Background: Post-stroke dysarthria rehabilitation should consider social participation for people with dysarthria, but before this approach can be adopted, an understanding of the psychosocial impact of dysarthria is required. Despite the prevalence of dysarthria as a result of stroke, there is a paucity of research into this communication…

The aim of this study was to determine the interrater reliability and stability over time of the Capacity Profile (CAP). The CAP is a standardized method for classifying additional care needs indicated by current impairments in five domains of body functions: physical health, neuromusculoskeletal and movement-related, sensory, mental, and voice…

Genetic factors are important contributors to language and learning disorders, and discovery of the underlying genes can help delineate the basic neurological pathways that are involved. This information, in turn, can help define disorders and their perceptual and processing deficits. Initial molecular genetic studies of dyslexia, for example,…

Though it has long been known on the basis of clinical associations and serendipitous observation that speech rate is related to mood and psychomotor baseline, it is less known that speech rate is also related to libido and to immune function. We make the case for a bipolar phenomenon of ''psychic tonus,'' encompassing all these dimensions. The…

A new case of Foreign Accent Syndrome is described. This American woman presented with a British- or Australian- sounding accent after stroke, which resulted in a lacunar infarct in the left internal capsule. The atypical etiology and apparent changes in lexical use are described. It is hypothesized that an abnormally tense vocal tract posture may…

Purpose: This study addressed three research questions: (a) Can listeners use anticipatory vowel information in prevocalic consonants produced by talkers with dysarthria to identify the upcoming vowel? (b) Are listeners sensitive to interspeaker variation in anticipatory coarticulation during prevocalic consonants produced by healthy talkers…

Background: Dysarthria is a common post-stroke presentation. Its management falls within the remit of the speech and language therapy profession. Little controlled evaluation of the effects of intervention for dysarthria in stroke has been reported. Aims: The study aimed to determine the effects of a period of behavioural communication…

Purpose: This study's main purpose was to (a) identify acoustic signatures of hypokinetic dysarthria (HKD) that are robust to phonetic variation in conversational speech and (b) determine specific characteristics of the variability associated with HKD. Method: Twenty healthy control (HC) participants and 20 participants with HKD associated with…

In a previous study (Dronkers, 1996), stroke patients identified as having apraxia of speech (AOS), an articulatory disorder, were found to have damage to the left superior precentral gyrus of the insula (SPGI). The present study sought (1) to characterize the performance of patients with AOS on a classic motor speech evaluation, and (2) to…

Purpose: Corticomuscular electroencephalographic-electromyographic (EEG-EMG) coherence elicited by speech and nonspeech oromotor tasks in healthy participants and those with Parkinson's disease (PD) was examined. Hypotheses were the following: (a) corticomuscular coherence is demonstrable between orbicularis oris (OO) muscles' EMG and scalp EEG…

The present study compared patterns of anticipatory coarticulation for utterances produced in habitual, loud, and slow conditions by 17 individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), 12 individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), and 15 healthy controls. Coarticulation was inferred from vowel F2 frequencies and consonant first-moment coefficients.…

This paper reports the case of a 32-year-old Dutch speaking woman who presented with foreign accent syndrome (FAS). There are good reasons to believe that the speech disturbance in this patient was of psychogenic origin. This case suggests that attested brain damage is not a prerequisite for a speech disorder to qualify as FAS and that FAS is not…

Articulatory discoordination is often said to be an important feature of the speech production disorder in dysarthria, but little experimental work has been done to identify and specify the coordination difficulties. The present study evaluated the coordination of labial and lingual gestures for /u/ production in persons with Parkinson's disease…

The rise of molecular genetics is having a pervasive influence in a wide variety of fields, including research into neurodevelopmental disorders like dyslexia, speech and language impairments, and autism. There are many studies underway which are attempting to determine the roles of genetic factors in the aetiology of these disorders. Beyond the…

This brochure discusses briefly, in lay terms, how one individual can approach communicating with another individual who has suffered a stroke. Two kinds of aphasia (language loss) are distinguished: Broca's aphasia, in which the ability to process grammar is impaired, and Wernicke's aphasia, in which neurological damage impairs the ability to…