No access
Research Article
Research Article
February 2014

Vowel Acoustics in Dysarthria: Speech Disorder Diagnosis and Classification

Publication: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Volume 57, Number 1
Pages 57-67

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which vowel metrics are capable of distinguishing healthy from dysarthric speech and among different forms of dysarthria.

Method

A variety of vowel metrics were derived from spectral and temporal measurements of vowel tokens embedded in phrases produced by 45 speakers with dysarthria and 12 speakers with no history of neurological disease. Via means testing and discriminant function analysis (DFA), the acoustic metrics were used to (a) detect the presence of dysarthria and (b) classify the dysarthria subtype.

Results

Significant differences between dysarthric and healthy control speakers were revealed for all vowel metrics. However, the results of the DFA demonstrated some metrics (particularly metrics that capture vowel distinctiveness) to be more sensitive and specific predictors of dysarthria. Only the vowel metrics that captured slope of the second formant (F2) demonstrated between-group differences across the dysarthrias. However, when subjected to DFA, these metrics proved unreliable classifiers of dysarthria subtype.

Conclusion

The results of these analyses suggest that some vowel metrics may be useful clinically for the detection of dysarthria but may not be reliable indicators of dysarthria subtype using the current dysarthria classification scheme.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

References

Benjamin, B. J. (1982). Phonological performance in gerontological speech. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 11, 159–167.
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2006). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 4.4.24) [Computer program]. Available from http://www.praat.org/
Darley, F., Aronson, A., & Brown, J. (1969a). Clusters of deviant speech dimensions in the dysarthrias. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 12, 462–496.
Darley, F., Aronson, A., & Brown, J. (1969b). Differential diagnostic patterns of dysarthria. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 12, 246–269.
Darley, F., Aronson, A., & Brown, J. (1975). Motor speech disorders. Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders.
Duffy, J. R. (2005). Motor speech disorders: Substrates, differential diagnosis, and management (2nd ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.
Fonville, S., van der Worp, H. B., Maat, P., Aldenhoven, M., Algra, A., & van Gijn, J. (2008). Accuracy and interobserver variation in the classification of dysarthria from speech recordings. Journal of Neurology, 255, 1545–1548.
Kent, K., Weismer, G., Kent, J., Vorperian, H., & Duffy, J. (1999). Acoustic studies of dysarthric speech: Methods, progress and potential. Journal of Communication Disorders, 32, 141–186.
Kent, R., & Kim, Y. (2003). Toward an acoustic typology of motor speech disorders. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 17, 427–445.
Kent, R. D., Weismer, G., Kent, J. F., & Rosenbek, J. C. (1989). Toward phonetic intelligibility testing in dysarthria. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54, 482–499.
Kim, H., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., & Perlman, A. (2011). Vowel contrast and speech intelligibility in dysarthria. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 63, 187–194.
Kim, Y.-J., Kent, R. D., & Weismer, G. (2011). An acoustic study of the relationships among neurologic disease, dysarthria type and severity of dysarthria. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 54, 417–429.
Kim, Y.-J., Weismer, G., Kent, R. D., & Duffy, J. R. (2009). Statistical models of F2 slope in relation to severity of dysarthria. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 61, 329–335.
Lansford, K. L., & Liss, J. M. (2014). Vowel acoustics in dysarthria: Mapping to perception. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2013/12-0263)
Lansford, K. L., Liss, J. M., Caviness, J. N., & Utianski, R. L. (2011). A cognitive-perceptual approach to conceptualizing speech intelligibility deficits and remediation practice in hypokinetic dysarthria. Parkinson's Disease. doi:10.4061/2011/150962
Liss, J. M., LeGendrew, S., & Lotto, A. J. (2010). Discriminating dysarthria type from envelope modulation spectra. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 1246–1255.
Liss, J. M., Utianski, R. L., & Lansford, K. L. (2013). Cross-linguistic application of English-centric rhythm descriptors in motor speech disorders. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 65, 3–19. doi:10.1159/000350030
Liss, J. M., Weismer, G., & Rosenbeck, J. C. (1990). Selected acoustic characteristics of speech production in very old men. Journal of Gerontology, 45(2), 35–45.
Liss, J. M., White, L., Mattys, S. L., Lansford, K., Spitzer, S., Lotto, A. J., & Caviness, J. N. (2009). Quantifying speech rhythm deficits in the dysarthrias. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 1334–1352.
Liu, H. M., Tsao, F. M., & Kuhl, P. K. (2005). The effect of reduced vowel working space on speech intelligibility in Mandarin-speaking young adults with cerebral palsy. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 117, 3879–3889.
Milenkovic, P. H. (2004). TF32 [Computer software]. Madison: University of Wisconsin, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Neel, A. T. (2008). Vowel space characteristics and vowel identification accuracy. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51, 574–585.
Peterson, G. E., & Lehiste, I. (1960). Duration of syllable nuclei in English. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 32, 693–703.
Rastatter, M. P., & Jacques, R. D. (1990). Formant frequency structure of the aging male and femal vocal tract. Folia Phoniatrica, 42, 312–319.
Rosen, K. M., Goozee, J. V., & Murdoch, B. E. (2008). Examining the effects of multiple sclerosis on speech production: Does phonetic structure matter? Journal of Communication Disorders, 41, 49–69.
Roy, N., Nissen, S. L., Dromey, C., & Sapir, S. (2009). Articulatory changes in muscle tension dysphonia: Evidence of vowel space expansion following manual circumlaryngeal therapy. Journal of Communication Disorders, 42, 124–135.
Sapir, S., Ramig, L., Spielman, J., & Fox, C. (2010). Formant centralization ratio (FCR) as an acoustic index of dysarthric vowel articulation: Comparison with vowel space area in Parkinson disease and healthy aging. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 114–125.
Sapir, S., Spielman, J., Ramig, L., Story, B., & Fox, C. (2007). Effects of intensive voice treatment (the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment [LSVT]) on vowel articulation in dysarthric individuals with idiopathic Parkinson disease: Acoustic and perceptual findings. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 899–912.
Skodda, S., Visser, W., & Schlegel, U. (2011). Vowel articulation in Parkinson's disease. Journal of Voice, 25, 467–472. doi:10.1016/j.voice.2010.01.009
Tjaden, K., Rivera, D., Wilding, G., & Turner, G. S. (2005). Characteristics of the lax vowel space in dysarthria. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 554–566.
Tjaden, K., & Wilding, G. E. (2004). Rate and loudness manipulations in dysarthria: Acoustic and perceptual findings. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 766–783.
Torre, P., III, & Barlow, J. A. (2009). Age-related changes in acoustic characteristics of adult speech. Journal of Communication Disorders, 42, 324–333.
Turner, G., Tjaden, K., & Weismer, G. (1995). The influence of speaking rate on vowel space and speech intelligibility for individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38, 1001–1013.
Van der Graaff, M., Kuiper, T., Zwinderman, A., Van de Warrenburg, B., Poels, P., Offeringa, A., … De Visser, M. (2009). Clinical identification of dysarthria types among neurologists, residents in neurology and speech therapists. European Neurology, 61, 295–300.
Watanabe, S., Arasaki, K., Nagata, H., & Shouji, S. (1994). Analysis of dysarthria in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—MRI of the tongue and formant analysis of vowels. Rinsho Shinkeigaku, 34, 217–223.
Weismer, G., Jeng, J.-Y., Laures, J., Kent, R. D., & Kent, J. F. (2001). Acoustic and intelligibility characteristics of sentence production in neurogenic speech disorders. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 53, 1–18.
Weismer, G., & Kim, Y.-J. (2010). Classification and taxonomy of motor speech disorders: What are the issues? In Maassen, B., & van Lieshout, P. H. H. M. (Eds.), Speech motor control: New developments in basic and applied research (pp. 229–241). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Weismer, G., & Martin, R. (1992). Acoustic and perceptual approaches to the study of intelligibility. In Kent, R. D. (Ed.), Intelligibility in speech disorders: Theory measurement and management (pp. 67–118). Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamin.
Yunusova, Y., Weismer, G., Westbury, J. R., & Lindstrom, M. (2008). Articulatory movements during vowels in speakers with dysarthria and in normal controls. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51, 596–611.
Ziegler, W., & von Cramon, D. (1983a). Vowel distortion in traumatic dysarthria: A formant study. Phonetica, 40, 63–78.
Ziegler, W., & von Cramon, D. (1983b). Vowel distortion in traumatic dysarthria: Lip rounding versus tongue advancement. Phonetica, 40, 312–322.
Ziegler, W., & von Cramon, D. (1986). Spastic dysarthria after acquired brain injury: An acoustic study. British Journal of Disorders of Communication, 21, 173–187.
Zyski, B. J., & Weisiger, B. E. (1987). Identification of dysarthria types based on perceptual analysis. Journal of Communication Disorders, 20, 367–378.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Volume 57Number 1February 2014
Pages: 57-67
PubMed: 24687467

History

  • Received: Aug 29, 2012
  • Revised: Feb 1, 2013
  • Accepted: May 30, 2013
  • Published in issue: Feb 1, 2014

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Key Words

  1. acoustics
  2. dysarthria
  3. speech production
  4. diagnostics

Authors

Affiliations

Kaitlin L. Lansford
Arizona State University, Tempe
Julie M. Liss
Arizona State University, Tempe

Notes

Disclosure: The authors have declared that no competing interests existed at the time of publication.
Correspondence to Kaitlin L. Lansford, who is now at Florida State University: [email protected]
Editor: Jody Kreiman
Associate Editor: Kris Tjaden

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Article Metrics
View all metrics



Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.

Citing Literature

  • Effect of ‘Be Clear’ Treatment on Intelligibility in Adults with Post-Stroke Dysarthria: Acoustic-Perceptual Consequences, Communication Disorders Quarterly, 10.1177/15257401241265272, (2024).
  • Acoustic Effects of Speaker Sex, Speech Sample, and Mandarin Tone on Vowel Production of Poststroke Spastic Dysarthria, Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 10.1159/000538554, (1-14), (2024).
  • Comparison of Vowel and Sentence Intelligibility in People With Dysarthria Secondary to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00497, 67, 4, (1117-1126), (2024).
  • The Effects of Interactive Context on Acoustic Characteristics of Speech in People With Dysarthria: A Preliminary Study, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10.1044/2024_AJSLP-23-00372, 33, 4, (1952-1964), (2024).
  • Instrumental Analysis of Articulation, The Handbook of Clinical Linguistics, Second Edition, 10.1002/9781119875949.ch35, (505-522), (2024).
  • Oromotor Nonverbal Performance and Speech Motor Control: Theory and Review of Empirical Evidence, Brain Sciences, 10.3390/brainsci13050768, 13, 5, (768), (2023).
  • Sequence variants affecting voice pitch in humans, Science Advances, 10.1126/sciadv.abq2969, 9, 23, (2023).
  • Disease Delineation for Multiple Sclerosis, Friedreich Ataxia, and Healthy Controls Using Supervised Machine Learning on Speech Acoustics, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 10.1109/TNSRE.2023.3321874, 31, (4278-4285), (2023).
  • A Review and Classification of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis with Speech as a Biomarker, 2023 14th International Conference on Computing Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT), 10.1109/ICCCNT56998.2023.10308048, (1-7), (2023).
  • Machine Learning-Assisted Diagnosis of Speech Disorders: A Review of Dysarthric Speech, 2023 International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Communication and Computers (ELEXCOM), 10.1109/ELEXCOM58812.2023.10370116, (1-6), (2023).
  • See more

View Options

Sign In Options

ASHA member? If so, log in with your ASHA website credentials for full access.

Member Login

View options

PDF

View PDF

Full Text

View Full Text

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share