Voice onset time in aphasia, apraxia of speech and dysarthria: a review

Abstract

Voice onset time (VOT) is an objective temporal acoustic parameter defined as the time between the release of the oral constriction for plosive production and the onset of vocal fold vibrations. Many researchers consider VOT to be the most reliable acoustic cue for the distinction between voiced and voiceless stops. Previous studies have explored the physiological and linguistic factors underlying VOT production in normal speakers across several languages. A major clinical goal of acoustic analysis in speech disorder is to establish a correlation between the acoustic abnormalities and the phonetic perturbations. VOT could thus be used as an acoustic parameter that indicates the phonetic contrast between voiced and voiceless stops. This paper includes a critical review of the measurement of VOT, factors of VOT variability and the effect of neurogenic communication disorders on VOT. We review the VOT data from subjects who exhibit aphasia, apraxia of speech and dysarthria. These studies reveal that VOT perturbations in aphasia have been interpreted as phonemic or phonetic errors, while VOT abnormalities in apraxia of speech and dysarthria grossly reflect loss of motor control.