Electropalatographic (EPG) assessment of tongue‐to‐palate contacts in dysarthric speakers following TBI

Abstract

The aim of the investigation was to compare EPG‐derived spatial and timing measures between a group of 11 dysarthric individuals post‐severe TBI and 10 age‐ and sex‐matched neurologically non‐impaired individuals. Participants of the TBI group were diagnosed with dysarthria ranging from mild‐to‐moderate–severe dysarthria. Each participant from the TBI and comparison group was fitted with a custom‐made artificial acrylic palate that recorded lingual palatal contact during target consonant production in sentence‐ and syllable‐repetition tasks at a habitual rate and loudness level. Analysis of temporal parameters between the comparison and TBI groups revealed prolonged durations of the various phases of consonant production, which were attributed to articulatory slowness, impaired speech motor control, impaired accuracy, and impaired coordination of articulatory movements in the dysarthric speakers post‐TBI. For the spatial measurements, quantitative analysis, as well as visual inspection of the tongue‐to‐palate contact diagrams, indicated spatial aberrations in dysarthric speech post‐TBI. Both the spatial and temporal aberrations may have at least partially caused the perceptual judgement of articulatory impairments in the dysarthric speakers.