Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate a novel communication system designed to translate surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals from articulatory muscles into speech using a personalized, digital voice. The system was evaluated for word recognition, prosodic classification, and listener perception of synthesized speech. Method: sEMG signals were…

Purpose: To compare vowel acoustics and intelligibility in words produced with and without contrastive stress by speakers with spastic (mixed-spastic) dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy (DYS[subscript CP]) and healthy controls (HCs). Method: Fifteen participants (9 men, 6 women; age M = 42 years) with DYS[subscript CP] and 15 HCs (9 men, 6…

Purpose: Responses to intensity perturbation during running speech were measured to understand whether prosodic features are controlled in an independent or integrated manner. Method: Nineteen English-speaking healthy adults (age range = 21-41 years) produced 480 sentences in which emphatic stress was placed on either the 1st or 2nd word. One…

Purpose: A feedback perturbation paradigm was used to investigate whether prosodic cues are controlled independently or in an integrated fashion during sentence production. Method: Twenty-one healthy speakers of American English were asked to produce sentences with emphatic stress while receiving real-time auditory feedback of their productions.…

Purpose: In this study, the authors sought to understand acoustic and perceptual cues to contrastive stress in speakers with dysarthria (DYS) and healthy controls (HC). Method: The production experiment examined the ability of 12 DYS (9 male, 3 female; M = 39 years of age) and 12 age- and gender-matched HC (9 male, 3 female; M = 37.5 years of age)…

Purpose: Acquisition of prosodic control appears to evolve across development with younger children relying on durational cues and older children utilizing a broader spectrum of cues including fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration. This study aimed to determine whether unfamiliar listeners could identify prosodic contrasts produced by 4-,…

Familiarity is thought to aid listeners in decoding disordered speech; however, as the speech signal degrades, the "familiarity advantage" becomes less beneficial. Despite highly unintelligible speech sound production, many children with dysarthria vocalize when interacting with familiar caregivers. Perhaps listeners can understand these…