A Systematic Investigation of Phonetic Complexity Effects on Articulatory Motor Performance in Progressive Dysarthria

University of Missouri (MU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Parkinson Disease; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Treatments: Behavioral: Phonetic complexity effects on speech motor performance

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03613038

1209643

1R15DC016383-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal is to improve the fundamental knowledge about articulatory motor performance in people with Lou Gehrig's disease (also known as ALS) and Parkinson's disease (PD), in order to develop more sensitive assessments for progressive speech loss, which may lead to the improved timing of speech therapies.

Full description

The long-term goal is to optimize dysarthria assessment by improving the early detection and tracking of articulatory performance in progressive dysarthrias. The short-term goal of the proposed cross-sectional study is to focus on ALS and PD and quantify articulatory kinematic performance as a function of phonetic complexity, which is experimentally manipulated based on theoretical principles of speech motor development. The research strategy is to use 3D electromagnetic articulography to examine phonetic complexity effects of single word stimuli at the articulatory kinematic level in 15 talkers each with preclinical, mild, and moderate dysarthria, relative to 45 controls. The central hypothesis is that as dysarthria severity increases the discrepancy in articulatory performance, indexed by movement speed, distance, coordination, and variability, between people with dysarthria and typical controls will significantly increase at a lower phonetic complexity level.

Enrollment: 100 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 19 to 90 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. May or may not have a neurological impairment.
2. Age range of 19-90 years.
3. Male or female.
4. Provide written consent before any study specific procedures are performed.
5. Have ability to comply with basic instructions.
6. Monolingual English speaker.
7. Have ability to partake in a 90 minute data collection.

Exclusion criteria

1. Any speech, language, cognition, or hearing impairment prior to diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease.
2. Anyone not appropriate for study participation, as deemed by the principal investigator.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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100 participants in 1 patient group

Phonetic complexity effects

Other group

Description:

Conduct a comprehensive kinematic assessment using state-of-the art 3D speech tracking technology on individuals with ALS and PD as well as healthy talkers to identify articulatory motor disturbances as a function of phonetic complexity and dysarthria severity. Phonetic complexity will be experimentally manipulated using the consonant and vowel complexity classification system proposed by Kent (1992) that takes into account the underlying articulatory motor adjustments required to produce various speech sounds.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Phonetic complexity effects on speech motor performance