Purpose: Reduced stress commonly occurs in talkers with Parkinson's disease (PD), whereas excessive and equal stress is frequently associated with dysarthria of talkers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis (MS). This study sought to identify articulatory impairment patterns that underlie these two impaired stress…

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate whether long-term averaged spectrum (LTAS) descriptors for reading and monologue are suitable to detect worsening of dysarthria in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) treated with subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) with potential effect of ON and OFF stimulation conditions and types of…

Purpose: The StartReact effect, whereby movements are elicited by loud, startling acoustic stimuli (SAS), allows the evaluation of movements when initiated through involuntary circuitry, before auditory feedback. When StartReact is applied during poststroke upper extremity movements, individuals exhibit increased muscle recruitment, reaction…

Purpose: A review of the salient characteristics of motor speech disorders and common assessment protocols revealed the need for a novel reading passage tailored specifically to differentiate between and among the dysarthrias (DYSs) and apraxia of speech (AOS). Method: "The Caterpillar" passage was designed to provide a contemporary, easily read,…

Children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy (CP) present with decreased vowel space area and reduced word intelligibility. Although a robust relationship exists between vowel space and word intelligibility, little is known about the intelligibility of vowels in this population. This exploratory study investigated the intelligibility of American…

Several authors mentioned the occurrence of articulation problems in the neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) population. However, few studies have undertaken a detailed analysis of the articulation skills of NF1 patients, especially in schoolchildren and adults. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine in depth the articulation skills of…

While a number of authors have suggested that patients with palilalia typically show a tendency to repeat words or phrases with an increasing rate, others maintain that an accelerating speech rate is not essential. The present paper reports the results of an instrumental analysis of the reiterations in a 60-year-old man with palilalia. Results…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate adaptation to the electropalatograph (EPG) from the perspective of consonant acoustics, listener perceptions, and speaker ratings. Method: Seven adults with typical speech wore an EPG and pseudo-EPG palate over 2 days and produced syllables, read a passage, counted, and rated their adaptation to…

A study of eight Dutch individuals (ages 14 to 56) who stutter found that adaptation of stuttering frequency during repeated readings may be a result of motor learning. Furthermore, during repeated readings, reductions in stuttering frequency were not related to reductions in the variability of acoustically derived measures of speech production.…

A survey of 128 females (ages 2-58) with Turner syndrome found almost one quarter were receiving or had received treatment for stuttering, articulation problems, and/or delayed language development, with the latter two disorders being checked most frequently. Only 4 or the 68 individuals receiving growth hormone treatment reported voice changes.…

A study investigated a consecutive series of 65 participants (ages 3-33) with a confirmed 22q11.2 deletion, to ascertain the frequency and severity of articulation difficulties, velopharyngeal impairment (VPI), and intelligibility. The majority had VPI; over half to such a degree that surgery had been performed or was considered necessary.…

Consonant harmony, a complex phonological assimilation in which segments (usually consonants, but sometimes even vowels) become identical, which occurs in the speech of young children and adult aphasics, is analyzed, particularly as it occurs in Finnish-speakers. Consonant harmony has an articulatory basis: it is a trend toward repetition of the…