that complementary multiparametric analyses are needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorraine Baqué
- Departament de Filologia Francesa i Romànica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - María-Jesús Machuca
- Departament de Filologia Espanyola, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
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Cordella C, Di Filippo L, Kolachalama VB, Kiran S. Connected Speech Fluency in Poststroke and Progressive Aphasia: A Scoping Review of Quantitative Approaches and Features. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2024; 33:2091-2128. [PMID: 38652820 PMCID: PMC11253646 DOI: 10.1044/2024_ajslp-23-00208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Revised: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE Speech fluency has important diagnostic implications for individuals with poststroke aphasia (PSA) as well as primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and quantitative assessment of connected speech has emerged as a widely used approach across both etiologies. The purpose of this review was to provide a clearer picture on the range, nature, and utility of individual quantitative speech/language measures and methods used to assess connected speech fluency in PSA and PPA, and to compare approaches across etiologies. METHOD We conducted a scoping review of literature published between 2012 and 2022 following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. Forty-five studies were included in the review. Literature was charted and summarized by etiology and characteristics of included patient populations and method(s) used for derivation and analysis of speech/language features. For a subset of included articles, we also charted the individual quantitative speech/language features reported and the level of significance of reported results. RESULTS Results showed that similar methodological approaches have been used to quantify connected speech fluency in both PSA and PPA. Two hundred nine individual speech-language features were analyzed in total, with low levels of convergence across etiology on specific features but greater agreement on the most salient features. The most useful features for differentiating fluent from nonfluent aphasia in both PSA and PPA were features related to overall speech quantity, speech rate, or grammatical competence. CONCLUSIONS Data from this review demonstrate the feasibility and utility of quantitative approaches to index connected speech fluency in PSA and PPA. We identified emergent trends toward automated analysis methods and data-driven approaches, which offer promising avenues for clinical translation of quantitative approaches. There is a further need for improved consensus on which subset of individual features might be most clinically useful for assessment and monitoring of fluency. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25537237.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire Cordella
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA
| | - Lauren Di Filippo
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA
| | - Vijaya B. Kolachalama
- Department of Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, MA
- Department of Computer Science and Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, Boston University, MA
| | - Swathi Kiran
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA
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Angelopoulou G, Kasselimis D, Goutsos D, Potagas C. A Methodological Approach to Quantifying Silent Pauses, Speech Rate, and Articulation Rate across Distinct Narrative Tasks: Introducing the Connected Speech Analysis Protocol (CSAP). Brain Sci 2024; 14:466. [PMID: 38790445 PMCID: PMC11119743 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14050466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2024] [Revised: 04/24/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
The examination of connected speech may serve as a valuable tool for exploring speech output in both healthy speakers and individuals with language disorders. Numerous studies incorporate various fluency and silence measures into their analyses to investigate speech output patterns in different populations, along with the underlying cognitive processes that occur while speaking. However, methodological inconsistencies across existing studies pose challenges in comparing their results. In the current study, we introduce CSAP (Connected Speech Analysis Protocol), which is a specific methodological approach to investigate fluency metrics, such as articulation rate and speech rate, as well as silence measures, including silent pauses' frequency and duration. We emphasize the importance of employing a comprehensive set of measures within a specific methodological framework to better understand speech output patterns. Additionally, we advocate for the use of distinct narrative tasks for a thorough investigation of speech output in different conditions. We provide an example of data on which we implement CSAP to showcase the proposed pipeline. In conclusion, CSAP offers a comprehensive framework for investigating speech output patterns, incorporating fluency metrics and silence measures in distinct narrative tasks, thus allowing a detailed quantification of connected speech in both healthy and clinical populations. We emphasize the significance of adopting a unified methodological approach in connected speech studies, enabling the integration of results for more robust and generalizable conclusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgia Angelopoulou
- Neuropsychology & Language Disorders Unit, 1st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece; (G.A.); (D.K.)
| | - Dimitrios Kasselimis
- Neuropsychology & Language Disorders Unit, 1st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece; (G.A.); (D.K.)
- Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
| | - Dionysios Goutsos
- Department of Linguistics, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 106 79 Athens, Greece
| | - Constantin Potagas
- Neuropsychology & Language Disorders Unit, 1st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece; (G.A.); (D.K.)
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Angelopoulou G, Kasselimis D, Varkanitsa M, Tsolakopoulos D, Papageorgiou G, Velonakis G, Meier E, Karavassilis E, Pantoleon V, Laskaris N, Kelekis N, Tountopoulou A, Vassilopoulou S, Goutsos D, Kiran S, Weiller C, Rijntjes M, Potagas C. Investigating silent pauses in connected speech: integrating linguistic, neuropsychological, and neuroanatomical perspectives across narrative tasks in post-stroke aphasia. Front Neurol 2024; 15:1347514. [PMID: 38682034 PMCID: PMC11047180 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1347514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Silent pauses are regarded as integral components of the temporal organization of speech. However, it has also been hypothesized that they serve as markers for internal cognitive processes, including word access, monitoring, planning, and memory functions. Although existing evidence across various pathological populations underscores the importance of investigating silent pauses' characteristics, particularly in terms of frequency and duration, there is a scarcity of data within the domain of post-stroke aphasia. Methods The primary objective of the present study is to scrutinize the frequency and duration of silent pauses in two distinct narrative tasks within a cohort of 32 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia, in comparison with a control group of healthy speakers. Subsequently, we investigate potential correlation patterns between silent pause measures, i.e., frequency and duration, across the two narrative tasks within the patient group, their performance in neuropsychological assessments, and lesion data. Results Our findings showed that patients exhibited a higher frequency of longer-duration pauses in both narrative tasks compared to healthy speakers. Furthermore, within-group comparisons revealed that patients tended to pause more frequently and for longer durations in the picture description task, while healthy participants exhibited the opposite trend. With regard to our second research question, a marginally significant interaction emerged between performance in semantic verbal fluency and the narrative task, in relation to the location of silent pauses-whether between or within clauses-predicting the duration of silent pauses in the patient group. However, no significant results were observed for the frequency of silent pauses. Lastly, our study identified that the duration of silent pauses could be predicted by distinct Regions of Interest (ROIs) in spared tissue within the left hemisphere, as a function of the narrative task. Discussion Overall, this study follows an integrative approach of linguistic, neuropsychological and neuroanatomical data to define silent pauses in connected speech, and illustrates interrelations between cognitive components, temporal aspects of speech, and anatomical indices, while it further highlights the importance of studying connected speech indices using different narrative tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- G. Angelopoulou
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - D. Kasselimis
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
| | - M. Varkanitsa
- Center for Brain Recovery, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - D. Tsolakopoulos
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - G. Papageorgiou
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - G. Velonakis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - E. Meier
- The Aphasia Network Lab, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - E. Karavassilis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
| | - V. Pantoleon
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - N. Laskaris
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering, School of Engineering, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
| | - N. Kelekis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - A. Tountopoulou
- Stroke Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - S. Vassilopoulou
- Stroke Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - D. Goutsos
- Department of Linguistics, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - S. Kiran
- Center for Brain Recovery, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - C. Weiller
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - M. Rijntjes
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - C. Potagas
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
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Antonsson M, Lundholm Fors K, Hartelius L. Disfluencies in spontaneous speech in persons with low-grade glioma before and after surgery. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2024; 38:359-380. [PMID: 37357743 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2023.2226305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2023] [Indexed: 06/27/2023]
Abstract
Impaired lexical retrieval is common in persons with low-grade glioma (LGG). Several studies have reported a discrepancy between subjective word-finding difficulties and results on formal tests. Analysis of spontaneous speech might be more sensitive to signs of word-finding difficulties, hence we aimed to explore disfluencies in a spontaneous-speech task performed by participants with presumed LGG before and after surgery. Further, we wanted to explore how the presence of disfluencies in spontaneous speech differed in the participants with and without objectively established lexical-retrieval impairment and with and without self-reported subjective experience of impaired language, speech and communication. Speech samples of 26 persons with presumed low-grade glioma were analysed with regard to disfluency features. The post-operative speech samples had a higher occurrence of fillers, implying more disfluent language production. The participants performed worse on two of the word fluency tests, and after surgery the number of participants who were assessed as having an impaired lexical retrieval had increased from 6 to 12. The number of participants who experienced a change in their language, speech or communication had increased from 9 to 12. Additional comparisons showed that those with impaired lexical retrieval had a higher proportion of false starts after surgery than those with normal lexical retrieval, and differences in articulation rate and speech rate, favouring those not having experienced any change in language, speech or communication. Taken together, the findings from this study strengthen the existing claim that temporal aspects of language and speech are important when assessing persons with gliomas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Malin Antonsson
- Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Speech and Language Pathology Unit, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Kristina Lundholm Fors
- Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Speech and Language Pathology Unit, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Centre for Teaching and Learning, Medical Faculty, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Lena Hartelius
- Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Speech and Language Pathology Unit, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
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Panikratova YR, Lebedeva IS, Akhutina TV, Tikhonov DV, Kaleda VG, Vlasova RM. Executive control of language in schizophrenia patients with history of auditory verbal hallucinations: A neuropsychological and resting-state fMRI study. Schizophr Res 2023; 262:201-210. [PMID: 37923596 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2023.10.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2023] [Revised: 10/23/2023] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND As demonstrated by a plethora of studies, compromised executive functions (EF) and language are implicated in mechanisms of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), but the contribution of their interaction to AVH remains unclear. We hypothesized that schizophrenia patients with history of AVH (AVHh+) vs. without history of AVH (AVHh-) have a specific deficit of executive control of language and alterations in functional connectivity (FC) between the brain regions involved in EF and language, and these neuropsychological and neurophysiological traits are associated with each other. METHODS To explore the executive control of language and its contribution to AVH, we used an integrative approach involving analysis of neuropsychological and resting-state fMRI data of 34 AVHh+, 16 AVHh-, and 40 healthy controls. We identified the neuropsychological and FC measures that differentiated between AVHh+, AVHh-, and HC, and tested the associations between them. RESULTS AVHh+ were characterized by decreased category and phonological verbal fluency, utterance length, productivity in the planning tasks, and poorer retelling. AVHh+ had decreased FC between the left inferior frontal gyrus and the anterior cingulate cortex. Productivity in category verbal fluency was associated with the FC between these regions. CONCLUSIONS Poor executive control of word retrieval and deficient programming of sentence and narrative related to more general deficits of planning may be the neuropsychological traits specific for AVHh+. A neurophysiological trait specific for AVHh+ may be a decreased FC between regions involved in language production and differentiation between alien- vs. self-generated speech and between language production vs. comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yana R Panikratova
- Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Multimodal Analysis, Mental Health Research Center, 115522, 34 Kashirskoye shosse, Moscow, Russia.
| | - Irina S Lebedeva
- Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Multimodal Analysis, Mental Health Research Center, 115522, 34 Kashirskoye shosse, Moscow, Russia
| | - Tatiana V Akhutina
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 125009, 11/9 Mokhovaya street, Moscow, Russia
| | - Denis V Tikhonov
- Department of Youth Psychiatry, Mental Health Research Center, 115522, 34 Kashirskoye shosse, Moscow, Russia
| | - Vasilii G Kaleda
- Department of Youth Psychiatry, Mental Health Research Center, 115522, 34 Kashirskoye shosse, Moscow, Russia
| | - Roza M Vlasova
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, 101 Manning Dr # 1, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, United States of America
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Grammar in 'agrammatical' aphasia: What's intact? PLoS One 2022; 17:e0278676. [PMID: 36473005 PMCID: PMC9725141 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 11/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Aphasia following cerebro-vascular accidents has been a primary source of insight for models of language in the brain. However, deviant language patterns in aphasia may reflect processing limitations and cognitive impairment more than language impairment per se. AIMS We sought to obtain new evidence from spontaneous speech in Broca's aphasia (BA) for the intactness of grammatical knowledge, operationalized as the preservation of the basic hierarchical structure of syntactic projections. METHODS & PROCEDURES Speech obtained with the AphasiaBank protocol from 20 people with BA, which were independently rated as also being agrammatic, was analyzed and compared to 20 matched non-brain-damaged controls. We quantified (i) marking of Aspect, Tense, and Modality (A-T-M), which are located at specific (high) layers of the syntactic hierarchy and ordered in relation to one another ([M…[T…[A…]]]); (ii) hierarchies of clausal units ([C…[C]]); (iii) discourse markers embedding clauses, located at the highest layer of the hierarchy; and (iv) attachment of adjuncts at different heights of a given hierarchical syntactic structure. Supplementary evidence was obtained from a typology of errors and from pauses subcategorized according to their hierarchical syntactic position. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Groups did not quantitatively differ on rates of either Aspect or Modality but underproduced T and embedded clauses. Evidence for compensatory effects was seen in both of the latter two cases. While all adjunct types were underproduced in BA, and pauses overproduced, both showed the same relative proportions within both groups. Errors were largely restricted to omissions, of a kind that would also be expected in condensed neurotypical speech. CONCLUSIONS Overall, these patterns support the hypothesis of intactness of grammatical knowledge in BA clinically rated as agrammatic, questioning it as a disease model of language impairment.
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Potagas C, Nikitopoulou Z, Angelopoulou G, Kasselimis D, Laskaris N, Kourtidou E, Constantinides VC, Bougea A, Paraskevas GP, Papageorgiou G, Tsolakopoulos D, Papageorgiou SG, Kapaki E. Silent Pauses and Speech Indices as Biomarkers for Primary Progressive Aphasia. Medicina (B Aires) 2022; 58:medicina58101352. [PMID: 36295513 PMCID: PMC9611099 DOI: 10.3390/medicina58101352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 09/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Recent studies highlight the importance of investigating biomarkers for diagnosing and classifying patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Even though there is ongoing research on pathophysiological indices in this field, the use of behavioral variables, and especially speech-derived factors, has drawn little attention in the relevant literature. The present study aims to investigate the possible utility of speech-derived indices, particularly silent pauses, as biomarkers for primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Materials and Methods: We recruited 22 PPA patients and 17 healthy controls, from whom we obtained speech samples based on two elicitation tasks, i.e., cookie theft picture description (CTP) and the patients’ personal narration of the disease onset and course. Results: Four main indices were derived from these speech samples: speech rate, articulation rate, pause frequency, and pause duration. In order to investigate whether these indices could be used to discriminate between the four groups of participants (healthy individuals and the three patient subgroups corresponding to the three variants of PPA), we conducted three sets of analyses: a series of ANOVAs, two principal component analyses (PCAs), and two hierarchical cluster analyses (HCAs). The ANOVAs revealed significant differences between the four subgroups for all four variables, with the CTP results being more robust. The subsequent PCAs and HCAs were in accordance with the initial statistical comparisons, revealing that the speech-derived indices for CTP provided a clearer classification and were especially useful for distinguishing the non-fluent variant from healthy participants as well as from the two other PPA taxonomic categories. Conclusions: In sum, we argue that speech-derived indices, and especially silent pauses, could be used as complementary biomarkers to efficiently discriminate between PPA and healthy speakers, as well as between the three variants of the disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Constantin Potagas
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- Correspondence:
| | - Zoi Nikitopoulou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Georgia Angelopoulou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- Department of Speech and Language Therapy, School of Health Sciences, University of Peloponnese, 241 00 Kalamata, Greece
| | - Dimitrios Kasselimis
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
| | - Nikolaos Laskaris
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering, School of Engineering, University of West Attica, 122 43 Athens, Greece
| | - Evie Kourtidou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Vasilios C. Constantinides
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Anastasia Bougea
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - George P. Paraskevas
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- 2nd Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Attikon University Hospital, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Georgios Papageorgiou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Dimitrios Tsolakopoulos
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Sokratis G. Papageorgiou
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Elisabeth Kapaki
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
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11
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Salis C, DeDe G. Sentence Production in a Discourse Context in Latent Aphasia: A Real-Time Study. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2022; 31:1284-1296. [PMID: 35363996 DOI: 10.1044/2022_ajslp-21-00232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to improve our understanding as to which factors determine online, spoken sentence production abilities of adults with latent aphasia in a discourse context. METHOD Discourse samples of the story of Cinderella elicited from AphasiaBank were analyzed with speech analysis software. Participants comprised people with latent and anomic aphasia as well as neurotypical controls (10 per group). Durations of pauses (silent and filled) were analyzed according to (a) the location they occurred (between or within sentences), (b) the syntactic complexity of sentences (simple, complex), and (c) sentence length (number of words). Statistical comparisons were conducted using mixed-effect models. RESULTS The two clinical groups (latent and anomic) differed from controls in the duration of pauses, both between and within sentences. Syntactic complexity did not exert an effect on either of the two clinical groups as compared with controls. As compared with controls, both clinical groups paused more before long in comparison with short sentences. CONCLUSION Reduction in processing speed, which affects the ability to simultaneously maintain multiple linguistic and other cognitive demands associated with planning and monitoring of utterances, is a major factor that compromises sentence production in spoken discourse in latent aphasia. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19448726.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christos Salis
- Speech & Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Gayle DeDe
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
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12
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Leaman MC, Archer B. "If You Just Stay With Me and Wait…You'll Get an Idea of What I'm Saying": The Communicative Benefits of Time for Conversational Self-Repair for People With Aphasia. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2022; 31:1264-1283. [PMID: 35353545 PMCID: PMC9567347 DOI: 10.1044/2022_ajslp-21-00199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2021] [Revised: 11/23/2021] [Accepted: 01/03/2022] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study investigated the communicative benefits of self-repair during conversation for persons with aphasia (PWAs). Self-repair of trouble sources is an interactional priority that emphasizes autonomy and competence. Of equal importance, conversationalists desire to minimize silences and work together to ensure forward movement (progressivity) of conversation. Simultaneously achieving progressivity and self-repair is challenging in aphasia, and PWAs and their partners often make trade-off decisions between these two activities. Conversation-level aphasia interventions usually focus on supportive techniques that promote participation while maintaining progressivity, effectively favoring progressivity over self-repair. This study evaluates the benefits of an alternative approach that shifts the emphasis to self-repair, thereby highlighting potential trade-off costs of routinely forgoing self-repair to achieve progressivity. METHOD Ten people with mild-to-moderate aphasia each held two conversations with two different partners. When trouble sources characterized by silent and/or filled pauses occurred, partners maintained a supportive and engaged stance, allowing PWAs time to self-repair. We analyzed language produced during these "edited turns" using three paradigms considering form, content, and use. RESULTS The data yielded 311 edited turns. For form, on average, each edited turn resulted in 3.72 words; for content, most edited turns contained autobiographical information; for use, approximately 40% of edited turns introduced new information, and 40% added to the ongoing topic. The remainder were either ambiguous or comments such as, "I can't think of it." CONCLUSIONS When given engaged support and time to self-repair, PWAs contributed meaningful personal information to conversations for approximately 80% of edited turns. Importantly, self-repair often resulted in self-expression that directed the conversation, which is a communicative role critical for empowering agency and identity. This research opens a dialogue about benefits and limitations of approaches that prioritize either progressivity or self-repair and how to balance the two to optimize therapeutic benefits for each individual. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19379738.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marion C. Leaman
- Department of Hearing and Speech, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City
| | - Brent Archer
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Bowling Green State University, OH
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13
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Feenaughty L, Basilakos A, Bonilha L, Fridriksson J. Speech timing changes accompany speech entrainment in aphasia. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2021; 90:106090. [PMID: 33611108 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2021.106090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2020] [Revised: 01/31/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Prior speech entrainment studies, where individuals with non-fluent aphasia mimic an audio-visual model, suggest speech entrainment improves speech fluency, as indexed by various linguistic measures (e.g., the total number of different words produced per minute). Here, more precise speech timing adjustments accompanying entrained speech were studied and compared to spontaneous speech to determine how these temporal variables relate to the fluency inducing effects of speech entrainment in aphasia. METHODS Thirty-one left hemisphere stroke survivors classified with fluent or non-fluent speech were audio-video recorded as they described a picture and during speech entrainment. Speech fluency was documented using the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised. Acoustic measures of speech timing included total number of syllables, speech rate, articulatory rate, silent pause frequency and duration. Standard descriptive statistics and a two-factor mixed model analysis of variance were used to investigate group, task, and 'group x task' interaction effects. FINDINGS All acoustic measures of speech timing differentiated the fluent and nonfluent groups except for silent pause frequency. Differences between speech entrainment and spontaneous speech were found for most acoustic measures of speech timing and speaker groups, yet the direction of the effect varied. Stroke survivors classified with non-fluent aphasia improved speech fluency such that speech entrainment elicited pause adjustments facilitating more typical speech timing in comparison to spontaneous speech. CONCLUSION Overall, findings provide further evidence of the impact of speech entrainment on measures of speech timing to help individuals with non-fluent aphasia to practice speaking more fluently. Practicing speaking more fluently may ultimately impact perceptual judgments of speech naturalness and social acceptance for persons with aphasia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lynda Feenaughty
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA; Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.
| | - Alexandra Basilakos
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.
| | - Leonardo Bonilha
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA.
| | - Julius Fridriksson
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.
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14
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Automated profiling of spontaneous speech in primary progressive aphasia and behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia: An approach based on usage-frequency. Cortex 2020; 133:103-119. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.08.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2019] [Revised: 03/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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15
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Boucher J, Marcotte K, Brisebois A, Courson M, Houzé B, Desautels A, Léonard C, Rochon E, Brambati SM. Word-finding in confrontation naming and picture descriptions produced by individuals with early post-stroke aphasia. Clin Neuropsychol 2020; 36:1422-1437. [PMID: 32924789 DOI: 10.1080/13854046.2020.1817563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The present study aims to assess the relationship between quantitative measures of connected speech production and performance in confrontation naming in early post-stroke aphasia (8-14 days post-stroke). Method: We collected connected speech samples elicited by a picture description task and administered a confrontation naming task to 20 individuals with early post-stroke aphasia and 20 healthy controls. Transcriptions were made in compliance with the CHAT format guidelines. Several micro- (i.e. duration, total number of words, words per minute, mean length of utterances, ratio of open- to closed-class words and noun-to-verb ratio, VOC-D, repetitions, self-corrections, and phonological and semantic errors) and macrolinguistic (i.e. informativeness and efficiency) measures were extracted. Results: We provide evidence for the presence of impairments in an array of micro- and macrolinguistic measures of speech in individuals with early post-stroke aphasia. We show that in the patient group, confrontation naming abilities most strongly relate to informativeness in a picture description task. Conclusion: Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between performance in confrontation naming and in connected speech production in the first days after stroke onset and also suggest that discourse analysis may provide unique, possibly more complex information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johémie Boucher
- Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Département de psychologie, Faculté des arts et des sciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Karine Marcotte
- Centre de recherche du Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,École d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Amélie Brisebois
- Centre de recherche du Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,École d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Melody Courson
- Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Bérengère Houzé
- Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Département de psychologie, Faculté des arts et des sciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Alex Desautels
- Centre de recherche du Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Département des neurosciences, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Carol Léonard
- School of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Elizabeth Rochon
- Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.,Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.,Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto, Canada.,Heart and Stroke Foundation, Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Simona M Brambati
- Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Département de psychologie, Faculté des arts et des sciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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16
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DeDe G, Salis C. Temporal and Episodic Analyses of the Story of Cinderella in Latent Aphasia. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2020; 29:449-462. [PMID: 31419160 DOI: 10.1044/2019_ajslp-cac48-18-0210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study was to improve our understanding of the language characteristics of people with latent aphasia using measures that examined temporal (i.e., real-time) and episodic organization of discourse production. Method Thirty AphasiaBank participants were included (10 people with latent aphasia, 10 people with anomic aphasia, and 10 neurotypical control participants). Speech material of Cinderella narratives was analyzed with Praat software. We devised a protocol that coded the presence and duration of all speech segments, dysfluencies such as silent and filled pauses, and other speech behaviors. Using these durations, we generated a range of temporal measures such as speech, articulation, and pure word rates. Narratives were also coded into episodes, which provided information about the discourse macrostructure abilities of the participants. Results The latent aphasia group differed from controls in number of words produced, silent pause duration, and speech rate, but not articulation rate or pure word rate. Episodic organization of the narratives was similar in these 2 groups. The latent and anomic aphasia groups were similar in most measures, apart from articulation rate, which was lower in the anomic group. The anomic aphasia group also omitted more episodes than the latent aphasia group. Conclusions The differences between latent aphasia and neurotypical controls can be attributed to a processing speed deficit. We propose that this deficit results in an impaired ability to process information from multiple cognitive domains simultaneously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gayle DeDe
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Christos Salis
- Department of Speech & Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
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17
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Angelopoulou G, Meier EL, Kasselimis D, Pan Y, Tsolakopoulos D, Velonakis G, Karavasilis E, Kelekis NL, Goutsos D, Potagas C, Kiran S. Investigating Gray and White Matter Structural Substrates of Sex Differences in the Narrative Abilities of Healthy Adults. Front Neurosci 2020; 13:1424. [PMID: 32063823 PMCID: PMC7000661 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Linguistic aspects of narration have been investigated in healthy populations, in a wide variety of languages and speech genres with very different results. There is some evidence indicating that linguistic elements, such as speech rate (i.e., the measure indicating the amount of speech produced in a certain time period), mean length of utterance (MLU) (i.e., the index reflecting sentence grammatical structure), frequency of nouns and verbs, might be affected by non-linguistic factors such as sex. On the other hand, despite the existence of neuroimaging evidence of structural differences between males and females, it is yet unknown how such differences could explain between-sex disparities in linguistic abilities in natural speech contexts. To date, no study has evaluated discourse production elements in relation to sex differences and their neural correlates in terms of brain structure, a topic that could provide unique insights on the relationship between language and the brain. The aim of the present study was to determine sex differences in narrative skills in healthy adults and to investigate white and gray matter structural correlates of linguistic skills in each group. Twenty-seven male and 30 female (N = 57) right-handed, neurologically intact, monolingual Greek speakers, matched for age and years of education, participated. Narrations of a personal medical event were elicited. Linguistic elements of speech rate (words per minute), MLUs, frequency of nouns and verbs were calculated for each speech sample, by two independent raters. Structural 3D T1 images were segmented and parcellated using FreeSurfer and whole-brain between-sex differences in cortical thickness, cortical volume and surface area, were obtained. Between-group differences in white matter diffusion tensor scalars were examined via Tract-Based Spatial-Statistics and whole-brain tractography and automated tract delineation using Automated Fiber Quantification. Speech rate and noun frequency were significantly lower for men, while verb frequency was significantly higher for women, but no differences were identified for MLU. Regarding cortical measures, males demonstrated increased volume, surface area and cortical thickness in several bilateral regions, while no voxel-wise or tractography-based between-group differences in white matter metrics were observed. Regarding the relationship between sex and speech variables, hierarchical regression analyses showed that the superior/middle frontal cluster in surface area may serve as a significant predictor of speech rate variance, but only in females. We discuss several possible interpretations of how sex-related speech abilities could be represented differently in men and women in gray matter structures within the broad language network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgia Angelopoulou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Erin L. Meier
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Dimitrios Kasselimis
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
| | - Yue Pan
- Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Dimitrios Tsolakopoulos
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - George Velonakis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Efstratios Karavasilis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Nikolaos L. Kelekis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Dionysios Goutsos
- Department of Linguistics, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Constantin Potagas
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Swathi Kiran
- Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
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18
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Tovar A, Garí Soler A, Ruiz-Idiago J, Mareca Viladrich C, Pomarol-Clotet E, Rosselló J, Hinzen W. Language disintegration in spontaneous speech in Huntington's disease: a more fine-grained analysis. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2020; 83:105970. [PMID: 32062158 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2019.105970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2018] [Revised: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 12/01/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease causing motor symptoms along with cognitive and affective problems. Recent evidence suggests that HD also affects language across core levels of linguistic organization, including at stages of the disease when standardized neuropsychological test profiles are still normal and motor symptoms do not yet reach clinical thresholds ('pre-manifest HD'). The present study aimed to subject spontaneous speech to a more fine-grained linguistic analysis in a sample of 20 identified HD gene-carriers, 10 with pre-manifest and 10 with early manifest HD. We further explored how language performance related to non-linguistic cognitive impairment, using standardized neuropsychological measures. A distinctive pattern of linguistic impairments marked off participants with both pre-manifest and manifest HD from healthy controls and each other. Fluency patterns in premanifest HD were marked by prolongations, filled pauses, and repetitions, which shifted to a pattern marked by empty (unfilled) pauses, re-phrasings, and truncations in manifest HD. Both HD groups also significantly differed from controls and each other in how they grammatically connected clauses and used noun phrases referentially. Functional deficits in language occurred in pre-manifest HD in the absence of any non-linguistic neuropsychological impairment and did largely not correlate with standardized neuropsychological measures in manifest HD. These results further corroborate that language can act as a fine-grained clinical marker in HD, which can track disease progression from the pre-manifest stage, define critical remediation targets, and inform the role of the basal ganglia in language processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonia Tovar
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Jesús Ruiz-Idiago
- Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Neuropsychiatry Unit, Hospital Mare de Déu de la Mercè, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Celia Mareca Viladrich
- Neuropsychiatry Unit, Hospital Mare de Déu de la Mercè, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Joana Rosselló
- Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain; ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies), Barcelona, Spain.
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19
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Harmon TG, Jacks A, Haley KL. Speech Fluency in Acquired Apraxia of Speech During Narrative Discourse: Group Comparisons and Dual-Task Effects. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2019; 28:905-914. [PMID: 31306594 DOI: 10.1044/2018_ajslp-msc18-18-0107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Slowed speech and interruptions to the flow of connected speech are common in aphasia. These features are also observed during dual-task performance for neurotypical adults. The purposes of this study were to determine (a) whether indices of fluency related to cognitive-linguistic versus motor processing would differ between speakers with aphasia plus apraxia of speech (AOS) and speakers with aphasia only and (b) whether cognitive load reduces fluency in speakers with aphasia with and without AOS. Method Fourteen speakers with aphasia (7 with AOS) and 7 neurotypical controls retold short stories alone (single task) and while simultaneously distinguishing between a high and a low tone (dual task). Their narrative samples were analyzed for speech fluency according to sample duration, speech rate, pause/fill time, and repetitions per syllable. Results As expected, both speaker groups with aphasia spoke slower and with more pauses than the neurotypical controls. The speakers with AOS produced more repetitions and longer samples than controls, but they did not differ on these measures from the speakers with aphasia without AOS. Relative to the single-task condition, the dual-task condition increased the duration of pauses and fillers for all groups but reduced speaking rate only for the control group. Sample duration and frequency of repetitions did not change in response to cognitive load. Conclusions Speech output in aphasia becomes less fluent when speakers have to engage in simultaneous tasks, as is typical in everyday conversation. Although AOS may lead to more sound and syllable repetitions than normal, speaking tasks other than narrative discourse might better capture this specific type of disfluency. Future research is needed to confirm and expand these preliminary findings. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8847845.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tyson G Harmon
- Department of Communication Disorders, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
| | - Adam Jacks
- Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Katarina L Haley
- Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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20
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Çokal D, Zimmerer V, Turkington D, Ferrier N, Varley R, Watson S, Hinzen W. Disturbing the rhythm of thought: Speech pausing patterns in schizophrenia, with and without formal thought disorder. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0217404. [PMID: 31150442 PMCID: PMC6544238 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2018] [Accepted: 05/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Everyday speech is produced with an intricate timing pattern and rhythm. Speech units follow each other with short interleaving pauses, which can be either bridged by fillers (erm, ah) or empty. Through their syntactic positions, pauses connect to the thoughts expressed. We investigated whether disturbances of thought in schizophrenia are manifest in patterns at this level of linguistic organization, whether these are seen in first degree relatives (FDR) and how specific they are to formal thought disorder (FTD). Spontaneous speech from 15 participants without FTD (SZ-FTD), 15 with FTD (SZ+FTD), 15 FDRs and 15 neurotypical controls (NC) was obtained from a comic strip retelling task and rated for pauses subclassified by syntactic position and duration. SZ-FTD produced significantly more unfilled pauses than NC in utterance-initial positions and before embedded clauses. Unfilled pauses occurring within clausal units did not distinguish any groups. SZ-FTD also differed from SZ+FTD in producing significantly more pauses before embedded clauses. SZ+FTD differed from NC and FDR only in producing longer utterance-initial pauses. FDRs produced significantly fewer fillers than NC. Results reveal that the temporal organization of speech is an important window on disturbances of the thought process and how these relate to language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derya Çokal
- School of Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: ,
| | - Vitor Zimmerer
- Department of Language and Cognition, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Douglas Turkington
- Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle, United Kingdom
| | - Nicol Ferrier
- Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle, United Kingdom
| | - Rosemary Varley
- Department of Language and Cognition, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Stuart Watson
- Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle, United Kingdom
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- ICREA (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats), Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalaries Research Foundation, Benito Menni Hospital, Barcelona, Spain
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