Variations of F2 range measures in mild dysarthria and healthy talkers

Abstract

Diminished vocalic segments indexed by the extent, duration, and rate of change in the second formant (F2) are common in dysarthria and are known to reduce intelligibility in adults with multiple sclerosis (MS; Hartelius et al., 2010). When F2 range was measured over select sentences from a reading passage, results indicated that the F2 range may not be sensitive to mild dysarthria in MS (Rosen et al., 2008). However, measures of the F2 range should be further explored for sentences imposing greater speech-motor and cognitive-linguistic demands. As such, phonetic contexts requiring even small vocal tract movement may contribute to intelligibility for speakers with mild dysarthria in MS. Thus, this study will investigate the impact of sentence length and complexity on within-speaker variations of F2 movement and group differences for 12 adults with mild dysarthria in MS and 12 healthy talkers. Various F2 range measures shown to be sensitive to speech motor capabilities will be obtained from 11 audio-recorded sentences varying in length and complexity. The results of this study will provide a better understanding of the speech motor control capabilities of speakers with mild dysarthria with relatively preserved intelligibility in MS. [Work supported by ASH Foundation and the University at Buffalo MDRF.]Diminished vocalic segments indexed by the extent, duration, and rate of change in the second formant (F2) are common in dysarthria and are known to reduce intelligibility in adults with multiple sclerosis (MS; Hartelius et al., 2010). When F2 range was measured over select sentences from a reading passage, results indicated that the F2 range may not be sensitive to mild dysarthria in MS (Rosen et al., 2008). However, measures of the F2 range should be further explored for sentences imposing greater speech-motor and cognitive-linguistic demands. As such, phonetic contexts requiring even small vocal tract movement may contribute to intelligibility for speakers with mild dysarthria in MS. Thus, this study will investigate the impact of sentence length and complexity on within-speaker variations of F2 movement and group differences for 12 adults with mild dysarthria in MS and 12 healthy talkers. Various F2 range measures shown to be sensitive to speech motor capabilities will be obtained from 11 audio-record...