Relationships between maximum tongue pressure and second formant transition in speakers with different types of dysarthria

Abstract

The effects of muscle weakness on speech are currently not fully known. We investigated the relationships between maximum tongue pressure and second formant transition in adults with different types of dysarthria. It focused on the slope in the second formant transition because it reflects the tongue velocity during articulation. Sixty-three Japanese speakers with dysarthria (median age, 68 years; interquartile range, 58–77 years; 44 men and 19 women) admitted to acute and convalescent hospitals were included. Thirty neurologically normal speakers aged 19–85 years (median age, 22 years; interquartile range, 21.0–23.8 years; 14 men and 16 women) were also included. The relationship between the maximum tongue pressure and speech function was evaluated using correlation analysis in the dysarthria group. Speech intelligibility, the oral diadochokinesis rate, and the second formant slope were based on the impaired speech index. More than half of the speakers had mild to moderate dysarthria. Speakers with dysarthria showed significantly lower maximum tongue pressure, speech intelligibility, oral diadochokinesis rate, and second formant slope than neurologically normal speakers. Only the second formant slope was significantly correlated with the maximum tongue pressure (r = 0.368, p = 0.003). The relationship between the second formant slope and maximum tongue pressure showed a similar correlation in the analysis of subgroups divided by sex. The oral diadochokinesis rate, which is related to the speed of articulation, is affected by voice on/off, mandibular opening/closing, and range of motion. In contrast, the second formant slope was less affected by these factors. These results suggest that the maximum isometric tongue strength is associated with tongue movement speed during articulation.

Oromotor Nonverbal Performance and Speech Motor Control: Theory and Review of Empirical Evidence

“…Results of more recent publications are consistent with those of the aforementioned papers: speech production measures in speakers with dysarthria are typically different from those of control speakers, and infrequently different among disease/dysarthria groups. Studies consistent with this claim include (but may not be limited to) [7,47,50,52,53,55,[65][66][67][68][69]. The inclusion of [47] in this claim is inferred from Figure 3 in [47], in which measures of F2 slope overlap considerably for eight different dysarthria "subtypes".…”

“…Studies consistent with this claim include (but may not be limited to) [7,47,50,52,53,55,[65][66][67][68][69]. The inclusion of [47] in this claim is inferred from Figure 3 in [47], in which measures of F2 slope overlap considerably for eight different dysarthria "subtypes". Correlation coefficients between maximum anterior tongue pressures and F2 slope were significant for the flaccid and mixed subtypes, but not significant for the other six subtypes.…”

“…The issue of diagnosis of disease versus dysarthria type is important in experimental work. For example, dysarthria type is used as a classification variable in many experiments (e.g., [42,47,48], disease type in others (e.g., [49][50][51]). A smaller group of studies use classification variables that are a hybrid of dysarthria and disease types [37].…”

“…Correlation coefficients between maximum anterior tongue pressures and F2 slope were significant for the flaccid and mixed subtypes, but not significant for the other six subtypes. The results of [47] are discussed further in Section 6. Empirical Findings).…”

Dysarthric Speech Transformer: A Sequence-to-Sequence Dysarthric Speech Recognition System

“…be slurred or slow speech, inability to whisper, rapid speech, or monotone speech [1]. As the impairment progresses, speech produced by dysarthric individuals becomes unintelligible due to the intensive muscle paralysis making phone production different from normal (aka healthy) speakers [2].…”