• Speech Sciences
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• v.3
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• pp.38-49
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• 1998

Dysarthrias are a sort of neuromotor disorders because of the weakness of neuromotor controls. They are classified in six types on the basis of Mayo clinic research: flaccid, spastic, ataxic, hypokinetic, hypekinetic and mixed types. Five dysarthria types are investigated in this study. MRI, EMG, neuropathological tests are essential diagnostic processing. Visi-Pitch and Spectrgraphy, CSL are used for assessing dysarthria speech. Maximum phonation time, diadochokinetic rate, Voice Onset Time and substitution rate are the speech evaluation parameters. Maximum phonation time and diadochokinetic rates are the lowest in case of spastic and ataxic dysarthrias. Spastic dysarthria shows the substituted glottalized consonants. However, flaccid, ataxic and hypokinetic dysarthrias show the substituted aspirated consonants. VOT is the longest for hypokinetic dysarthria and the shortest for ataxic dysarthria. Jitter shows higher percentage in comparison with control group. Speech evaluation using experimental phonetic instruments help create on international standardization of speech evaluation for speech disorders.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.177-189
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• 2008

This study was to investigate diadochokinetic (DDK) rate, regularity and mean flow rate of articulation valves in dysarthria. DDK rate, mean airflow rate (MFR) and regularity of DDK syllable repetitions of vocal function /ihi/, tongue function /ta/, velopharyngeal function /bm/, and labial function /pa/ in 24 normal and dysarthric speakers were measured. Aerophone Ⅱ and Motor Speech Profile were used for data recording and analysis. The results of the findings were as follows: First, there were significant differences between the dysarthria and the normal group in DDK rate. DDK rates in ataxic dysarthria were the lowest and spastic, flaccid, and hypokinetic dysarthria followed in sequence. Second, there was a significant difference between the dysarthria and the normal group in DDK regularity. Third, there was a significant difference between dysarthria groups and normal group in DDK MFR. Finally, there was a significant difference between the 4 groups of dysarthria and the normal group in DDK air flow tracking. The results of this study can be guidelines for normal DDK rate, regularity and flow rate in dysarthria groups. In addition, their differential diagnoses and descriptions are important to make a decision on medical and behavioral management of the individuals with disorders according to DDK characteristics.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2015

It is widely accepted that Parkinson's disease(PD) is the most common cause of hypokinetic dysarthria, and its characteristics of 'short rushes of speech' have become more evident along with the severity of motor disorders. Speech alternate motion rates (AMRs) are particularly useful for observing not only rate abnormalities but also deviant speech. However, relatively little is known about the characteristics of 'short rushes of speech' in terms of AMRs of PD except for the perceptual characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine which acoustic features of 'short rushes of speech' in terms of AMRs are a robust indicator of Parkinsonian speech. Numbers of syllabic repetitions (/pə/, /tə/, /kə/) in AMR tasks were analyzed through acoustic methods observing a spectrogram of the Computerized Speech Lab in 9 patients with PD. Acoustically, we found three characteristics of 'short rushes of speech': 1) Vocalized consonants without closure duration(VC) 76.3%; 2) No consonant segmentation(NC) 18.6%; 3) No vowel formant frequency(NV) 5.1%. Based on these results, 'short rushes of speech' may affect the failure to reach and maintain the phonatory targets. In order to best achieve the therapeutic goals, and to make the treatment most efficacious, it is important to incorporate training methods which are based on both phonation and articulation.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.2
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• pp.67-88
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• 1997

The aim of this study is to develop an assessment program of speech rehabilitation for children having some language and speech disorders. Patients of dysarthria, tonsillectomy, tonsilhypertrophy, and nasal obstruction were selected for this experimental clinical phonetic study. Formant variations ($F_1\;&\;F_2$) show pre- and post-operation differences in tonsillectomy and cleft palate patients. Nasal formants ($NF_1\;&\;NF_2$) show pre- and post-operation differences in nasal obstruction. The articulation reaction time (ART) as a parameter was used to assess Voice Onset Time(VOT). It was shown longer duration for hypokinetic dysarthria and shorter for atoxic dysarthria.. The diadochokinetic rate was measured by Visi-pitch. Lower diadochokinetic rate appeared to spastic and dysarthria in comparison with the control group. It was shown that the nasalance of tonsilhypertrophy, nasal obstruction, and cleft palate patients was seen to increase after operation. In addition, the assessment of nasality can be measured only by simple vowels such as /a/ and /i/.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.163-171
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• 2018

A mixed dysarthria with combinations of hypokinetic, ataxic, and spastic components is a common clinical feature of multiple system atrophy (MSA). Due to the rapid progress of dysarthria after diagnosis, people with MSA experience difficulty with verbal communication, which eventually affects their quality of life negatively. In this study, SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$, an intensive 1:1 treatment of dysarthria for improving functional communicative ability, was provided to twelve people with MSA. To evaluate the efficacy of SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$ in people with MSA, aerodynamic, acoustic, and perceptual analyses were conducted. Pre-and post-therapy data included maximum phonation time, vocal intensity, and fundamental frequency during /a/ sustained phonation and passage reading; frequency range between high /a/ and low /a/ phonation; jitter, shimmer, and HNR for vocal quality; speech rate during passage reading; and perceptual evaluation scores for articulation precision and intonation. The participants achieved statistically significant improvement in vocal intensity, pitch range, vocal quality, speech rate, and speech intelligibility. In conclusion, SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$ is a feasible treatment for people with MSA to efficaciously improve their speech ability.

• 재활복지
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.237-255
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• 2014

Idiopathic Parkinson disease(IPD) is an neurodegenerative disease caused by the loss of dopamine cells in the substantia nigra, a region of midbrain. Its major symptoms are muscular rigidity, bradykinesia, resting tremor, and postural instability. An estimated 70~90% of patients with IPD also have hypokinetic dysarthria. Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) has been reported to be successful in relieving the core motor symptoms of IPD in the advanced stages of the disease. However, data on the effects of STN-DBS on speech performance are inconsistent. A medline literature search was done to retrieve articles published from 1987 to 2012. The results were narrowed down to focus on speech performance under STN-DBS based perceptual, acoustic, and/or aerodynamic analyses. Among the 32 publications which dealt with speech performance after STN-DBS indicated improvement(42%), deterioration(29%), mixed results(26%), or no change(3%). The most favorite method was found to be based upon acoustic analysis by using a vowel prolongation and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale(UPDRS). For the purpose of verifying the effect of the STN-DBS, speech evaluation should be undertaken on all speech components such as articulation, resonance, phonation, respiration, and prosody by using a contextual speech task.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2011

Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease patients' speech is hypokinetic dysarthria and their speech is possibly the consequence of impaired respiratory support. The purpose of this study was focused on the respiratory characteristics of speech breathing in de novo IPD who were not given prior vocal or anti-Parkinson treatment. A total of 40 subjects participated in the study: 20 de novo IPD patients between the ages of 50 and 80, and 20 normal subjects with similar age, height, and weight matches. Forced Expiratory Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 sec (FEV1) and $FEV_1$ as a percentage of FVC (FEV1/FVC) was measured with a PC-based spirometer (Cosmed). In addition, Maximum Phonation Time (MPT), Mean Airflow Rate (MFR), Subglottal Pressure (Psub) and the number of syllables produced per breath were measured with a Phonatory Aerodynamic System (Kay PENTAX). All subjects were asked to read a standardized Korean paragraph and the following measurements were obtained from the task. Results indicated no statistically significant differences in respiratory function (FEV1/FVC%) and aerodynamic function between the two groups, but the number of syllables per breath was significantly lower in the IPD patient group than in the normal group and it could be predicted by FVC and MFR. Therefore, the study shows that the MFR from the lungs during speech in de novo IPD patients is used inefficiently.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.173-184
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate the speech rate characteristics (whole speech rate, articulation speech rate, and articulation percentage) and the pause characteristics (pause duration, pause frequency, and pause percentage) of Korean-speaking patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (referred to as IPD hereafter). The study aims first to examine the differences between the patient group with IPD and the other group without IPD concerning those measurements, and secondly to investigate the relevant measurements of the two groups following the sentence length changes. There were two groups of subjects in this study. The first group consisted of 7 subjects between the ages of 50 and 60 who were diagnosed as IPD with mild severity, and the second group consisted of 13 subjects without IPD who matched the age and gender of those in the first group. Those two groups were asked to read 8 different sentences in length at habitual speed. Speech rate and pause characteristics of the two groups were measured and compared each other. The followings results were observed. First, in a study of speech rate characteristics, the whole speech rate and the articulation speech rate of the patient group scored within the normal range, which is same as the group without IPD. On the other hand, with regard to the pause characteristics, differences between two groups were shown; the patient group had shorter pause duration, lower pause frequency, lower pause percentage, and higher articulation percentage. Secondly, in a study of relevant measurements following the sentence length, both groups showed a tendency for whole speech rate and articulation rate to increase as the length of the sentence increased, but the result of pause characteristics showed a difference between two groups. While the group without IPD showed a longer pause duration, higher pause frequency, and higher pause percentage as the length of sentences increases, no differences were shown among the patient group concerning the length of sentences. This study suggests a result that the patients with IPD of mild severity retained a normal speech rate and examined pause characteristics of the patient group which showed a different result from the group without IPD in terms of quality. Future studies on the speech rate and pause characteristics of Korean-speaking patients with IPD in various severities.