Abstract
Previous acoustic studies on speech deterioration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) demonstrated that those at more advanced stages of disease show reduced F2 (second formant) slopes presumably due to disease-related changes in the tongue. Other studies have shown that patients with ALS use their jaw to compensate for decreased tongue function in speech. However, no study to date has examined the compensatory role that the jaw has on maintaining the acoustic signatures of vocalic segments. This study will report F2 slope differences in vowels and diphthongs produced with and without jaw stabilization via a bite block. Based on previous studies, I hypothesized that the bite block will affect F2 slope measures in individuals with significant tongue impairment on the oral-motor examination and low speech intelligibility scores. Thirty participants repeat a carrier phrase “Say _ again” with words “wax, sip, yo-yo, sight” three times with and without the bite block. Kinematic measures of the distance, time, and speed, and acoustic measures of F2 slope are reported. The data will be discussed in the context of the role of the tongue in vowel production.
Published Version
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