Anja Lowit

What makes acquired foreign accent syndrome foreign

Abstract EJC, strongly right handed, presented with acquired neurogenic foreign accent syndrome (FAS) after a right anterior communicating artery aneurysm haemorrhage. We describe perceived and spectrographically viewed changes to her speech and attempt to ascertain why EJC was perceived as foreign, stepping beyond the general path of assuming observed changes automatically explain the perceived foreignness. EJCs speech is compared with local English and foreign accent speakers; correlational and regression statistics are employed to explore which changes in EJCs speech most strongly associate with perceived foreignness. Vowel, consonant cluster and stress pattern changes emerge as significantly salient. It is argued that listener perception plays as important a role in FAS as the underlying speech disturbance. In EJCs case we conclude that she presents with a right hemisphere-based apraxic–ataxic speech disorder.

Behavioural intervention effects in dysarthria following stroke: communication effectiveness, intelligibility and dysarthria impact

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 intervention on communication effectiveness and intelligibility, and of the speech disorders impact on the person with dysarthria. METHODS & PROCEDURES Eight people with dysarthria following stroke received individually tailored intervention programmes of 16 sessions during an 8-week period. Conversation, and reading aloud of connected speech and of single words were sampled at four points, at intervals of around 2 months: two before intervention and two after intervention. The data were perceptually evaluated by ten listeners, blind to assessment point, for the overall effectiveness of communication (conversation) and for single-word and reading intelligibility. The impact of dysarthria was assessed at the beginning and end of the intervention period. OUTCOME & RESULTS The level of reliability of listener ratings was high. There was no evidence of group change between assessment points for measures of communication effectiveness during conversation, or for reading and word intelligibility. Individual participant analysis indicated that five speakers improved in at least one of these three measures. In all cases this followed either stability or deterioration during the 2-month pre-intervention period. There was very little evidence of deterioration during the 2 months after withdrawal of treatment. For three participants no intervention-related speech benefit was demonstrated. Age, dysarthria severity or lesion information did not appear to differentiate those who improved from those who did not. Improvement occurred in all who began the intervention phase between 5 and 8 months following stroke onset. Group data indicated no change in the Dysarthria Impact Profile in respect of three sections (The effect of dysarthria on me as a person; How I feel others react to my speech; and How dysarthria affects my communication with others). There was a significant difference between the start and end of intervention for Accepting my dysarthria, suggesting a reduction in the negative impact of dysarthria. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate that some individuals with dysarthria have a capacity to respond positively to intervention, some months after stroke, and to maintain this improvement following 2 months of no intervention. Consideration is given to how the results of the present study may inform subsequent phases of dysarthria stroke research.

The effectiveness of traditional methods and altered auditory feedback in improving speech rate and intelligibility in speakers with Parkinson's disease

Communication problems are a frequent symptom for people with Parkinsons disease (PD) which can have a significant impact on their quality-of-life. Deciding on the right management approach can be problematic though, as, with the exception of LSVT®, very few studies have been published demonstrating the effectiveness of treatment techniques. The aim of this study was to compare traditional rate reduction methods with altered auditory feedback (AAF) with respect to their effectiveness to reduce speech rate and improve intelligibility in speakers with PD. Ten participants underwent both types of treatments in once weekly sessions for 6 weeks. Outcomes measures were speech rate for passage reading as well as intelligibility on both a passage reading and a monologue task. The results showed that, as a group, there was no significant change in either speech rate or intelligibility resulting from either treatment type. However, individual speakers showed improvements in speech performance as a result of each therapy technique. In most cases, these benefits persisted for at least 6 months post-treatment. Possible reasons for the variable response to treatment, as well as issues to consider when planning to use AAF devices in treatment are discussed.

A model for production, perception, and acquisition of actions in face-to-face communication

The concept of action as basic motor control unit for goal-directed movement behavior has been used primarily for private or non-communicative actions like walking, reaching, or grasping. In this paper, literature is reviewed indicating that this concept can also be used in all domains of face-to-face communication like speech, co-verbal facial expression, and co-verbal gesturing. Three domain-specific types of actions, i.e. speech actions, facial actions, and hand-arm actions, are defined in this paper and a model is proposed that elucidates the underlying biological mechanisms of action production, action perception, and action acquisition in all domains of face-to-face communication. This model can be used as theoretical framework for empirical analysis or simulation with embodied conversational agents, and thus for advanced human–computer interaction technologies.

Intonation in neurogenic foreign accent syndrome

UNLABELLED Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a motor speech disorder in which changes to segmental as well as suprasegmental aspects lead to the perception of a foreign accent in speech. This paper focuses on one suprasegmental aspect, namely that of intonation. It provides an in-depth analysis of the intonation system of four speakers with FAS with the aim of establishing the intonational changes that have taken place as well as their underlying origin. Using the autosegmental-metrical framework of intonational analysis, four different levels of intonation, i.e., inventory, distribution, realisation and function, were examined in short sentences. Results revealed that the speakers with FAS had the same structural inventory at their disposal as the control speakers, but that they differed from the latter in relation to the distribution, implementation and functional use of their inventory. The current results suggest that these intonational changes cannot be entirely attributed to an underlying intonation deficit but reflect secondary manifestations of physiological constraints affecting speech support systems and compensatory strategies. These findings have implications for the debate surrounding intonational deficits in FAS, advocating a reconsideration of current assumptions regarding the underlying nature of intonation impairment in FAS. LEARNING OUTCOMES The reader will be able to (1) explain the relevance of intonation in defining foreign accent syndrome; (2) describe the process of intonation analysis within the autosegmental-metrical (AM) framework; and (3) discuss the manifestation of intonation changes in FAS at the different levels of intonation and their potential underlying nature.

Quantification of rhythm problems in disordered speech : a re-evaluation

Disordered speech can present with rhythmic problems, impacting on an individuals ability to communicate. Effective treatment relies on the availability of sensitive methods to characterize the problem. Rhythm metrics based on segmental durations originally designed for cross-linguistic research have the potential to provide such information. However, these measures may be associated with problems that impact on their clinical usefulness. This paper aims to address the perceptual validity of cross-linguistic metrics as indicators of rhythmic disorder. Speakers with dysarthria and matched healthy participants performed a range of tasks, including syllable and sentence repetition and a spontaneous monologue. A range of rhythm metrics as well as clinical measures were applied. Results showed that none of the metrics could differentiate disordered from healthy speakers, despite clear perceptual differences, suggesting that factors beyond segment duration impacted on rhythm perception. The investigation also highlighted a number of areas where caution needs to be exercised in the application of rhythm metrics to disordered speech. The paper concludes that the underlying speech impairment leading to the perceptual and acoustic characterization of rhythmic problems needs to be established through detailed analysis of speech characteristics in order to construct effective treatment plans for individuals with speech disorders.

Phonological and phonetic marking of information status in Foreign Accent Syndrome

BACKGROUND Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a motor speech disorder in which a variety of segmental and suprasegmental errors lead to the perception of a new accent in speech. Whilst changes in intonation have been identified to contribute considerably to the perceived alteration in accent, research has rarely focused on how these changes impact on the pragmatic use of intonation. However, a greater understanding of the role of intonational changes in FAS and its impact on the functional use of intonation is fundamental to developing appropriate assessment and subsequently treatment strategies for FAS. AIMS This study investigated intonation patterns in speakers with FAS and matched control participants with regard to their ability to signal new and given information (information status) within sentences. A phonetic and phonological perspective was taken with the aim of identifying the characteristics that were compromised in FAS to convey this linguistic function. METHODS & PROCEDURES Four speakers with FAS and four control participants participated in the speech production experiment. The speech data were assessed perceptually, and examined in relation to the use of the phonetic parameters fundamental frequency (f0), intensity and duration as well as phonological categories, i.e. pitch accents and de-accentuation, using the autosegmental-metrical (AM) framework of intonational analysis. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Both speaker groups employed all three phonetic parameters to differentiate between new and given information. However, groups differed regarding the use of phonological markers, with speakers with FAS frequently placing pitch accents on given information instead of de-accenting these elements. According to the perceptual evaluation, three of the four speakers with FAS had problems signalling information status. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The fact that speakers with FAS marked information status similarly to control speakers at the phonetic level, but failed to do so using phonological categories highlights the importance of assessing phonetic as well as phonological features to gain detailed information about the functional use of intonation in FAS.

Cepstral analysis of hypokinetic and ataxic voices : correlations with perceptual and other acoustic measures

OBJECTIVES To investigate the validity of cepstral analyses against other conventional acoustic measures of voice quality in determining the perceptual impression in different motor speech disorders-hypokinetic and ataxic dysarthria, and speech tasks-prolonged vowels and connected speech. METHODS Prolonged vowel productions and connected speech samples (reading passages and monologues) from 43 participants with Parkinson disease and 10 speakers with ataxia were analyzed perceptually by a trained listener using GRBAS. In addition, acoustic measures of cepstral peak prominence (CPP), smoothed CPP (CPPs), harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), shimmer %, shimmer dB, amplitude perturbation quotient (APQ), relative average perturbation (RAP), jitter, and pitch perturbation quotient (PPQ) were performed. Statistical analysis involved correlations between perceptual and acoustic measures, as well as determination of differences across speaker groups and elicitation tasks. RESULTS CPP and CPPs results showed greater levels of correlation with overall dysphonia, breathiness, and asthenia ratings than the other acoustic measures, except in the case of roughness. Sustained vowel production produced a higher number of significant correlations across all parameters other than connected speech, but task choice did not affect CPP and CPPs results. There were no significant differences in any parameters across the two speaker groups. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study are consistent with the results of other studies investigating the same measures in speakers with nonmotor-related voice pathologies. In addition, there was an indication that they performed better in relation to asthenia, which might be particularly relevant for the current speaker group. The results support the clinical and research use of CPP and CPPs as a quantitative measure of voice quality in populations with motor speech disorder.

Phonological markers of sentence stress in ataxic dysarthria and their relationship to perceptual cues

UNLABELLED A wide range of literature is available on the features of ataxic dysarthria, investigating segmental and prosodic characteristics by acoustic and perceptual means. However, very few studies have been published that look closely at the relationship between the observed phonetic disturbances and their perceptual sequelae, particularly in the area of prosody. The aim of the current study was therefore to examine the stress production of eight individuals with ataxic dysarthria and matched healthy controls, and to relate the results of phonological and perceptual evaluations to phonetic performances to better understand the relationship between these three components for speech outcomes. Speakers performed a sentence stress task which was analysed phonologically in terms of inventory, distribution, implementation and function of pitch accentuation. These data were then evaluated in relation to previously published phonetic and perceptual results on the same speaker group by the authors. Results indicated that the speakers with ataxia used a wide range of pitch patterns, but pitch-accented a higher number of words, and produced shorter phrases. The increased number of pitch accents per phrase was furthermore reflected in a reduced percentage of de-accented words in post-focal position. Perceptual results established this pattern as the main cause for listener errors in identifying the intended stressed item in an utterance. In addition, the performances of two speakers are discussed in greater detail. Although they were unable to de-accent, they nevertheless marked stress appropriately through phonetic compensatory strategies. LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this article the reader will be able to (1) explain the relevance of phonology and phonetics in the perception of stress production in ataxic dysarthria; (2) describe the different levels of intonational analysis; and (3) understand the observed intonation patterns in ataxic dysarthria as well as the compensatory mechanisms speakers may adopt to produce stress.

The role of speaking styles in assessing intonation in foreign accent syndrome

Abstract Purpose. This paper evaluates the role of different speaking styles in defining intonation patterns in speakers with foreign accent syndrome. The methodological investigation aimed at establishing to what extent scripted and unscripted speech influence the phonological realization of intonation in disordered speech. Method. Four individuals with foreign accent syndrome and four gender-, age- and original dialect-matched control speakers were asked to perform a series of scripted and unscripted speech tasks including short sentences, a reading passage, a picture description and a monologue task. The speech data were analysed within the autosegmental-metrical framework of intonational analysis in relation to inventory, distribution, realization and functional use of intonational elements. Result. Findings revealed that the unscripted speaking styles provided a more comprehensive picture of the inventory and distribution of intonation contours, whereas differences in the functional use were more prominently reflected in the scripted data sets, in particular the short sentences. Conclusion. The findings highlight that the type of speaking style influences how intonation patterns are realized in disordered as well as healthy speech. A combination of scripted as well as unscripted data is, thus, required to obtain a comprehensive picture of the intonation abilities of a speaker with foreign accent syndrome.