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

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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.

Detailed Description
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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.

Official Title
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Understanding Communication and Cognitive Impairments in Neurodegenerative Disorders

Conditions
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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Parkinson Disease

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Phonetic complexity effects on speech motor performance


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: May or may not have a neurological impairment. Age range of 19-90 years. Male or female. Provide written consent before any study specific procedures are performed. Have ability to comply with basic instructions. Monolingual English speaker. Have ability to partake in a 90 minute data collection. Exclusion Criteria: Any speech, language, cognition, or hearing impairment prior to diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease. Anyone not appropriate for study participation, as deemed by the principal investigator.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 19 Years
Maximum Age: 90 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Two groups of participants i.e., participants with ALS or PD and healthy controls will be asked to repeat sentences that have target words with varying phonetic complexity.
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Other: Phonetic complexity effects<br>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. | Behavioral: Phonetic complexity effects on speech motor performance<br>* Use of 3D electromagnetic articulography to examine phonetic complexity effects of single word stimuli at the articulatory kinematic level in talkers each with preclinical, mild, and moderate dysarthria, relative to healthy controls.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Peak movement speed | Peak speed (millimeters/second) for each articulatory marker is the maximum value of the first-order derivative of each marker's Euclidean distance time-history. | Up to 3 months after enrollment | 
| Range of movement | The convex hull represents the smallest convex set containing all the points in the 3D motion path. | Up to 3 months after enrollment | 
| Duration | Word duration (seconds) is the time between onset and offset of movement for each word. | Up to 3 months after enrollment | 
| Spatiotemporal movement variability (STI) | STI is the most widely used metric to capture movement pattern variability during speech. To determine STI, the pattern of articulatory movements and the variability of that pattern over several repetitions of an utterance are examined. | Up to 3 months after enrollment | 
| Inter-articulator coordination | Spatiotemporal coupling relations between articulators will be derived from vertical movements of the articulators using a covariance measure. | Up to 3 months after enrollment | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Dysarthria, Speech motor performance, Speech motor control, Speech kinematics