Electropalatographic and cephalometric assessment of tongue function in open bite and non-open bite subjects. (1/53)

Anterior open bite (AOB) and tongue thrust swallowing are frequently associated, but the relationship between the two remains unclear. Electropalatography (EPG), which is used in speech pathology to measure dynamic tongue function for diagnostic, therapeutic, and research purposes, is a suitable technique for the investigation of this relationship. The present clinical study examined the dentofacial pattern and tongue function in AOB and non-open bite children. EPG recordings of speech and swallowing, and lateral head radiographs were obtained from eight 10-year-old boys with tongue thrust swallowing behaviour and AOB, and from eight age-matched non-open bite controls. Analysis of data from the two groups indicated that although differences were small, the open bite children displayed trends for longer face morphology and greater upper incisor proclination, less consistent production of closures during speech, a more posterior pattern of EPG contact, and relatively sparse EPG contact during swallowing. The discovery of differing patterns of contact for the /d[symbol: see text]/ and /t[symbol: see text]/ phonemes indicates that these should be included when speech is used to test for the presence of fronted tongue behaviour.  (+info)

The spectral analysis of syllables in patients using dentures. (2/53)

Changes in the oral cavity resulting from the loss of teeth and the ensuing reconstruction of a set of teeth by dentures (partial or complete) may cause changes in the speech and voice of the patient. The aim of the present investigation was to study the changes in speech and voice in patients suffering from teeth loss and the degree of speech improvement using dentures. Voice and speech parameters of a set of tested syllables were analysed in 10 patients at the 2nd Clinic of Stomatology. The analysis was carried out by means of an FFT, SoundForge 5.0 programme. Differently expressed acoustic changes in both consonants and vowels were ascertained in a percentage of the patients under examination. These concerned especially the sibilant ("s", "(see text)"), labiodental ("f", "v") and vibrating ("r", "(see text)") consonants. Changes in the FFT spectrum and air leakage in constrictive consonants were also found. In some patients the vowels, especially the closed ones ("i", "u"), may change their fundamental frequency and show noise admixture manifested as a blurred delimitation of the formants. A denture should, inter alia, render it possible for the patient to produce the same articulation to which he/she had been accustomed before the loss of teeth. For the construction of dentures the most important factors from a phonetic point of view appear to be the following: overbite, overjet, the height of the plate, the thickness of the palatal material, the incisor position, and the modelling of the ruga palatina on the hard palate. In case of wrong denture construction the acoustic changes may continue, resulting in the patient's stress load dependent upon sex, age, psychic condition and seriousness of the problem.  (+info)

Development of [j] in young, midwestern, American children. (3/53)

Beginning at the age of about 14 months, eight children who lived in a rhotic dialect region of the United States were recorded approximately every 2 months interacting with their parents. All were recorded until at least the age of 26 months, and some until the age of 31 months. Acoustic analyses of speech samples indicated that these young children acquired [inverted r] production ability at different ages for [inverted r]'s in different syllable positions. The children, as a group, had started to produce postvocalic and syllabic [inverted r] in an adult-like manner by the end of the recording sessions, but were not yet showing evidence of having acquired prevocalic [inverted r]. Articulatory limitations of young children are posited as a cause for the difference in development of [inverted r] according to syllable position. Specifically, it is speculated that adult-like prevocalic [inverted r] production requires two lingual constrictions: one in the mouth, and the other in the pharynx, while postvocalic and syllabic [inverted r] requires only one oral constriction. Two lingual constrictions could be difficult for young children to produce.  (+info)

Self-inflicted cosmetic tongue split: a case report. (4/53)

The objective of this case study was to obtain some first-hand information about the functional consequences of a cosmetic tongue split operation for speech and tongue motility. One male patient who had performed the operation on himself was interviewed and underwent a tongue motility assessment, as well as an ultrasound examination. Tongue motility was mildly reduced as a result of tissue scarring. Speech was rated to be fully intelligible and highly acceptable by 4 raters, although 2 raters noticed slight distortions of the sibilants /s/ and /z/. The 3-dimensional ultrasound demonstrated that the synergy of the 2 sides of the tongue was preserved. A notably deep posterior genioglossus furrow indicated compensation for the reduced length of the tongue blade. It is concluded that the tongue split procedure did not significantly affect the participant's speech intelligibility and tongue motility.  (+info)

Analysis of articulation of fricative praealveolar sibilant "S" in control population. (5/53)

Defective pronunciation of one or more mother language phones, i.e. dyslalia, represents the most frequent speech impairment both in children and adult people. Cases of persisting speech disorder need professional approach and help. The aim of the study was to obtain a model of physiological articulation of the sibilant "s" in children. The method of FFT spectral analysis was made use of. Results will serve for further use in evaluation of speech impairment.  (+info)

Prevalence and pattern of perceived intelligibility changes in Parkinson's disease. (6/53)

BACKGROUND: Changes to spoken communication are inevitable in Parkinson's disease (PD). It remains unclear what consequences changes have for intelligibility of speech. AIMS: To establish the prevalence of impaired speech intelligibility in people with PD and the relationship of intelligibility decline to indicators of disease progression. METHODS: 125 speakers with PD and age matched unaffected controls completed a diagnostic intelligibility test and described how to carry out a common daily activity in an "off drug" state. Listeners unfamiliar with dysarthric speech evaluated responses. RESULTS: 69.6% (n = 87) of people with PD fell below the control mean of unaffected speakers (n = 40), 51.2% (n = 64) by more than -1 SD below. 48% (n = 60) were perceived as worse than the lowest unaffected speaker for how disordered speech sounded. 38% (n = 47) placed speech changes among their top four concerns regarding their PD. Intelligibility level did not correlate significantly with age or disease duration and only weakly with stage and severity of PD. There were no significant differences between participants with tremor dominant versus postural instability/gait disorder motor phenotypes of PD. CONCLUSIONS: Speech intelligibility is significantly reduced in PD; it can be among the main concerns of people with PD, but it is not dependent on disease severity, duration or motor phenotype. Patients' own perceptions of the extent of change do not necessarily reflect objective measures.  (+info)

Articulatory deficits in parkinsonian dysarthria: an acoustic analysis. (7/53)

Twelve patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease had acoustic speech analysis of sentence utterances to provide information on speech tempo and accuracy of articulation. As a measure of rate of speech the duration of opening-closing movements during articulation was determined from speech wave variables. The intensity of sound emission during articulatory closure as required for stop consonant production, for example, magnitude of p, magnitude of t, magnitude of k, was used as an index of the degree of closure. Speech tempo was not significantly different from normal. The patients, however, had a reduced capacity of completing articulatory occlusion. This was interpreted as reflecting a reduction in movement amplitude of the articulators. Articulatory "undershoot" was not uniform but influenced by linguistic demands in that the closures associated with a stressed syllable were performed at the expense of unstressed ones. Furthermore, switching between opening and closing movements of the articulators in sentence production seemed undisturbed. These results indicate that motor planning of speech differs from arm movement control.  (+info)

Developmental changes in activation and effective connectivity in phonological processing. (8/53)

The current study examined developmental changes in activation and effective connectivity among brain regions during a phonological processing task, using fMRI. Participants, ages 9-15, were scanned while performing rhyming judgments on pairs of visually presented words. The orthographic and phonological similarity between words in the pair was independently manipulated, so that rhyming judgment could not be based on orthographic similarity. Our results show a developmental increase in activation in the dorsal part of left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), accompanied by a decrease in the dorsal part of left superior temporal gyrus (STG). The coupling of dorsal IFG with other selected brain regions involved in the phonological decision increased with age, while the coupling of STG decreased with age. These results suggest that during development there is a shift from reliance on sensory auditory representations to reliance on phonological segmentation and covert articulation for performing rhyming judgment on visually presented words. In addition, we found a developmental increase in activation in left posterior parietal cortex that was not accompanied by a change in its connectivity with the other regions. These results suggest that maturational changes within a cortical region are not necessarily accompanied by an increase in its interactions with other regions and its contribution to the task. Our results are consistent with the idea that there is reduced reliance on primary sensory processes as task-relevant processes mature and become more efficient during development.  (+info)