1
|
Rong P, Heidrick L, Pattee GL. A multimodal approach to automated hierarchical assessment of bulbar involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Front Neurol 2024; 15:1396002. [PMID: 38836001 PMCID: PMC11148322 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1396002] [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: 03/05/2024] [Accepted: 05/01/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction As a hallmark feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), bulbar involvement leads to progressive declines of speech and swallowing functions, significantly impacting social, emotional, and physical health, and quality of life. Standard clinical tools for bulbar assessment focus primarily on clinical symptoms and functional outcomes. However, ALS is known to have a long, clinically silent prodromal stage characterized by complex subclinical changes at various levels of the bulbar motor system. These changes accumulate over time and eventually culminate in clinical symptoms and functional declines. Detection of these subclinical changes is critical, both for mechanistic understanding of bulbar neuromuscular pathology and for optimal clinical management of bulbar dysfunction in ALS. To this end, we developed a novel multimodal measurement tool based on two clinically readily available, noninvasive instruments-facial surface electromyography (sEMG) and acoustic techniques-to hierarchically assess seven constructs of bulbar/speech motor control at the neuromuscular and acoustic levels. These constructs, including prosody, pause, functional connectivity, amplitude, rhythm, complexity, and regularity, are both mechanically and clinically relevant to bulbar involvement. Methods Using a custom-developed, fully automated data analytic algorithm, a variety of features were extracted from the sEMG and acoustic recordings of a speech task performed by 13 individuals with ALS and 10 neurologically healthy controls. These features were then factorized into 10 composite outcome measures using confirmatory factor analysis. Statistical and machine learning techniques were applied to these composite outcome measures to evaluate their reliability (internal consistency), validity (concurrent and construct), and efficacy for early detection and progress monitoring of bulbar involvement in ALS. Results The composite outcome measures were demonstrated to (1) be internally consistent and structurally valid in measuring the targeted constructs; (2) hold concurrent validity with the existing clinical and functional criteria for bulbar assessment; and (3) outperform the outcome measures obtained from each constituent modality in differentiating individuals with ALS from healthy controls. Moreover, the composite outcome measures combined demonstrated high efficacy for detecting subclinical changes in the targeted constructs, both during the prodromal stage and during the transition from prodromal to symptomatic stages. Discussion The findings provided compelling initial evidence for the utility of the multimodal measurement tool for improving early detection and progress monitoring of bulbar involvement in ALS, which have important implications in facilitating timely access to and delivery of optimal clinical care of bulbar dysfunction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States
| | - Lindsey Heidrick
- Department of Hearing and Speech, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, United States
| | - Gary L Pattee
- Neurology Associate P.C., Lincoln, NE, United States
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Bouvier L, McKinlay S, Truong J, Genge A, Dupré N, Dionne A, Kalra S, Yunusova Y. Speech timing and monosyllabic diadochokinesis measures in the assessment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in Canadian French. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2024; 26:267-277. [PMID: 37272348 PMCID: PMC10696137 DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2023.2214706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The primary objective of this study was to determine if speech and pause measures obtained using a passage reading task and timing measures from a monosyllabic diadochokinesis (DDK) task differ across speakers of Canadian French diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) presenting with and without bulbar symptoms, and healthy controls. The secondary objective was to determine if these measures can reflect the severity of bulbar symptoms. METHOD A total of 29 Canadian French speakers with ALS (classified as bulbar symptomatic [n = 14] or pre-symptomatic [n = 15]) and 17 age-matched healthy controls completed a passage reading task and a monosyllabic DDK task (/pa/ and /ta/), for up to three follow-up visits. Measures of speaking rate, total duration, speech duration, and pause events were extracted from the passage reading recordings using a semi-automated speech and pause analysis procedure. Manual analysis of DDK recordings provided measures of DDK rate and variability. RESULT Group comparisons revealed significant differences (p = < .05) between the symptomatic group and the pre-symptomatic and control groups for all passage measures and DDK rates. Only the DDK rate in /ta/ differentiated the pre-symptomatic and control groups. Repeated measures correlations revealed moderate correlations (rrm = > 0.40; p = < 0.05) between passage measures of total duration, speaking rate, speech duration, and number of pauses, and ALSFRS-R total and bulbar scores, as well as between DDK rate and ALSFRS-R total score. CONCLUSION Speech and pause measures in passage and timing measures in monosyllabic DDK tasks might be suitable for monitoring bulbar functional symptoms in French speakers with ALS, but more work is required to identify which measures are sensitive to the earliest stages of the disease.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Liziane Bouvier
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Scotia McKinlay
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Justin Truong
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Angela Genge
- Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital – The Neuro, Montréal, Canada
| | - Nicolas Dupré
- Neurosciences axis, CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada
| | - Annie Dionne
- Neurosciences axis, CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada
| | - Sanjay Kalra
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
- Division of Neurology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Yana Yunusova
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
- University Health Network—Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Kao TH, Rowe HP, Green JR, Stipancic KL, Sharma N, de Guzman JK, Supnet-Wells ML, Acuna P, Perry BJ. Oral diadochokinetic markers of X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2024; 120:105991. [PMID: 38184995 PMCID: PMC10922526 DOI: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2024.105991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2023] [Revised: 12/23/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 01/09/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism (XDP) is a neurodegenerative disorder that may result in severe speech impairment. The literature suggests that there are differences in the speech of individuals with XDP and healthy controls. This study aims to examine the motor speech characteristics of the mixed dystonia-parkinsonism phase of XDP. METHOD We extracted acoustic features representing coordination, consistency, speed, precision, and rate from 26 individuals with XDP and 26 controls using Praat, MATLAB, and R software. Group demographics were compared using descriptive statistics. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's post hoc test was used to test for acoustic differences between the two groups. RESULTS The XDP group had significantly lower consistency, speed, precision, and rate than controls (p < 0.05). For coordination, the XDP group had a smaller ratio of pause duration during transitions when compared to controls. DISCUSSION To our knowledge, this study is the first to describe the motor speech characteristics of the mixed dystonia-parkinsonism phase of XDP. The motor speech of mixed dystonia-parkinsonism XDP is similar to prior characterizations of mixed hyperkinetic-hypokinetic dysarthria with noted differences in articulatory coordination, consistency, speed, precision, and rate from healthy controls. Identifying the motor speech components of all three phenotypes of XDP (i.e., dystonia-dominant phase, parkinsonism-dominant phase, and mixed dystonia-parkinsonism phase) is needed to establish markers of speech impairment to track disease progression.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tabitha H Kao
- MGH Institute of Health Professions, 36 1st Ave, Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA, 02129, United States.
| | - Hannah P Rowe
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 677 Beacon St, Boston, MA, 02215, United States.
| | - Jordan R Green
- MGH Institute of Health Professions, 36 1st Ave, Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA, 02129, United States.
| | - Kaila L Stipancic
- Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14214, United States.
| | - Nutan Sharma
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, United States; The Collaborative Center for X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, United States.
| | - Jan K de Guzman
- Department of Neurology, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Manila, Metro Manila, 1012, Philippines; Sunshine Care Foundation, The Health Centrum, Roxas City, Capiz, 5800, Philippines.
| | - Melanie L Supnet-Wells
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, United States; The Collaborative Center for X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, United States.
| | - Patrick Acuna
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, United States; The Collaborative Center for X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, United States.
| | - Bridget J Perry
- MGH Institute of Health Professions, 36 1st Ave, Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA, 02129, United States.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Rong P, Rasmussen L. A Fine-Grained Temporal Analysis of Multimodal Oral Diadochokinetic Performance to Assess Speech Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2024; 33:307-332. [PMID: 38064644 DOI: 10.1044/2023_ajslp-23-00177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study used a semiautomated fine-grained temporal analysis to extract features of temporal oral diadochokinetic (DDK) performance across multiple modalities and tasks, from neurologically healthy and impaired individuals secondary to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The aims were to (a) delineate temporal oral DDK deficits relating to the neuromotor pathology of ALS and (b) identify the optimal task-feature combinations to detect speech impairment in ALS. METHOD Mandibular myoelectric, kinematic, and acoustic data were acquired from 13 individuals with ALS and 10 healthy controls producing three alternating motion rate tasks and one sequential motion rate task. Twenty-seven features were extracted from the multimodal data, characterizing three temporal constructs: duration/rate, variability, and coordination. The disease impacts on these features were assessed across tasks, and the task eliciting the greatest disease-related change was identified for each feature. Such "optimal" task-feature combinations were fed into logistic regression to differentiate individuals with ALS from healthy controls. RESULTS Temporal deficits in ALS were characterized by (a) increased duration and variability and reduced coordination of jaw muscle activities, (b) increased duration and variability and altered temporal symmetry of jaw velocity profile, (c) increased muscle-burst-to-peak-velocity duration, and (d) increased motion-to-voice onset duration. These temporal features were differentially affected across tasks. The optimal task-feature combinations, which were further clustered into three composite factors reflecting temporal variability, coarser-grained duration, and finer-grained duration, differentiated ALS from controls with an F1 score of 0.86 (precision = 1.00, recall = 0.75). CONCLUSIONS Temporal oral DDK deficits are likely attributed to a hierarchy of interrelated neurophysiological and biomechanical factors associated with the neuromotor pathology of ALS. These deficits, as assessed crossmodally, provide previously unavailable insights into the multifaceted timing impairment of oromotor performance in ALS. The optimal task-feature combinations targeting these deficits show promise as quantitative markers for (early) detection of speech impairment in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| | - Lily Rasmussen
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Rong P, Taylor A. A Vowel-Centric View Toward Characterizing Temporal Organization of Motor Speech Activities in Neurologically Impaired and Healthy Speakers. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:3697-3720. [PMID: 37607386 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-23-00129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/24/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study tested the hypotheses that (a) motor speech activities are temporally organized around the nuclei into vowel-centric units that hold both stability and flexibility and (b) such temporal organization is impacted by motor speech impairment. METHOD Thirteen individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and 10 healthy controls read a sentence 3 times at each of the following rates: habitual, fast, and slow. Articulatory gestures and phonatory event were assessed in two vowel-centric units, as operationally defined within and across the boundaries of two target words-cat and must-to accommodate common coda omission and coarticulation. Twelve absolute and relative timing measures centering on the nucleus were derived to characterize the temporal organization of each unit. These measures were evaluated in terms of (a) their relations with global duration across rate conditions and (b) between-groups differences for the habitual rate condition. RESULTS Both vowel-centric units remained stable in relative timing between the articulatory gestures approaching and moving away from the nucleus across rate conditions. Relative timing between the articulatory gestures and phonatory event at smaller temporal granularities varied with global duration, but in different ways for neurologically impaired and healthy speakers. Disease impacts on relative timing were only detected across word boundaries. All absolute timing measures revealed consistent temporal scaling effects and disease-related prolongations. CONCLUSIONS The findings provide preliminary support for vowel-centric temporal organization of motor speech activities. Such temporal organization holds some extent of both stability and flexibility, which may facilitate the parsing of syllabic events during auditory processing, while accommodating task-specific suprasegmental variations. The timing impairments in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are likely attributed to the disease-imposed dynamic constraints, reducing the entrainment of the related motor speech activities to the underlying linguistic elements. These findings have potential implications in guiding the assessment and management of temporal speech deficits in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence
| | - Ava Taylor
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Rong P, Benson J. Intergenerational choral singing to improve communication outcomes in Parkinson's disease: Development of a theoretical framework and an integrated measurement tool. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2023; 25:722-745. [PMID: 36106430 DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2022.2110281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Purpose: This study presented an initial step towards developing the evidence base for intergenerational choral singing as a communication-focussed rehabilitative approach for Parkinson's disease (PD).Method: A theoretical framework was established to conceptualise the rehabilitative effect of intergenerational choral singing on four domains of communication impairments - motor drive, timing mechanism, sensorimotor integration, higher-level cognitive and affective functions - as well as activity/participation, and quality of life. A computer-assisted multidimensional acoustic analysis was developed to objectively assess the targeted domains of communication impairments. Voice Handicap Index and the World Health Organization's Quality of Life assessment-abbreviated version were used to obtain patient-reported outcomes at the activity/participation and quality of life levels. As a proof of concept, a single subject with PD was recruited to participate in 9 weekly 1-h intergenerational choir rehearsals. The subject was assessed before, 1 week post, and 8 weeks post-choir.Result: Notable trends of improvement were observed in multiple domains of communication impairments at 1 week post-choir. Some improvements were maintained at 8 weeks post-choir. Patient-reported outcomes exhibited limited pre-post changes.Conclusion: This study provided the theoretical groundwork and an empirical measurement tool for future validation of intergenerational choral singing as a novel rehabilitation for PD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA and
| | | |
Collapse
|
7
|
Yunusova Y, Waito A, Barnett Tapia C, Huynh A, Martino R, Abrahao A, Pattee GL, Berry JD, Zinman L, Green JR. Face and content validation of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-Bulbar dysfunction index (ALS-BDI). Front Neurol 2023; 13:1078612. [PMID: 36686519 PMCID: PMC9849694 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2022.1078612] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose Early detection and tracking of bulbar dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are critical for directing management of the disease. Existing physiological assessments of bulbar dysfunction are often inaccessible and cost-prohibitive for clinical application. Existing clinical assessments are limited. The overall goal of our research is to develop a brief and reliable, clinician-administered assessment tool, the ALS Bulbar Dysfunction Index (ALS-BDI) to evaluate bulbar dysfunction. The aim of this study was to establish content and face validity of the ALS-BDI through item generation and reduction, including item scoring. Methods The design of the ALS-BDI followed guidelines outlined by the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN). The design stage of the ALS-BDI involved two steps: (Step 1) the generation of candidate items from a literature review of commonly used clinical tools, and selection of items following a review of item reliability and item relevance and expert consensus; (Step 2) the assessment of their content and face validity via online survey feedback from experts (n = 35). The initial design was followed by a semi-structured cognitive interview with Speech-Language Pathologists (n = 5) to finalize a testable draft of the instrument. Results Two drafts of the ALS-BDI were developed. The first draft contained 48 items, after a review of existing clinical tools for their relevance to bulbar dysfunction in ALS. Of the 48 items, 35 items were retained after surveying experts and clinician users for their relevance, feasibility, interpretability, and appropriateness. The second draft of the ALS-BDI contained 37 items, due to one item splitting, based on users cognitive interviews. Conclusions The ALS-BDI described in this study aims to provide a brief and reliable, clinician-administered assessment tool to evaluate bulbar dysfunction in patients with ALS. Future research will evaluate the psychometric properties of this tool including its reliability, validity, and responsiveness to change over time.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yana Yunusova
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada,Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada,KITE – University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada,*Correspondence: Yana Yunusova ✉
| | - Ashley Waito
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Carolina Barnett Tapia
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada,Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Anna Huynh
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada,Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada,KITE – University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Rosemary Martino
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada,Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada,Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Agessandro Abrahao
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada,Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | | | - James D. Berry
- Sean M. Healey and AMG Center for ALS, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Lorne Zinman
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada,Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Jordan R. Green
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, United States,Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Rong P, Heidrick L. Functional Role of Temporal Patterning of Articulation in Speech Production: A Novel Perspective Toward Global Timing-Based Motor Speech Assessment and Rehabilitation. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:4577-4607. [PMID: 36399794 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study aimed to (a) relate temporal patterning of articulation to functional speech outcomes in neurologically healthy and impaired speakers, (b) identify changes in temporal patterning of articulation in neurologically impaired speakers, and (c) evaluate how these changes can be modulated by speaking rate manipulation. METHOD Thirteen individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and 10 neurologically healthy controls read a sentence 3 times, first at their habitual rate and then at a voluntarily slowed rate. Temporal patterning of articulation was assessed by 24 features characterizing the modulation patterns within (intra) and between (inter) four articulators (tongue tip, tongue body, lower lip, and jaw) at three linguistically relevant, hierarchically nested timescales corresponding to stress, syllable, and onset-rime/phoneme. For Aim 1, the features for the habitual rate condition were factorized and correlated with two functional speech outcomes-speech intelligibility and intelligible speaking rate. For Aims 2 and 3, the features were compared between groups and rate conditions, respectiely. RESULTS For Aim 1, the modulation features combined were moderately to strongly correlated with intelligibility (R 2 = .51-.53) and intelligible speaking rate (R 2 = .63-.73). For Aim 2, intra-articulator modulation was impaired in ALS, manifested by moderate-to-large decreases in modulation depth at all timescales and cross-timescale phase synchronization. Interarticulator modulation was relatively unaffected. For Aim 3, voluntary rate reduction improved several intra-articulator modulation features identified as being susceptible to the disease effect in individuals with ALS. CONCLUSIONS Disrupted temporal patterning of articulation, presumably reflecting impaired articulatory entrainment to linguistic rhythms, may contribute to functional speech declines in ALS. These impairments tend to be improved through voluntary rate reduction, possibly by reshaping the temporal template of motor plans to better accommodate the disease-related neuromechanical constraints in the articulatory system. These findings shed light on a novel perspective toward global timing-based motor speech assessment and rehabilitation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| | - Lindsey Heidrick
- Department of Hearing and Speech, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Cordella C, Gutz SE, Eshghi M, Stipancic KL, Schliep M, Dickerson BC, Green JR. Acoustic and Kinematic Assessment of Motor Speech Impairment in Patients With Suspected Four-Repeat Tauopathies. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:4112-4132. [PMID: 36306508 PMCID: PMC9940887 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of this study was to use acoustic and kinematic speech measures to characterize type of motor speech impairment-apraxia of speech (AOS) versus dysarthria-in individuals with four-repeat tauopathy (4RT)-associated syndromes, including nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), primary progressive AOS (PPAOS), corticobasal syndrome (CBS), and progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome (PSPs). METHOD Twenty patient participants were recruited and stratified into two groups: (a) a motor-speech-impaired group of individuals with nfvPPA, PPAOS, CBS, or PSPs and suspected 4RT pathology ("MSI+") and (b) a non-motor-speech-impaired group of individuals with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia ("MSI-"). Ten healthy, age-matched controls also participated in the study. Participants completed a battery of speech tasks, and 15 acoustic and kinematic speech measures were derived. Quantitative speech measures were grouped into feature categories ("AOS features," "dysarthria features," "shared features"). In addition to quantitative speech measures, two certified speech-language pathologists made independent, blinded auditory-perceptual ratings of motor speech impairment. A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to investigate the relative contributions of quantitative features. RESULTS Quantitative speech measures were generally concordant with independent clinician ratings of motor speech impairment severity. Hypothesis-driven groupings of quantitative measures differentiated predominantly apraxic from predominantly dysarthric presentations within the MSI+ group. PCA results provided additional evidence for differential profiles of motor speech impairment in the MSI+ group; heterogeneity across individuals is explained in large part by varying levels of overall severity-captured by the shared feature variable group-and degree of apraxia severity, as measured by the AOS feature variable group. CONCLUSIONS Quantitative features reveal heterogeneity of MSI in the 4RT group in terms of both overall severity and subtype of MSI. Results suggest the potential for acoustic and kinematic speech assessment methods to inform characterization of motor speech impairment in 4RT-associated syndromes. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21401778.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Claire Cordella
- Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA
| | - Sarah E. Gutz
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
| | - Marziye Eshghi
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA
| | - Kaila L. Stipancic
- Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, University at Buffalo, NY
| | - Megan Schliep
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA
| | | | - Jordan R. Green
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Allison KM, Nip ISB, Rong P. Use of Automated Kinematic Diadochokinesis Analysis to Identify Potential Indicators of Speech Motor Involvement in Children With Cerebral Palsy. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2022; 31:2835-2846. [PMID: 36126294 PMCID: PMC9911111 DOI: 10.1044/2022_ajslp-21-00241] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study examined multiple variables obtained from an automated measure of lip movement during a diadochokinesis (DDK) task to identify those with potential to detect mild speech motor involvement in school-age children diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP). METHOD Eight children with CP and high speech intelligibility and a matched group of eight children with typical development (TD) completed a DDK task while their lip and jaw movements were recorded. A custom MATLAB algorithm was used to automatically extract 23 kinematic measures of children's lip movements during production of the DDK sequences. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare groups on the kinematic measures, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of measures that significantly differed between groups. RESULTS Five of the 23 kinematic variables differed significantly between the CP and TD groups. These were two measures of overall DDK performance (i.e., duration of the DDK sequence and number of cycles) and three spatial and temporal measures of lip movement. Duration of the DDK sequence and the mean displacement of the lips across cycles had the highest diagnostic accuracy, differentiating CP and TD groups with 88% sensitivity and 88% specificity. CONCLUSIONS Automatically derived kinematic measures of DDK sequences differentiated children with CP and high intelligibility from typically developing children. Future research is needed to determine the clinical utility of these measures for detecting speech motor impairment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kristen M. Allison
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
| | - Ignatius S. B. Nip
- School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, CA
| | - Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Moore S, Rong P. Articulatory Underpinnings of Reduced Acoustic-Phonetic Contrasts in Individuals With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2022; 31:2022-2044. [PMID: 35973111 DOI: 10.1044/2022_ajslp-22-00046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of this study is to identify the articulatory underpinnings of the acoustic-phonetic correlates of functional speech decline in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). METHOD Thirteen individuals with varying severities of speech impairment secondary to ALS and 10 neurologically healthy controls speakers read 12 minimal word pairs, targeting the contrasts in the height, advancement, and length of vowels; the manner and place of articulation for consonants and consonant cluster; and liquid and glide approximants, 5 times. Sixteen acoustic features were extracted to characterize the phonetic contrasts of these minimal word pairs. These acoustic features were correlated with a functional speech index-intelligible speaking rate-using penalized regression, based on which the contributive features were identified as the acoustic-phonetic correlates of the functional speech outcome. Articulatory contrasts of the minimal word pairs were characterized by a set of dissimilarity indices derived by the dynamic time warping algorithm, which measured the differences in the displacement and velocity trajectories of tongue tip, tongue dorsum, lower lip, and jaw between the minimal word pairs. The contributive articulatory features to the acoustic-phonetic correlates were identified by penalized regression. RESULTS A variety of acoustic-phonetic features were identified as contributing to the functional speech outcome, of which the contrasts in vowel height and advancement, [r]-[l], [r]-[w], and initial cluster-singleton were the most affected in individuals with ALS. Differential articulatory underpinnings were identified for these acoustic-phonetic features. Impairments of these articulatory underpinnings, especially of tongue tip and tongue dorsum velocities and tongue tip displacement, were associated with reduced acoustic-phonetic contrasts of the minimal word pairs, in a context-specific manner. CONCLUSION The findings established explanatory relationships between articulatory impairment and the acoustic-phonetic profile of functional speech decline in ALS, providing useful information for developing targeted management strategies to improve and prolong functional speech in individuals with ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Moore
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| | - Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Hampsey E, Meszaros M, Skirrow C, Strawbridge R, Taylor RH, Chok L, Aarsland D, Al-Chalabi A, Chaudhuri R, Weston J, Fristed E, Podlewska A, Awogbemila O, Young AH. Protocol for Rhapsody: a longitudinal observational study examining the feasibility of speech phenotyping for remote assessment of neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. BMJ Open 2022; 12:e061193. [PMID: 35667724 PMCID: PMC9171270 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders (NPDs) confer a huge health burden, which is set to increase as populations age. New, remotely delivered diagnostic assessments that can detect early stage NPDs by profiling speech could enable earlier intervention and fewer missed diagnoses. The feasibility of collecting speech data remotely in those with NPDs should be established. METHODS AND ANALYSIS The present study will assess the feasibility of obtaining speech data, collected remotely using a smartphone app, from individuals across three NPD cohorts: neurodegenerative cognitive diseases (n=50), other neurodegenerative diseases (n=50) and affective disorders (n=50), in addition to matched controls (n=75). Participants will complete audio-recorded speech tasks and both general and cohort-specific symptom scales. The battery of speech tasks will serve several purposes, such as measuring various elements of executive control (eg, attention and short-term memory), as well as measures of voice quality. Participants will then remotely self-administer speech tasks and follow-up symptom scales over a 4-week period. The primary objective is to assess the feasibility of remote collection of continuous narrative speech across a wide range of NPDs using self-administered speech tasks. Additionally, the study evaluates if acoustic and linguistic patterns can predict diagnostic group, as measured by the sensitivity, specificity, Cohen's kappa and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the binary classifiers distinguishing each diagnostic group from each other. Acoustic features analysed include mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients, formant frequencies, intensity and loudness, whereas text-based features such as number of words, noun and pronoun rate and idea density will also be used. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION The study received ethical approval from the Health Research Authority and Health and Care Research Wales (REC reference: 21/PR/0070). Results will be disseminated through open access publication in academic journals, relevant conferences and other publicly accessible channels. Results will be made available to participants on request. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER NCT04939818.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elliot Hampsey
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | | | | | - Rebecca Strawbridge
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Rosie H Taylor
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | | | - Dag Aarsland
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Ammar Al-Chalabi
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Ray Chaudhuri
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
- Parkinson's Foundation Centre of Excellence, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | | | | | - Aleksandra Podlewska
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
- Parkinson's Foundation Centre of Excellence, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - Olabisi Awogbemila
- Parkinson's Foundation Centre of Excellence, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - Allan H Young
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Lévêque N, Slis A, Lancia L, Bruneteau G, Fougeron C. Acoustic Change Over Time in Spastic and/or Flaccid Dysarthria in Motor Neuron Diseases. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:1767-1783. [PMID: 35412848 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-21-00434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study aims to investigate acoustic change over time as biomarkers to differentiate among spastic-flaccid dysarthria associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spastic dysarthria associated with primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), flaccid dysarthria associated with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), and to explore how these acoustic parameters are affected by dysarthria severity. METHOD Thirty-three ALS patients with mixed flaccid-spastic dysarthria, 17 PLS patients with pure spastic dysarthria, 18 SBMA patients with pure flaccid dysarthria, and 70 controls, all French speakers, were included in the study. Speakers produced vowel-glide sequences targeting different vocal tract shape changes. The mean and coefficient of variation of the total squared change of mel frequency cepstral coefficients were used to capture the degree and variability of acoustic changes linked to vocal tract modifications over time. Differences in duration of acoustic events were also measured. RESULTS All pathological groups showed significantly less acoustic change compared to controls, reflecting less acoustic contrast in sequences. Spastic and mixed spastic-flaccid dysarthric speakers showed smaller acoustic changes and slower sequence production compared to flaccid dysarthria. For dysarthria subtypes associated with a spastic component, reduced degree of acoustic change was also associated with dysarthria severity. CONCLUSIONS The acoustic parameters partially differentiated among the dysarthria subtypes in relation to motor neuron diseases. While similar acoustic patterns were found in spastic-flaccid and spastic dysarthria, crucial differences were found between these two subtypes relating to variability. The acoustic patterns were much more variable in ALS. This method forms a promising clinical tool as a diagnostic marker of articulatory impairment, even at mild stage of dysarthria progression in all subtypes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nathalie Lévêque
- Laboratoire de Phonétique et de Phonologie, UMR 7018, CNRS/University Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France
- Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Department of Neurology, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, ALS Reference Center, Paris, France
| | - Anneke Slis
- Laboratoire de Phonétique et de Phonologie, UMR 7018, CNRS/University Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France
| | - Leonardo Lancia
- Laboratoire de Phonétique et de Phonologie, UMR 7018, CNRS/University Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France
| | - Gaëlle Bruneteau
- Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Department of Neurology, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, ALS Reference Center, Paris, France
| | - Cécile Fougeron
- Laboratoire de Phonétique et de Phonologie, UMR 7018, CNRS/University Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Yunusova Y, Waito A, Barnett C, Huynh A, Martino R, Abrahao A, Pattee GL, Berry JD, Zinman L, Green JR. Protocol for psychometric evaluation of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - Bulbar Dysfunction Index (ALS-BDI): a prospective longitudinal study. BMJ Open 2022; 12:e060102. [PMID: 35260465 PMCID: PMC8905936 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Early detection and tracking of bulbar dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are critical for directing management of the disease. Current clinical bulbar assessment tools are lacking, while existing physiological instrumental assessments are often inaccessible and cost-prohibitive for clinical application. The goal of our research is to develop and validate a brief and reliable, clinician-administered assessment tool-the ALS-Bulbar Dysfunction Index (ALS-BDI). This publication describes the study protocol that has been established to ascertain the tools' psychometric properties. METHODS AND ANALYSIS The ALD-BDI's development closely follows guidelines outlined by the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN). Through the proposed study protocol, we expect to establish psychometric properties of both individual test items of the ALS-BDI as well as the final version of the entire tool, including test-retest and inter-rater reliability, construct validity using gold-standard assessment methods and responsiveness. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION This study has been reviewed and approved by research ethics boards at two data collection sites: Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, primary (Toronto, Canada; ID3080) and Mass General Brigham (#2013P001746, Boston, USA). Prior to participation in the study, the participants sign the informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Once validated, the ALS-BDI will be disseminated to key stakeholders. Following validation, the ALS-BDI and any required training material will be implemented for clinical use in a context of a multidisciplinary ALS clinic and used as an outcome measure for clinical trials in ALS research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yana Yunusova
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Ashley Waito
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Carolina Barnett
- Department of Medicine, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Anna Huynh
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Rosemary Martino
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Agessandro Abrahao
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - James D Berry
- Sean M. Healey and AMG Center for ALS, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Lorne Zinman
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jordan R Green
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Kent RD, Kim Y, Chen LM. Oral and Laryngeal Diadochokinesis Across the Life Span: A Scoping Review of Methods, Reference Data, and Clinical Applications. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:574-623. [PMID: 34958599 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of this study was to conduct a scoping review of research on oral and laryngeal diadochokinesis (DDK) in children and adults, either typically developing/developed or with a clinical diagnosis. METHOD Searches were conducted with PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, CINAHL, and legacy sources in retrieved articles. Search terms included the following: DDK, alternating motion rate, maximum repetition rate, sequential motion rate, and syllable repetition rate. RESULTS Three hundred sixty articles were retrieved and included in the review. Data source tables for children and adults list the number and ages of study participants, DDK task, and language(s) spoken. Cross-sectional data for typically developing children and typically developed adults are compiled for the monosyllables /pʌ/, /tʌ/, and /kʌ/; the trisyllable /pʌtʌkʌ/; and laryngeal DDK. In addition, DDK results are summarized for 26 disorders or conditions. DISCUSSION A growing number of multidisciplinary reports on DDK affirm its role in clinical practice and research across the world. Atypical DDK is not a well-defined singular entity but rather a label for a collection of disturbances associated with diverse etiologies, including motoric, structural, sensory, and cognitive. The clinical value of DDK can be optimized by consideration of task parameters, analysis method, and population of interest.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ray D Kent
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison
| | - Yunjung Kim
- School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Florida State University, Tallahassee
| | - Li-Mei Chen
- Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Rowe HP, Stipancic KL, Lammert AC, Green JR. Validation of an Acoustic-Based Framework of Speech Motor Control: Assessing Criterion and Construct Validity Using Kinematic and Perceptual Measures. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:4736-4753. [PMID: 34735295 PMCID: PMC9150673 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2021] [Revised: 06/29/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study investigated the criterion (analytical and clinical) and construct (divergent) validity of a novel, acoustic-based framework composed of five key components of motor control: Coordination, Consistency, Speed, Precision, and Rate. METHOD Acoustic and kinematic analyses were performed on audio recordings from 22 subjects with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis during a sequential motion rate task. Perceptual analyses were completed by two licensed speech-language pathologists, who rated each subject's speech on the five framework components and their overall severity. Analytical and clinical validity were assessed by comparing performance on the acoustic features to their kinematic correlates and to clinician ratings of the five components, respectively. Divergent validity of the acoustic-based framework was then assessed by comparing performance on each pair of acoustic features to determine whether the features represent distinct articulatory constructs. Bivariate correlations and partial correlations with severity as a covariate were conducted for each comparison. RESULTS Results revealed moderate-to-strong analytical validity for every acoustic feature, both with and without controlling for severity, and moderate-to-strong clinical validity for all acoustic features except Coordination, without controlling for severity. When severity was included as a covariate, the strong associations for Speed and Precision became weak. Divergent validity was supported by weak-to-moderate pairwise associations between all acoustic features except Speed (second-formant [F2] slope of consonant transition) and Precision (between-consonant variability in F2 slope). CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that the acoustic-based framework has potential as an objective, valid, and clinically useful tool for profiling articulatory deficits in individuals with speech motor disorders. The findings also suggest that compared to clinician ratings, instrumental measures are more sensitive to subtle differences in articulatory function. With further research, this framework could provide more accurate and reliable characterizations of articulatory impairment, which may eventually increase clinical confidence in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with different articulatory phenotypes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Kaila L. Stipancic
- MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA
- Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, The State University of New York at Buffalo
| | - Adam C. Lammert
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA
| | | |
Collapse
|
17
|
Shellikeri S, Marzouqah R, Brooks BR, Zinman L, Green JR, Yunusova Y. Psychometric Properties of Rapid Word-Based Rate Measures in the Assessment of Bulbar Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Comparisons With Syllable-Based Rate Tasks. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:4178-4191. [PMID: 34699273 PMCID: PMC9499363 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2021] [Revised: 07/07/2021] [Accepted: 07/11/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Rapid maximum performance repetition tasks have increasingly demonstrated their utility as clinimetric markers supporting diagnosis and monitoring of bulbar disease in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A recently developed protocol uses novel real-word repetitions instead of traditional nonword/syllable sequences in hopes of improving sensitivity to motor speech impairments by adding a phonological target constraint that would activate a greater expanse of the motor speech neuroanatomy. This study established the psychometric properties of this novel clinimetric protocol in its assessment of bulbar ALS and compared performance to traditional syllable sequence dysdiadochokinetic (DDK) tasks. Specific objectives were to (a) compare rates between controls and speakers with symptomatic versus presymptomatic bulbar disease, (b) characterize their discriminatory ability in detecting presymptomatic bulbar disease compared to healthy speech, (c) determine their articulatory movement underpinnings, and (d) establish within-individual longitudinal changes. Method DDK and novel tongue ("ticker"-TAR) and labial ("pepper"-LAR) articulatory rates were compared between n = 18 speakers with presymptomatic bulbar disease, n = 10 speakers with symptomatic bulbar disease, and n = 13 healthy controls. Bulbar disease groups were determined by a previously validated speaking rate cutoff. Discriminatory ability was determined using receiver operating characteristic analysis. Within-individual change over time was characterized in a subset of 16 participants with available longitudinal data using linear mixed-effects models. Real-time articulatory movements of the tongue front, tongue dorsum, jaw, and lips were captured using 3-D electromagnetic articulography; effects of movement displacement and speed on clinimetric rates were determined using stepwise linear regressions. Results All clinimetric rates (traditional DDK tasks and novel tasks) were reduced in speakers with symptomatic bulbar disease; only TAR was reduced in speakers with presymptomatic bulbar disease and was able to detect this group with an excellent discrimination ability (area under the curve = 0.83). Kinematic analyses revealed associations with expected articulators, greater motor complexity, and differential articulatory patterns for the novel real-word repetitions than their DDK counterparts. Only LAR significantly declined longitudinally over the disease course. Conclusion Novel real-word clinimetric rate tasks evaluating tongue and labial articulatory dysfunction are valid and effective markers for early detection and tracking of bulbar disease in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sanjana Shellikeri
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Reeman Marzouqah
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Benjamin Rix Brooks
- Department of Neurology, Carolinas Medical Center, Carolinas Neuromuscular/ALS-MDA Care Center Atrium Health Neurosciences Institute, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
| | - Lorne Zinman
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- LC Campbell Cognitive Neurology Research Group, Sunnybrook Research Institute, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jordan R. Green
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA
| | - Yana Yunusova
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (KITE), University Health Network, Ontario, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Simmatis LER, Yunusova Y. Facial Landmark Tracking in Videos of Individuals with Neurological Impairments: Is There a Trade-off Between Smoothness and Accuracyƒ. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2021; 2021:2234-2237. [PMID: 34891731 DOI: 10.1109/embc46164.2021.9630639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Orofacial kinematics are valuable markers of function and progression in a variety of neurological disorders. Recent advances in facial landmark detection have been used to improve landmark tracking in video, for example by accounting for interframe optical flow. It has been demonstrated that finetuning (a type of transfer learning) can improve the performance of some facial landmark detection systems. Here, we asked whether a neural network model that is pretrained using video data (supervision by registration, SBR) can be finetuned to improve landmark detection and tracking, using data from the Toronto Neuroface Dataset (n=36), which comprises 3 different clinical populations. We finetuned the supervision by registration (SBR) model using data from 3 individuals from each of 3 clinical populations (n=9), with or without neurological impairments. The remaining individuals from our dataset (n=27) were used for evaluation. Finetuning SBR moderately improved the model's accuracy but substantially increased the smoothness of tracked landmarks. This suggests that finetuning on video-trained models, like SBR, could improve the estimation of orofacial kinematics in individuals with neurological impairments. This could be used to improve the detection and characterization of neurological diseases using video data.Clinical Relevance-This work demonstrated that transfer learning applied to video-trained facial landmark detectors could improve the measurement of orofacial kinematics in individuals with neurological impairments.
Collapse
|
19
|
Rong P. A Novel Hierarchical Framework for Measuring the Complexity and Irregularity of Multimodal Speech Signals and Its Application in the Assessment of Speech Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:2996-3014. [PMID: 34293265 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The purposes of this study are to develop a novel multimodal framework for measuring variability at the muscular, kinematic, and acoustic levels of the motor speech hierarchy and evaluate the utility of this framework in detecting speech impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Method The myoelectric activities of three bilateral jaw muscle pairs (masseter, anterior temporalis, and anterior belly of digastric), jaw kinematics, and speech acoustics were recorded in 13 individuals with ALS and 10 neurologically healthy controls during sentence reading. Thirteen novel measures (six muscular, three kinematic, four acoustic), which characterized two different but interrelated aspects of variability-complexity and irregularity-were derived using linear and nonlinear methods. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to identify the latent factors underlying these measures. Based on the latent factors, three supervised classifiers-support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and logistic regression (Logit)-were used to differentiate between the speech samples for patients and controls. Results Four interpretable latent factors were identified, representing the complexity of jaw kinematics, the irregularity of jaw antagonists functioning, the irregularity of jaw agonists functioning, and the irregularity of subband acoustic signals, respectively. Based on these latent factors, the speech samples for patients and controls were classified with high accuracy (> 96% for SVM and RF; 88.64% for Logit), outperforming the unimodal measures. Two factors showed significant between-groups differences, as characterized by decreased complexity of jaw kinematics and increased irregularity of jaw antagonists functioning in patients versus controls. Conclusions Decreased complexity of jaw kinematics presumably reflects impaired fine control of jaw movement, while increased irregularity of jaw antagonists functioning could be attributed to reduced synchronization of motor unit firing in ALS. The findings provide preliminary evidence for the utility of the multimodal framework as a novel quantitative assessment tool for detecting speech impairment in ALS and (potentially) in other neuromotor disorders.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Lee J, Madhavan A, Krajewski E, Lingenfelter S. Assessment of dysarthria and dysphagia in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Review of the current evidence. Muscle Nerve 2021; 64:520-531. [PMID: 34296769 DOI: 10.1002/mus.27361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2021] [Revised: 06/21/2021] [Accepted: 06/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Bulbar dysfunction is a common presentation of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and significantly impacts quality of life of people with ALS (PALS). The current paper reviews measurements of dysarthria and dysphagia specific to ALS to identify efficient and valid assessment measures. Using such assessment measures will lead to improved management of bulbar dysfunction in ALS. Measures reviewed for dysarthria in PALS are organized into three categories: acoustic, kinematic, and strength. A set of criteria are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures' identification of speech impairments, measurement of functional verbal communication, and clinical applicability. Assessments reviewed for dysphagia in PALS are organized into six categories: patient reported outcomes, dietary intake, pulmonary function and airway defense capacity, bulbar function, dysphagia/aspiration screens, and instrumental evaluations. Measurements that have good potential for clinical use are highlighted in both topic areas. Additionally, areas of improvement for clinical practice and research are identified and discussed. In general, no single speech measure fulfilled all the criteria, although a few measures were identified as potential diagnostic tools. Similarly, few objective measures that were validated and replicated with large sample sizes were found for diagnosis of dysphagia in PALS. Importantly, clinical applicability was found to be limited; thus, a collaborative team focused on implementation science would be helpful to improve the clinical uptake of assessments. Overall, the review highlights the need for further development of clinically viable and efficient measurements that use a multidisciplinary approach.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jimin Lee
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Aarthi Madhavan
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Elizabeth Krajewski
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Sydney Lingenfelter
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Speech and swallowing deficits in X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2021; 89:105-110. [PMID: 34274618 DOI: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2021.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2021] [Revised: 06/25/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism (XDP) is a progressive, disabling disease characterized by the devastating impairment of bulbar function, including speech and swallowing. Despite these detrimental impacts, bulbar impairments in this population are not well characterized. OBJECTIVES To identify impairments in the bulbar system measured by oromotor performance in individuals with XDP relative to healthy controls. Secondarily, to detect diagnostic bulbar markers that are sensitive and specific to the initial years of XDP. METHODS This case-control study included 25 healthy controls and 30 participants with XDP, divided into two subgroups based on the median of their disease length. Multiple clinical and instrumental oromotor tasks and measures were used to evaluate bulbar motor function. RESULTS Differences were found between both the subgroups with XDP and healthy controls on almost all measures, including maximum performance tasks such as tongue strength, alternating motion rate (AMR), and sequential motion rate (SMR) (p < 0.05). Differences were found between the XDP subgroups and the control group for the percentage of pause time during the speech, a rating of speech severity, and a swallowing task (ps < 0.05). Scores on self-reported questionnaires, tongue strength, the number of repetitions produced during an AMR, percent pause, and speech severity demonstrated good sensitivity and specificity to differentiate the initial years of XDP onset from healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS Our findings revealed impairments across bulbar functions in participants within the first 7 years of the XDP onset. Highly sensitive and specific bulbar impairment measures were detected in instrumental and self-reported measures that are fundamental for monitoring disease.
Collapse
|
22
|
Wisler A, Teplansky K, Heitzman D, Wang J. The Effects of Symptom Onset Location on Automatic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Detection Using the Correlation Structure of Articulatory Movements. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:2276-2286. [PMID: 33647219 PMCID: PMC8740667 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2020] [Revised: 09/22/2020] [Accepted: 11/19/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Kinematic measurements of speech have demonstrated some success in automatic detection of early symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In this study, we examined how the region of symptom onset (bulbar vs. spinal) affects the ability of data-driven models to detect ALS. Method We used a correlation structure of articulatory movements combined with a machine learning model (i.e., artificial neural network) to detect differences between people with ALS and healthy controls. The performance of this system was evaluated separately for participants with bulbar onset and spinal onset to examine how region of onset affects classification performance. We then performed a regression analysis to examine how different severity measures and region of onset affects model performance. Results The proposed model was significantly more accurate in classifying the bulbar-onset participants, achieving an area under the curve of 0.809 relative to the 0.674 achieved for spinal-onset participants. The regression analysis, however, found that differences in classifier performance across participants were better explained by their speech performance (intelligible speaking rate), and no significant differences were observed based on region of onset when intelligible speaking rate was accounted for. Conclusions Although we found a significant difference in the model's ability to detect ALS depending on the region of onset, this disparity can be primarily explained by observable differences in speech motor symptoms. Thus, when the severity of speech symptoms (e.g., intelligible speaking rate) was accounted for, symptom onset location did not affect the proposed computational model's ability to detect ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alan Wisler
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
| | - Kristin Teplansky
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
| | | | - Jun Wang
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
- Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Rong P, Heidrick L. Spatiotemporal Control of Articulation During Speech and Speechlike Tasks in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2021; 30:1382-1399. [PMID: 33630657 DOI: 10.1044/2020_ajslp-20-00136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Purpose This study examined the articulatory control of speech and speechlike tasks in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and neurologically healthy individuals with the aim to identify the most useful set of articulatory features and tasks for assessing bulbar motor involvement in ALS. Method Tongue and jaw kinematics were recorded in 12 individuals with bulbar ALS and 10 healthy controls during a speech task and two speechlike tasks (i.e., alternating motion rate [AMR], sequential motion rate [SMR]). Eight articulatory features were derived for each participant per task, including the range, maximum speed, and acceleration time of tongue and jaw movements as well as the coupling and timing between tongue and jaw movements. The effects of task (i.e., AMR, SMR, speech) and group (i.e., ALS, control) on these articulatory features were evaluated. For each feature, the task that yielded the largest difference between the ALS and control groups was identified. The diagnostic efficacy of these task-specific features was assessed using the receiver operating characteristic analysis; the relation of these task-specific features to a well-established bulbar severity index-speaking rate-was determined using Spearman's rank correlation. Results Seven task-specific articulatory features were identified, including (a) tongue and jaw acceleration time during the AMR task, (b) tongue-jaw coupling during the SMR task, and (c) range of tongue movement, maximum tongue and jaw speed, and temporal lag between tongue and jaw movements during the speech task. Among these features, tongue and jaw acceleration time and their temporal lag showed relatively high accuracy (i.e., 0.83-0.95) in differentiating individuals with ALS from healthy controls. Range of tongue movement and maximum tongue and jaw speed showed significant correlations with speaking rate. Conclusion Findings provided preliminary evidence for the utility of task-specific articulatory measurements as a novel quantitative assessment to detect and predict bulbar motor involvement in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| | - Lindsey Heidrick
- Department of Hearing and Speech, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Stipancic KL, Yunusova Y, Campbell TF, Wang J, Berry JD, Green JR. Two Distinct Clinical Phenotypes of Bulbar Motor Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Front Neurol 2021; 12:664713. [PMID: 34220673 PMCID: PMC8244731 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.664713] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Accepted: 04/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective: Understanding clinical variants of motor neuron diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is critical for discovering disease mechanisms and across-patient differences in therapeutic response. The current work describes two clinical subgroups of patients with ALS that, despite similar levels of bulbar motor involvement, have disparate clinical and functional speech presentations. Methods: Participants included 47 healthy control speakers and 126 speakers with ALS. Participants with ALS were stratified into three clinical subgroups (i.e., bulbar asymptomatic, bulbar symptomatic high speech function, and bulbar symptomatic low speech function) based on clinical metrics of bulbar motor impairment. Acoustic and lip kinematic analytics were derived from each participant's recordings of reading samples and a rapid syllable repetition task. Group differences were reported on clinical scales of ALS and bulbar motor severity and on multiple speech measures. Results: The high and low speech-function subgroups were found to be similar on many of the dependent measures explored. However, these two groups were differentiated on the basis of an acoustic measure used as a proxy for tongue movement. Conclusion: This study supports the hypothesis that high and low speech-function subgroups do not differ solely in overall severity, but rather, constitute two distinct bulbar motor phenotypes. The findings suggest that the low speech-function group exhibited more global involvement of the bulbar muscles than the high speech-function group that had relatively intact lingual function. This work has implications for clinical measures used to grade bulbar motor involvement, suggesting that a single bulbar measure is inadequate for capturing differences among phenotypes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kaila L Stipancic
- Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, United States.,UB Motor Speech Disorders Lab, Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States
| | - Yana Yunusova
- Speech Production Lab, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Thomas F Campbell
- Speech, Language, Cognition, and Communication Lab, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, United States
| | - Jun Wang
- Speech Disorders and Technology Lab, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States
| | - James D Berry
- Sean M. Healey and AMG Center for ALS, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Jordan R Green
- Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Rong P, Pattee GL. A potential upper motor neuron measure of bulbar involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using jaw muscle coherence. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener 2021; 22:368-379. [PMID: 33522298 DOI: 10.1080/21678421.2021.1874993] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To identify a novel, quantitative bulbar measure in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) based on jaw muscle coherence. Methods: The myoelectric activities of masseter, anterior temporalis, and anterior belly of digastric were recorded bilaterally during a speech task in 12 individuals with ALS and 10 neurologically healthy controls, using surface electromyography. Coherence and directed coherence were calculated for all muscle pairs. The muscle pairs showing significant coherence and directed coherence in the beta-band (15-35 Hz) were identified and their mean beta-band coherence were (1) correlated with the kinematic (i.e. jaw acceleration time) and functional speech (i.e. speaking rate) measures that have been previously identified to be affected by bulbar ALS, across all participants, and (2) evaluated in terms of their efficacy in differentiating individuals with ALS from healthy controls. Results: Beta-band coherence was in general reduced in ALS relative to healthy controls, with the antagonistic and homologous muscle pairs being more affected than the agonistic pairs. Among all muscle pairs, the coherence between masseter and digastric (1) showed the strongest correlations with jaw acceleration time and speaking rate, and (2) differentiated individuals with ALS from healthy controls with the highest sensitivity (i.e. 0.92) and specificity (i.e. 0.90). Conclusions: Reduced beta-band coherence between masseter and digastric in ALS reflects weakened neural linkage between these muscles resulting from the disrupted cortical drive to the bulbar musculature. These findings provide preliminary evidence for jaw muscle coherence as a novel, quantitative measure of corticobulbar involvement, designed to improve bulbar assessment in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
26
|
Waito AA, Wehbe F, Marzouqah R, Barnett C, Shellikeri S, Cui C, Abrahao A, Zinman L, Green JR, Yunusova Y. Validation of Articulatory Rate and Imprecision Judgments in Speech of Individuals With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2021; 30:137-149. [PMID: 33290086 PMCID: PMC8740582 DOI: 10.1044/2020_ajslp-20-00199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2020] [Revised: 09/21/2020] [Accepted: 09/25/2020] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Perceptual judgments of articulatory function are commonly used by speech-language pathologists to evaluate articulatory performance in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The goal of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties (e.g., reliability, validity) of these perceptual measures to inform their application as part of a comprehensive bulbar assessment tool in ALS. Method Preexisting data from 51 individuals with ALS were obtained from a larger longitudinal study. Five independent raters provided perceptual judgments of articulatory rate and imprecision in a sentence task. Inter- and intrarater reliability of these judgments were assessed. Perceptual ratings were correlated with an acoustic measure of articulatory rate, in syllables per second, obtained from passage-reading recordings. Both perceptual and acoustic measures were correlated with gold-standard kinematic tongue and jaw movement measures, recorded from sentences using electromagnetic articulography. Results The results revealed good inter- and intrarater reliability of perceptual judgments of articulatory function. Strong correlations were observed between perceptual ratings of articulatory rate and imprecision and acoustic measures of articulatory rate and kinematic measures of tongue speed. Conclusions These findings support the clinical application of perceptual judgments of articulatory function as valid and reliable measures of underlying articulatory changes in bulbar ALS. Additional research is needed to understand the responsiveness of these measures to clinical changes in articulatory function in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ashley A. Waito
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Farah Wehbe
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Reeman Marzouqah
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Carolina Barnett
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and University Health Network, Ontario, Canada
- Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Sanjana Shellikeri
- Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Philadelphia
| | - Cindy Cui
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Agessandro Abrahao
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lorne Zinman
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- L. C. Campbell Cognitive Neurology Research Unit, Sunnybrook Research Institute, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jordan R. Green
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA
- Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
| | - Yana Yunusova
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Ontario, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Rong P, Jawdat O. A novel physiologic marker of bulbar motor involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Jaw muscle synergy. Clin Neurophysiol 2021; 132:94-103. [DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2020.09.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2020] [Revised: 09/07/2020] [Accepted: 09/26/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
|
28
|
Rong P. Neuromotor Control of Speech and Speechlike Tasks: Implications From Articulatory Gestures. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2020. [DOI: 10.1044/2020_persp-20-00070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to provide a preliminary examination of the articulatory control of speech and speechlike tasks based on a gestural framework and identify shared and task-specific articulatory factors in speech and speechlike tasks.
Method
Ten healthy participants performed two speechlike tasks (i.e., alternating motion rate [AMR] and sequential motion rate [SMR]) and three speech tasks (i.e., reading of “clever Kim called the cat clinic” at the regular, fast, and slow rates) that varied in phonological complexity and rate. Articulatory kinematics were recorded using an electromagnetic kinematic tracking system (Wave, Northern Digital Inc.). Based on the gestural framework for articulatory phonology, the gestures of tongue body and lips were derived from the kinematic data. These gestures were subjected to a fine-grained analysis, which extracted (a) four gestural features (i.e., range of magnitude [ROM], frequency [Freq], acceleration time, and maximum speed [maxSpd]) for the tongue body gesture; (b) three intergestural measures including the peak intergestural coherence (InterCOH), frequency at which the peak intergestural coherence occurs (Freq_InterCOH), and the mean absolute relative phase between the tongue body and lip gestures; and (c) three intragestural (i.e., interarticulator) measures including the peak intragestural coherence (IntraCOH), Freq_IntraCOH, and mean absolute relative phase between the tongue body and the jaw, which are the component articulators that underlie the tongue body gesture. In addition, the performance rate for each task was also derived. The effects of task and sex on all the articulatory and behavioral measures were examined using mixed-design analysis of variance followed by post hoc pairwise comparisons across tasks.
Results
Task had a significant effect on performance rate, ROM, Freq, maxSpd, InterCOH, Freq_InterCOH, IntraCOH, and Freq_IntraCOH. Compared to the speech tasks, the AMR task showed a decrease in ROM and increases in Freq, InterCOH, Freq_InterCOH, IntraCOH, and Freq_IntraCOH. The SMR task showed similar ROM, Freq, maxSpd, InterCOH, and IntraCOH as the fast and regular speech tasks.
Conclusions
The simple phonological structure and demand for rapid syllable rate for the AMR task may elicit a distinct articulatory control mechanism. Despite being a rapid nonsense syllable repetition task, the relatively complex phonological structure of the SMR task appeared to elicit a similar articulatory control mechanism as that of speech production. Based on these shared and task-specific articulatory features between speech and speechlike tasks, the clinical implications for articulatory assessment were discussed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Novotny M, Melechovsky J, Rozenstoks K, Tykalova T, Kryze P, Kanok M, Klempir J, Rusz J. Comparison of Automated Acoustic Methods for Oral Diadochokinesis Assessment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2020; 63:3453-3460. [PMID: 32955982 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this research note is to provide a performance comparison of available algorithms for the automated evaluation of oral diadochokinesis using speech samples from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Method Four different algorithms based on a wide range of signal processing approaches were tested on a sequential motion rate /pa/-/ta/-/ka/ syllable repetition paradigm collected from 18 patients with ALS and 18 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs). Results The best temporal detection of syllable position for a 10-ms tolerance value was achieved for ALS patients using a traditional signal processing approach based on a combination of filtering in the spectrogram, Bayesian detection, and polynomial thresholding with an accuracy rate of 74.4%, and for HCs using a deep learning approach with an accuracy rate of 87.6%. Compared to HCs, a slow diadochokinetic rate (p < .001) and diadochokinetic irregularity (p < .01) were detected in ALS patients. Conclusions The approaches using deep learning or multiple-step combinations of advanced signal processing methods provided a more robust solution to the estimation of oral DDK variables than did simpler approaches based on the rough segmentation of the signal envelope. The automated acoustic assessment of oral diadochokinesis shows excellent potential for monitoring bulbar disease progression in individuals with ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michal Novotny
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Melechovsky
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Kriss Rozenstoks
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Tereza Tykalova
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Kryze
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Martin Kanok
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jiri Klempir
- Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Rusz
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
- Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Rong P. Automated Acoustic Analysis of Oral Diadochokinesis to Assess Bulbar Motor Involvement in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2020; 63:59-73. [PMID: 31940257 DOI: 10.1044/2019_jslhr-19-00178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this article was to validate a novel acoustic analysis of oral diadochokinesis (DDK) in assessing bulbar motor involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Method An automated acoustic DDK analysis was developed, which filtered out the voice features and extracted the envelope of the acoustic waveform reflecting the temporal pattern of syllable repetitions during an oral DDK task (i.e., repetitions of /tɑ/ at the maximum rate on 1 breath). Cycle-to-cycle temporal variability (cTV) of envelope fluctuations and syllable repetition rate (sylRate) were derived from the envelope and validated against 2 kinematic measures, which are tongue movement jitter (movJitter) and alternating tongue movement rate (AMR) during the DDK task, in 16 individuals with bulbar ALS and 18 healthy controls. After the validation, cTV, sylRate, movJitter, and AMR, along with an established clinical speech measure, that is, speaking rate (SR), were compared in their ability to (a) differentiate individuals with ALS from healthy controls and (b) detect early-stage bulbar declines in ALS. Results cTV and sylRate were significantly correlated with movJitter and AMR, respectively, across individuals with ALS and healthy controls, confirming the validity of the acoustic DDK analysis in extracting the temporal DDK pattern. Among all the acoustic and kinematic DDK measures, cTV showed the highest diagnostic accuracy (i.e., 0.87) with 80% sensitivity and 94% specificity in differentiating individuals with ALS from healthy controls, which outperformed the SR measure. Moreover, cTV showed a large increase during the early disease stage, which preceded the decline of SR. Conclusions This study provided preliminary validation of a novel automated acoustic DDK analysis in extracting a useful measure, namely, cTV, for early detection of bulbar ALS. This analysis overcame a major barrier in the existing acoustic DDK analysis, which is continuous voicing between syllables that interferes with syllable structures. This approach has potential clinical applications as a novel bulbar assessment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, Dole Human Development Center, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Eshghi M, Stipancic KL, Mefferd A, Rong P, Berry JD, Yunusova Y, Green JR. Assessing Oromotor Capacity in ALS: The Effect of a Fixed-Target Task on Lip Biomechanics. Front Neurol 2019; 10:1288. [PMID: 31866935 PMCID: PMC6906194 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2019.01288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2019] [Accepted: 11/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Alternating motion rate (AMR) is a standard measure often included in neurological examinations to assess orofacial neuromuscular integrity. AMR is typically derived from recordings of patients producing repetitions of a single syllable as fast and clear as possible on one breath. Because the task places high demands on oromotor performance, particularly articulatory speed, AMRs are widely considered to be tests of maximum performance and, therefore, likely to reveal underlying neurologic deficits. Despite decades of widespread use, biomechanical studies have shown that speakers often circumvent the presumed speed challenge of the standard AMR task. Specifically, speakers are likely to manipulate their displacements (movement amplitude) instead of speed because this strategy requires less motor effort. The current study examined the effectiveness of a novel fixed-target paradigm for minimizing the truncation of articulatory excursions and maximizing motor effort. We compared the standard AMR task to that of a fixed-target AMR task and focused specifically on the tasks' potential to detect decrements in lip motor performance in persons with dysarthria due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Our participants were 14 healthy controls and 17 individuals with ALS. For the standard AMR task, participants were instructed to produce the syllable /bα/ as quickly and accurately as possible on one breath. For the fixed-target AMR task, participants were given the same instructions, but were also required to strike a physical target placed under the jaw during the opening phase of each syllable. Lip kinematic data were obtained using 3D electromagnetic articulography. 16 kinematic features were extracted using an algorithmic approach. Findings revealed that compared to the standard task, the fixed-target AMR task placed increased motor demands on the oromotor system by eliciting larger excursions, faster speeds, and greater spatiotemporal variability. In addition, participants with ALS exhibited limited ability to adapt to the higher articulatory demands of the fixed-target task. Between the two AMR tasks, the maximum speed during the fixed-target task showed a moderate association with the ALSFRS-R bulbar subscore. Employment of both standard and fixed-target AMR tasks is, however, needed for comprehensive assessment of oromotor function and for elucidating profiles of task adaptation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marziye Eshghi
- Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Kaila L Stipancic
- Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Antje Mefferd
- Speech Kinematics and Acoustics Lab, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
| | - Panying Rong
- Speech Science and Disorders Lab, Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States
| | - James D Berry
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Yana Yunusova
- Speech Production Lab, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Jordan R Green
- Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Chiaramonte R, Bonfiglio M. Acoustic analysis of voice in bulbar amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies. LOGOP PHONIATR VOCO 2019; 45:151-163. [DOI: 10.1080/14015439.2019.1687748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Rita Chiaramonte
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Marco Bonfiglio
- Department for Health Activities, ASP Siracusa, Siracusa, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Rong P, Yunusova Y, Eshghi M, Rowe HP, Green JR. A speech measure for early stratification of fast and slow progressors of bulbar amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: lip movement jitter. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener 2019; 21:34-41. [PMID: 31694409 DOI: 10.1080/21678421.2019.1681454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Objective: To assess the utility of novel measures derived from a rapid syllable repetition task (i.e. oral dysdiadochokinesis [DDK]) in early stratification of fast and slow progressive bulbar amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and prediction of bulbar disease progression rate. Methods: Fifty-four individuals with ALS were tracked longitudinally on their oral DDK and global bulbar/speech performance (i.e. bulbar subscore on the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised [ALSFRS-R]; articulation rate during passage reading) for a four-month average duration. Based on the bulbar deterioration rate over the tracked period, the participants were stratified as 14 fast bulbar progressors and 40 slow bulbar progressors using a posteriori classification approach. To determine if oral DDK performance predicts the differential bulbar disease progression trajectories in these individuals during the early stages of the tracked period (prior to significant bulbar/speech signs), twenty-two measures of lip motor performance in an oral DDK task were derived to (1) differentiate fast and slow bulbar progressors using the Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis and (2) predict bulbar disease progression rates across all individuals using linear regressions. Results: Movement jitter, a measure of temporal variability of alternating lip movement during DDK, showed 80% sensitivity and 95% specificity in differentiating fast and slow bulbar progressors early in the disease, and outperformed the ALSFRS-R bulbar subscore and articulation rate. Movement jitter also predicted bulbar disease progression rates across participants. Conclusion: Findings provided preliminary validation of the clinical value of movement jitter during oral DDK in patient stratification and bulbar disease prognosis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KA, USA
| | - Yana Yunusova
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Marziye Eshghi
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, USA, and
| | - Hannah P Rowe
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, USA, and
| | - Jordan R Green
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, USA, and.,Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Rong P. The Effect of Tongue-Jaw Coupling on Phonetic Distinctiveness of Vowels in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2019; 62:3248-3264. [PMID: 31433712 DOI: 10.1044/2019_jslhr-s-19-0058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the relation of tongue-jaw coupling to phonetic distinctiveness of vowels in persons at different stages (i.e., early, middle, late) of bulbar motor involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and healthy controls. Method The pattern of spatial tongue-jaw coupling was derived from 11 individuals with ALS and 11 healthy controls using the parallel factor analysis. Two articulatory components, which correspond to tongue displacement independent of the jaw (iTongue) and jaw contribution to tongue displacement (cJaw), were extracted from the composite tongue-jaw displacement. These articulatory components were correlated with F1 (i.e., height) and F2-F1 (i.e., advancement) of 4 vowels (/i/, /u/, /æ/, and /ɔ/) across all participants in each group. In addition, a comprehensive index of functional tongue-jaw coupling was derived as the ratio of cJaw/(iTongue + cJaw), and an acoustic index of vowel distortion (VowelDis) was derived to quantify the overall disease-related changes in phonetic distinctiveness of vowels. Based on these indices, disease-related changes in tongue-jaw coupling and phonetic distinctiveness of vowels were examined in individuals at the early, middle, and late stages of the disease. Results For healthy controls, both iTongue and cJaw contributed to F2-F1, while only cJaw contributed to F1. For individuals with ALS, both iTongue and cJaw contributed to F1, whereas only cJaw contributed to F2-F1. Disease-related changes in tongue-jaw coupling included (a) an overall decrease of the percent contribution of the tongue to the composite tongue-jaw displacement accompanied by an increase of percent contribution of the jaw and (b) several changes in the direction of tongue and jaw displacements occurred at different stages of the disease. These disease-related changes in tongue-jaw coupling had various impacts on phonetic distinctiveness of vowels, resulting in (a) a backward shift of front vowels and reduced front-back vowel contrasts, which occurred early and throughout the disease stages; (b) raising of all vowels during the middle stage of the disease; and (c) reduced high-low vowel contrasts during the late stage of the disease. Overall, phonetic distinctiveness of vowels deteriorated progressively throughout the disease course. Conclusions Different from healthy controls who established optimal functional coupling between the tongue and the jaw during vowel productions, individuals at the early-to-middle stages of bulbar ALS showed various adaptive changes in tongue-jaw coupling in response to the disease-related biomechanical and muscular changes in the articulators (particularly in the tongue). These adaptive changes in tongue-jaw coupling were found to be partially effective in mitigating the negative effect of articulatory involvement on phonetic distinctiveness of vowels. As the disease progressed to the late stage, such adaptations appeared to be no longer evident, resulting in a substantial overall reduction of vowel contrasts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Rong P, Green JR. Predicting Speech Intelligibility Based on Spatial Tongue-Jaw Coupling in Persons With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: The Impact of Tongue Weakness and Jaw Adaptation. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2019; 62:3085-3103. [PMID: 31465706 DOI: 10.1044/2018_jslhr-s-csmc7-18-0116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Motor neuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), have a devastating effect on speech muscle function that often results in severe communication deficits. Over the course of bulbar disease, tongue and jaw movements are modified, but their impact on speech is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of disease-related changes in tongue-jaw movement coupling on speech intelligibility in persons at different stages of bulbar ALS. Method Parallel factor analysis was used to quantify the pattern of spatial coupling between 4 semi-independent regions of the tongue and the jaw in various vowels and consonants in 10 individuals with ALS and 10 healthy individuals, respectively, from the X-Ray Microbeam database (Westbury, 1994). The relation of spatial tongue-jaw coupling to speech intelligibility was examined in individuals at the early and late stages of bulbar ALS and healthy individuals. Results Tongue movement, independent of the jaw, decreased early and progressively, which negatively impacted speech intelligibility. Jaw contribution to tongue movement was increased during the early stages of bulbar ALS compared to that of the healthy subjects, which was followed by a decrease during the late stages of bulbar ALS. The early-stage increase of jaw contribution significantly improved speech intelligibility and is thus most likely to be an adaptive strategy to mitigate the negative impact of tongue movement reductions on speech intelligibility. This adaptive strategy became unavailable during the late stages of bulbar ALS, which might accelerate intelligibility decline. Conclusions The loss of functional tongue-jaw coupling may be the critical physiological factor leading to the eventual loss of functional speech in ALS. Monitoring changes in tongue-jaw coupling may improve the prediction about the timing of speech loss and guide clinical management of dysarthria in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Panying Rong
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
| | - Jordan R Green
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Progressions, Boston, MA
- Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
| |
Collapse
|
36
|
Yunusova Y, Plowman EK, Green JR, Barnett C, Bede P. Clinical Measures of Bulbar Dysfunction in ALS. Front Neurol 2019; 10:106. [PMID: 30837936 PMCID: PMC6389633 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2019.00106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2018] [Accepted: 01/28/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Bulbar impairment represents a hallmark feature of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) that significantly impacts survival and quality of life. Speech and swallowing dysfunction are key contributors to the clinical heterogeneity of ALS and require well-timed and carefully coordinated interventions. The accurate clinical, radiological and electrophysiological assessment of bulbar dysfunction in ALS is one of the most multidisciplinary aspects of ALS care, requiring expert input from speech-language pathologists (SLPs), neurologists, otolaryngologists, augmentative alternative communication (AAC) specialists, dieticians, and electrophysiologists—each with their own evaluation strategies and assessment tools. The need to systematically evaluate the comparative advantages and drawbacks of various bulbar assessment instruments and to develop integrated assessment protocols is increasingly recognized. In this review, we provide a comprehensive appraisal of the most commonly utilized clinical tools for assessing and monitoring bulbar dysfunction in ALS based on the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) evaluation framework. Despite a plethora of assessment tools, considerable geographical differences exist in bulbar assessment practices and individual instruments exhibit considerable limitations. The gaps identified in the literature offer unique opportunities for the optimization of existing and development of new tools both for clinical and research applications. The multicenter validation and standardization of these instruments will be essential for guideline development and best practice recommendations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yana Yunusova
- Department of Speech Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Volcal Tract Visualization Lab, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Emily K Plowman
- Swallowing Systems Core, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
| | - Jordan R Green
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, United States.,Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Carolina Barnett
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Peter Bede
- Computational Neuroimaging Group, Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| |
Collapse
|