Articulatory and acoustic study of consonant production in a traumatically brain injured speaker.

Abstract

This study examined the clinical utility of instrumental studies of the speech of neurologically impaired persons, as well as documented the particular articulatory patterns of one individual, a right-handed 36-yr-old female, 5-yr post onset of TBI, with right hemiparesis. Communicative impairments included relatively mild cognitive deficits and moderate-to-severe hypokinetic dysarthria. The speech sample included repetitions of isolated sustained continuant consonants, of VCV disyllables, and of sentences containing consonant clusters. The articulatory data were electropalatographic (EPG) signals recorded using a RION soft artificial palate with a sampling rate of 64 fps. The acoustic signals were recorded simultaneously with the EPG signals and subjected to spectral analysis. Vowel environment was found to have a strong influence on lingual contact patterns for /s/. In general, within vowel height groups, the extent of lingual contact for /s/ was greater in the VCV context than in words produced in sentences. Spectral patterns associated with differences in lingual contact for /s/ will be described. [Work supported by NIH Grant No. DC-00121 to Haskins Lab.]