Speech Deficits Research Articles

Communication deficits in a case of a deletion in 7q31.1-q31.33 encompassing FOXP2

ABSTRACT Copy number variants (CNVs) found in individuals with communication deficits provide a valuable window to the genetic causes of problems with language and, more generally, to the genetic foundation of the human-specific ability to learn and use languages. This paper reports on the language and communication problems of a patient with a microduplication in 22q11.23 and a microdeletion in 7q31.1-q1.33 encompassing FOXP2. The proband exhibits severe speech problems and moderate comprehension deficits, whereas her pragmatic abilities are a relative strength, as she uses gestures quite competently to compensate for her expressive issues. This profile is compatible with the deficiencies found in patients with similar CNVs, particularly with people bearing microdeletions in 7q31.1-q31.33.

Efficacy of an integrated intervention with vocabulary and phonetic training for Mandarin-speaking children with developmental language disorders

Background: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate deficits in vocabulary development and novel word learning processes, which have been proposed to stem from their speech perception deficits. Aims: This study had two aims. The first was to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention incorporating a computer-based phonetic training programme with rich and explicit vocabulary instruction. The second aim was to investigate the adjuvant treatment effect of phonetic training on word learning performance. Methods and procedures: The experimental group comprised 34 children with DLD aged 5–7 years, and the control group comprised another 15 children with DLD. All participants in the experimental group attended 1-h direct vocabulary instruction classes weekly for 9 weeks. They were also asked to play computer-based phonetic training games individually at home or school. Pre-post differences between groups in word definition and speech perception tasks were examined. The relationship between the experimental group's vocabulary learning performance and scores on the phonetic training games was examined using correlation analysis. Results: Between-group comparisons revealed that children in the experimental group exhibited significantly greater pre-post gains in word definition task than did the control group. Children in the experimental group performed better in the lexical tone posttest No improvement in the speech discrimination tasks was detected in the control group. Finally, correlation analyses indicated a positive relationship between the total number of phonetic games played and the pre-post gain in the word definition production task. The children's response accuracy in the lexical tone discrimination games was significantly correlated with the performance of the posttest tone discrimination task and the pre-post gain in the word definition task. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that vocabulary intervention programmes incorporating speech perception training promote children's vocabulary and speech perception abilities. These findings can serve as evidence to support future school-based studies.

The scope and potential of music therapy in stroke rehabilitation

There is a growing interest in the use of music therapy in neurological rehabilitation. Of all the major neurological illnesses, stroke rehabilitation has been observed to have some of the strongest potential for music therapy’s beneficial effect. The current burden of stroke has raised the need to embrace novel, cost-effective, rehabilitation designs that will enhance the existing physical, occupation, and speech therapies. Music therapy addresses a broad spectrum of motor, speech, and cognitive deficits, as well as behavioral and emotional issues. Several music therapy designs have focused on gait, cognitive, and speech rehabilitation, but most of the existing randomized controlled trials based on these interventions have a high risk of bias and are statistically insignificant. More randomized controlled trials with greater number of participants are required to strengthen the current data. Fostering an open and informed dialogue between patients, healthcare providers, and music therapists may help increase quality of life, dispel fallacies, and guide patients to specific musical interventions.

Sex differences in the symptom presentation of stroke: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Early diagnosis through symptom recognition is vital in the management of acute stroke. However, women who experience stroke are more likely than men to be initially given a nonstroke diagnosis and it is unclear if potential sex differences in presenting symptoms increase the risk of delayed or missed stroke diagnosis. To quantify sex differences in the symptom presentation of stroke and assess whether these differences are associated with a delayed or missed diagnosis. PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched up to January 2021. Studies were included if they reported presenting symptoms of adult women and men with diagnosed stroke (ischemic or hemorrhagic) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) and were published in English. Mean percentages with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of each symptom were calculated for women and men. The crude relative risks (RRs) with 95% CI of symptoms being present in women, relative to men, were also calculated and pooled. Any data on the delayed or missed diagnosis of stroke for women compared to men based on symptom presentation were also extracted. Pooled results from 21 eligible articles showed that women and men presented with a similar mean percentage of motor deficit (56% in women vs 56% in men) and speech deficit (41% in women vs 40% in men). Despite this, women more commonly presented with nonfocal symptoms than men: generalized nonspecific weakness (49% vs 36%), mental status change (31% vs 21%), and confusion (37% vs 28%), whereas men more commonly presented with ataxia (44% vs 30%) and dysarthria (32% vs 27%). Women also had a higher risk of presenting with some nonfocal symptoms: generalized weakness (RR 1.49, 95% CI 1.09-2.03), mental status change (RR 1.44, 95% CI 1.22-1.71), fatigue (RR 1.42, 95% CI 1.05-1.92), and loss of consciousness (RR 1.30, 95% CI 1.12-1.51). In contrast, women had a lower risk of presenting with dysarthria (RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.82-0.95), dizziness (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.80-0.95), gait disturbance (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.65-0.97), and imbalance (RR 0.68, 95% CI 0.57-0.81). Only one study linking symptoms to definite stroke/TIA diagnosis found that pain and unilateral sensory loss are associated with lower odds of a definite diagnosis in women compared to men. Although women showed a higher prevalence of some nonfocal symptoms, the prevalence of focal neurological symptoms, such as motor weakness and speech deficit, was similar for both sexes. Awareness of sex differences in symptoms in acute stroke evaluation, careful consideration of the full constellation of presenting symptoms, and further studies linking symptoms to diagnostic outcomes can be helpful in improving early diagnosis and management in both sexes.

Acoustic analysis of vowel production in children with childhood apraxia of speech

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a complex neurological subtype of speech sound disorder (SSD), involving impaired speech motor planning and programming. Speech characteristics of CAS include difficulty in sequencing speech movements in the absence of muscle weakness resulting in segmental (e.g., vowel/consonant distortions) and suprasegmental (e.g., inappropriate lexical stress) speech deficits. Acoustic analysis offers a robust objective diagnostic measurement of CAS for lexical stress and consonant accuracy/consistency. However, other reported CAS features, such as vowel errors and distortions, have yet to be extensively validated using acoustic analyses. This study will acoustically analyze vowel errors and inconsistencies for corner vowels (/i, u, æ, ɑ/) in children with CAS (aged 8;0 to 15;11) compared to peers with SSD and typical development (TD). Vowel space measures (e.g., vowel space area and formant centralization ratio) and consistency (e.g., vowel cluster distribution) will be assessed in 24 children (CAS = 4, SSD = 10, and TD = 10) across various phonetic contexts (e.g., syllable sequencing between anterior to posterior voiced/voiceless stops of increasing syllable length). It is predicted that children with CAS will demonstrate (1) greater vowel inconsistencies as context complexity increases and (2) a neutralized vowel space based on the corner vowels relative to children with SSD and TD.

The effects of aging and hearing loss on the across-frequency processing of interaural time differences

Aging and hearing loss cause speech understanding deficits, particularly in the presence of competing sounds, as well as temporal processing deficits, including binaural encoding of interaural time differences (ITDs). However, there is little understanding of the independent effects of aging and hearing loss on across-frequency ITD processing, which demonstrates a clear dependence on frequency weighting or “dominant” region around 600–700Hz. We hypothesize that aging and hearing loss will reduce extent of laterality of ITDs and will shift the frequency weighting lower. Young normal-hearing, older normal-hearing, and older hearing-impaired listeners will be tested on an intracranial lateralization task. The stimuli will consist of narrowband noises. They will have upper frequency boundaries = 500, 600, 700, or 800 Hz, bandwidths = 50, 100, 200, or 400 Hz, and ITDs = 0, ±0.5, ±1, ±1.5, and ±2 ms. These findings will help us better understand the role of the dominant region in across-frequency ITD processing, and how age- and hearing-loss-related changes in ITD processing may contribute to spatial-hearing deficits.

Gait as a quantitative translational outcome measure in Angelman syndrome

Angelman syndrome (AS) is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by developmental delay, lack of speech, seizures, intellectual disability, hypotonia, and motor coordination deficits. Motor abilities are an important outcome measure in AS as they comprise a broad repertoire of metrics including ataxia, hypotonia, delayed ambulation, crouched gait, and poor posture, and motor dysfunction affects nearly every individual with AS. Guided by collaborative work with AS clinicians studying gait, the goal of this study was to perform an in‐depth gait analysis using the automated treadmill assay, DigiGait. Our hypothesis is that gait presents a strong opportunity for a reliable, quantitative, and translational metric that can serve to evaluate novel pharmacological, dietary, and genetic therapies. In this study, we used an automated gait analysis system, in addition to standard motor behavioral assays, to evaluate components of motor, exploration, coordination, balance, and gait impairments across the lifespan in an AS mouse model. Our study demonstrated marked global motoric deficits in AS mice, corroborating previous reports. Uniquely, this is the first report of nuanced aberrations in quantitative spatial and temporal components of gait in AS mice compared to sex‐ and age‐matched wildtype littermates followed longitudinally using metrics that are analogous in AS individuals. Our findings contribute evidence toward the use of nuanced motor outcomes (i.e., gait) as valuable and translationally powerful metrics for therapeutic development for AS, as well as other genetic neurodevelopmental syndromes.Lay SummaryMovement disorders affect nearly every individual with Angelman Syndrome (AS). The most common motor problems include spasticity, ataxia of gait (observed in the majority of ambulatory individuals), tremor, and muscle weakness. This report focused on quantifying various spatial and temporal aspects of gait as a reliable, translatable outcome measure in a preclinical AS model longitudinally across development. By increasing the number of translational, reliable, functional outcome measures in our wheelhouse, we will create more opportunities for identifying and advancing successful medical interventions.

EP156: Pilot study of functional near-infrared spectroscopy of cortical brain function during an auditory and visual N-back task in Klinefelter syndrome

47,XXY (Klinefelter syndrome) is a sex chromosomal aneuploidy, occurring in approximately 1:660 live male births, that results in an extra X chromosome. Most notably, the neurodevelopmental presentation of 47,XXY is associated with deficits in speech and language processing, motor delays, and reading disorders, with language processing and neurodevelopmental impairments. Previous literature has reported structural brain differences in individuals with 47,XXY. Specifically, thinner cortex structure in the temporal and frontal lobes has been reported, including decreased caudate volumes, typically believed to be the origin of speech and language dysfunction associated with this disorder.

Prediction of Postoperative Speech Dysfunctions in Neurosurgery Based on Cortico-Cortical Evoked Potentials and Machine Learning Technology.

Intraoperative recording of cortico-cortical evoked potentials (CCEPs) enables studying effective connections between various functional areas of the cerebral cortex. The fundamental possibility of postoperative speech dysfunction prediction in neurosurgery based on CCEP signal variations could serve as a basis to develop the criteria for the physiological permissibility of intracerebral tumors removal for maximum preservation of the patients’ quality of life.The aim of the study was to test the possibility of predicting postoperative speech disorders in patients with glial brain tumors by using the CCEP data recorded intraoperatively before the stage of tumor resection.Materials and MethodsCCEP data were reported for 26 patients. To predict the deterioration of speech functions in the postoperative period, we used four options for presenting CCEP data and several machine learning models: a random forest of decision trees, logistic regression, and support vector machine method with different types of kernels: linear, radial, and polynomial. Twenty variants of models were trained: each in 300 experiments with resampling. A total of 6000 tests were performed in the study.ResultsThe prediction quality metrics for each model trained in 300 tests with resampling were averaged to eliminate the influence of “successful” and “unsuccessful” data grouping. The best result with F1-score = 0.638 was obtained by the support vector machine with a polynomial kernel. In most tests, a high sensitivity score was observed, and in the best model, it reached a value of 0.993; the specificity of the best model was 0.370.ConclusionThis pilot study demonstrated the possibility of predicting speech dysfunctions based on CCEP data taken before the main stage of glial tumors resection; the data were processed using traditional machine learning methods. The best model with high sensitivity turned out to be insufficiently specific. Further studies will be aimed at assessing the changes in CCEP during the operation and their relationship with the development of postoperative speech deficit.

Effect of Sing and Speak 4 Kids: An Online Music-Based Speech and Language Learning Game for Children in Early Intervention

Music-based speech language interventions have shown promise to support young children with autism, other speech and language deficits, and Dual Language Learners (also known as DLL, English Language Learners, or ELL). Online edtech learning programs may produce greater positive outcomes for children by including parents as mediators of the intervention. This study measured the preliminary effectiveness of Sing and Speak 4 Kids (SS4Kids), a music-based online speech and language development game, administered to 26 children ages 2–6 years old with or at risk for a diagnosis of autism, other speech and language deficits or DLL. The children were trained in early intervention settings across 4–6 sessions over a 2-week period in one of three group conditions: (a) teacher only in clinic; (b) parent only at home; (c) both teacher + parent. Measurement of verbal production of target words in pre- and post-training sessions showed that trained words significantly improved from pre-test to post-test Additionally, there was no effect of different group conditions (teacher only vs. parent only vs. both teacher + parent) on children's performance. Results suggest that the SS4Kids program is an effective music-based speech and language training method for supporting target word production in young children across a two week timespan. Importantly, the results also found that group conditions did not influence the improvement, confirming effectiveness of both clinic and home-based parent mediation. During a time when traditional in-person intervention services may be restricted, the current work provides cautious but emerging evidence of the effectiveness of an online edtech evidence-based practice to support the speech and language outcomes for a variety of children in early intervention.

Early auditory responses to speech sounds in Parkinson\u2019s disease: preliminary data

Parkinson’s disease (PD), as a manifestation of basal ganglia dysfunction, is associated with a number of speech deficits, including reduced voice modulation and vocal output. Interestingly, previous work has shown that participants with PD show an increased feedback-driven motor response to unexpected fundamental frequency perturbations during speech production, and a heightened ability to detect differences in vocal pitch relative to control participants. Here, we explored one possible contributor to these enhanced responses. We recorded the frequency-following auditory brainstem response (FFR) to repetitions of the speech syllable [da] in PD and control participants. Participants with PD displayed a larger amplitude FFR related to the fundamental frequency of speech stimuli relative to the control group. The current preliminary results suggest the dysfunction of the basal ganglia in PD contributes to the early stage of auditory processing and may reflect one component of a broader sensorimotor processing impairment associated with the disease.

Neuromonitoring of the language pathways using cortico-cortical evoked potentials: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Cortico-cortical evoked potentials (CCEPs) are a surge in activity of one cortical zone caused by stimulation of another cortical zone. Recording of CCEP may be a useful method of intraoperative monitoring of the brain pathways, particularly of the language-related tracts. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis, dedicated to the clinical question: Does the CCEP recording effectively predict the postoperative speech deficits in neurosurgical patients? We conducted language-restricted PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Cochrane database search for eligible studies of CCEP published until March 2021. There were 4 articles (3 case series and 1 case report), which met our inclusion/exclusion criteria. A total of 32 patients (30 cases of tumors and 2 cavernomas) included in the analysis were divided into two cohorts - quantitative and qualitative, in accordance with the method of evaluating changes in the amplitude of CCEP after the lesion resection and postoperative alterations in speech function. Quantitative variables were studied using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. Categorical variables were compared in groups by Fisher's exact test. We found a strong positive correlation between the decrease in the N1 wave amplitude and the severity of postoperative speech deficits (quantitative cohort: r = 0.57, p = 0.01; qualitative cohort: p = 0.02). Thus, the CCEP method using the N1 wave amplitude as a marker enables to effectively predict postoperative speech outcomes. Nevertheless, the low level of evidence for the included works indicated the necessity for additional research on this issue.

Evaluating a Speech-Specific and a Computerized Step-Training-Specific Rhythmic Intervention in Parkinson's Disease: A Cross-Over, Multi-Arms Parallel Study.

Background:Recent studies suggest movements of speech and gait in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) are impaired by a common underlying rhythmic dysfunction. If this being the case, motor deficits in speech and gait should equally benefit from rhythmic interventions regardless of whether it is a speech-specific or step-training-specific approach.Objective:In this intervention trial, we studied the effects of two rhythmic interventions on speech and gait. These rhythmic intervention programs are similar in terms of intensity and frequency (i.e., 3x per week, 45 min-long sessions for 4 weeks in total), but differ regarding therapeutic approach (rhythmic speech vs. rhythmic balance-mobility training).Methods:This study is a cross-over, parallel multi-arms, single blind intervention trial, in which PD patients treated with rhythmic speech-language therapy (rSLT; N = 16), rhythmic balance-mobility training (rBMT; N = 10), or no therapy (NT; N = 18) were compared to healthy controls (HC; N = 17; matched by age, sex, and education: p > 0.82). Velocity and cadence in speech and gait were evaluated at baseline (BL), 4 weeks (4W-T1), and 6 months (6M-T2) and correlated.Results:Parameters in speech and gait (i.e., speaking and walking velocity, as well as speech rhythm with gait cadence) were positively correlated across groups (p < 0.01). Statistical analyses involved repeated measures ANOVA across groups and time, as well as independent and one-samples t-tests for within groups analyses. Statistical analyses were amplified using Reliable Change (RC) and Reliable Change Indexes (RCI) to calculate true clinically significant changes due to the treatment on a patient individual level. Rhythmic intervention groups improved across variables and time (total Mean Difference: 3.07 [SD 1.8]; 95% CI 0.2–11.36]) compared to the NT group, whose performance declined significantly at 6 months (p < 0.01). HC outperformed rBMT and NT groups across variables and time (p < 0.001); the rSLT performed similarly to HC at 4 weeks and 6 months in speech rhythm and respiration.Conclusions:Speech and gait deficits in PD may share a common mechanism in the underlying cortical circuits. Further, rSLT was more beneficial to dysrhythmic PD patients than rBMT, likely because of the nature of the rhythmic cue.

Influence of screening devices and protocol on audiological outcome of 25 years of universal neonatal hearing and vestibular screening in Flanders

Background: Congenital hearing loss has been linked with life-long deficits in speech and language abilities and children with vestibular deficits show delayed development of gross motor milestones. Aim and scope of the research: To analyze if the universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) and vestibular screening program in Flanders meet the current guidelines and benchmarks of the position statements from the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing and how big the impact of screening devices and strategy is. Methods: The UNHS is organized since 1997 by a Flemish public child care organization and performed by trained nurses. It is based on a two-step screening with Automated Auditory Brainstem Responses and in case of absent responses (named ‘refer’), audiological and medical diagnostic are done in one of 21 certified centers. Vestibular screening started in 2018 around the age of 6 months with cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (cVEMP) for all children with confirmed permanent hearing loss. Results: The coverage of the UNHS from 1998 till 2020 was 96,3 % (range 91,1 – 98%). There was a bilateral refer for 0,27 % of the infants and unilateral refer for 0,37 %. A sensorineural or mixed hearing loss &gt; 40 dB was diagnosed in 32 % of the referred infants, a conductive hearing loss which often resolved over time in 39 %, a normal hearing in 25% and 4,7 % were lost in follow-up for the diagnostic evaluation. There was an effect of the screening device on the detection of conductive hearing losses and false-positive cases. The incidence was higher with the MAICO MB Classic® device compared to the ALGO® devices. The incidences of sensorineural or mixed hearing loss were independent of the screening device and remained relatively stable over the years. A vestibular deficit was found in 9,5 % of all children with sensorineural hearing loss. The incidence was significantly higher in infants with severe or profound hearing loss (p=0,003) Conclusion: The Flemish UNHS has a high coverage, low referral rate and low loss of follow-up rate. Strict monitoring and follow-up by a central organization are essential for optimal results. Long-term follow-up remains a challenge.

Presentation and management of nervous system cavernous malformations in children: A systematic review and case report.

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CMs) are slow-flow vascular lesions that affect up to 0.5% of the pediatric population. These lesions are at risk for hemorrhage, causing seizures, and leading to neurological deficits. Here, we conduct a literature review and then present a report of a supratentorial CM in a 2-year-old patient with no significant past medical history who presented at our institution with 1 month of eye twitching. We performed a literature search of five databases of all articles published before 2020. Our inclusion criteria included cohort and case series of children with mean age under 12 years. Our search yielded 497 unique articles, of which 16 met our inclusion criteria. In our pooled literature analysis, a total of 558 children were included, 8.3% of which had a positive family history and 15.9% had multiple CMs. About 46.1% of the children had seizures, and 88.4% of those who underwent surgery had a total resection. About 85.1% of those with epilepsy were Engel Class 1 postsurgery. Over a mean follow-up of 4.1 years, 3.4% of patients had additional neurological deficits, including paresis and speech deficits. Our analysis of published literature shows surgical intervention should be considered first-line therapy for patients who are symptomatic from CM, present with seizure, and have surgically accessible lesions. Additional work is needed on outcomes and long-term effects of minimally invasive treatments, including radiosurgery and laser ablation, in pediatric populations.

Формирование навыков чтения у детей с РАС по авторской методике «Мастерская речи»

&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Speech deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can be observed at child&amp;rsquo;s early development in the form of a deficit in understanding addressed speech, abnormal prelinguistic development, and deficits in the communicative sphere. These factors further prevent children with ASD from successful building reading skills. With all the variety of reading difficulties in children with ASD, reading comprehension problems are the most common. At the same time, it has been repeatedly shown that the deficit in reading comprehension is based on the deficit of oral speech, and the volume of the vocabulary and the level of mastering the syntactic norms of the language play a big role. The colleagues of the Federal Resource Center for the Organization of Comprehensive Support to Children with ASD (FRC MSUPE) developed the author&amp;rsquo;s method called &amp;laquo;Speaking Skills&amp;raquo;. It is aimed at developing reading skills in children with ASD. The method is intended for teaching preschoolers and younger schoolchildren in groups. The article describes the method implementation step by step, give the scheme of a typical lesson, as well as the criteria for assessing skills necessary for mastering the reading. We provide examples of original didactic materials that allow the child to &amp;ldquo;read&amp;rdquo; the sentence, knowing the minimum number of letters. It increases the child&amp;rsquo;s interest and motivation for classes. The technique of relying on one letter, which is a lexically significant unit, creates an attitude to reading as a process of extracting meaning, which increases learning effectiveness. It also describes how to adapt the program to the special educational needs of children with ASD: organization of educational environment; adaptation and the way of introducing the materials; coping with leading developmental challenges. The design of the planned pilot study of the effectiveness of the presented methodology is described. Thus, using the method &amp;ldquo;Speaking Skills&amp;rdquo; allow not only to more successfully master reading skills, but also to fill in the deficiencies in the communicative and social sphere.&lt;/p&gt;

Congenital Cytomegalovirus and Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Effects on Hearing, Speech and Language Development, and Clinical Outcomes in Children.

Prenatal infections can have adverse effects on an infant's hearing, speech, and language development. Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are two such infections that may lead to these complications, especially when left untreated. CMV is commonly associated with sensorineural hearing loss in children, and it can also be associated with anatomical abnormalities in the central nervous system responsible for speech, language, and intellectual acquisition. In terms of speech, language, and hearing, HIV is most associated with conductive and/or sensorineural hearing loss and expressive language deficits. Children born with these infections may benefit from cochlear implantation for severe to profound sensorineural hearing losses and/or speech therapy for speech/language deficits. CMV and HIV simultaneously present in infants has not been thoroughly studied, but one may hypothesize these speech, language, and hearing deficits to be present with potentially higher severity. Early identification of the infection in combination with early intervention strategies yields better results for these children than no identification or intervention. The purpose of this review was to investigate how congenital CMV and/or HIV may affect hearing, speech, and language development in children, and the importance of early identification for these populations.

Early evoked brain activity underlies auditory and audiovisual speech recognition deficits in schizophrenia

ObjectivesPeople with Schizophrenia (SZ) show deficits in auditory and audiovisual speech recognition. It is possible that these deficits are related to aberrant early sensory processing, combined with an impaired ability to utilize visual cues to improve speech recognition. In this electroencephalography study we tested this by having SZ and healthy controls (HC) identify different unisensory auditory and bisensory audiovisual syllables at different auditory noise levels. MethodsSZ (N = 24) and HC (N = 21) identified one of three different syllables (/da/, /ga/, /ta/) at three different noise levels (no, low, high). Half the trials were unisensory auditory and the other half provided additional visual input of moving lips. Task-evoked mediofrontal N1 and P2 brain potentials triggered to the onset of the auditory syllables were derived and related to behavioral performance. ResultsIn comparison to HC, SZ showed speech recognition deficits for unisensory and bisensory stimuli. These deficits were primarily found in the no noise condition. Paralleling these observations, reduced N1 amplitudes to unisensory and bisensory stimuli in SZ were found in the no noise condition. In HC the N1 amplitudes were positively related to the speech recognition performance, whereas no such relationships were found in SZ. Moreover, no group differences in multisensory speech recognition benefits and N1 suppression effects for bisensory stimuli were observed. ConclusionOur study suggests that reduced N1 amplitudes reflect early auditory and audiovisual speech processing deficits in SZ. The findings that the amplitude effects were confined to salient speech stimuli and the attenuated relationship with behavioral performance in patients compared to HC, indicates a diminished decoding of the auditory speech signals in SZs. Our study also revealed relatively intact multisensory benefits in SZs, which implies that the observed auditory and audiovisual speech recognition deficits were primarily related to aberrant processing of the auditory syllables.

Individuals With Congenital Amusia Show Degraded Speech Perception but Preserved Statistical Learning for Tone Languages.

Individuals with congenital amusia exhibit degraded speech perception. This study examined whether adult Chinese Mandarin listeners with amusia were still able to extract the statistical regularities of Mandarin speech sounds, despite their degraded speech perception. Using the gating paradigm with monosyllabic syllable-tone words, we tested 19 Mandarin-speaking amusics and 19 musically intact controls. Listeners heard increasingly longer fragments of the acoustic signal across eight duration-blocked gates. The stimuli varied in syllable token frequency and syllable-tone co-occurrence probability. The correct syllable-tone word, correct syllable-only, correct tone-only, and correct syllable-incorrect tone responses were compared respectively between the two groups using mixed-effects models. Amusics were less accurate than controls in terms of the correct word, correct syllable-only, and correct tone-only responses. Amusics, however, showed consistent patterns of top-down processing, as indicated by more accurate responses to high-frequency syllables, high-probability tones, and tone errors all in manners similar to those of the control listeners. Amusics are able to learn syllable and tone statistical regularities from the language input. This extends previous work by showing that amusics can track phonological segment and pitch cues despite their degraded speech perception. The observed speech deficits in amusics are therefore not due to an abnormal statistical learning mechanism. These results support rehabilitation programs aimed at improving amusics' sensitivity to pitch.

Consonantal Landmarks as Predictors of Dysarthria among English-Speaking Adults with Cerebral Palsy.

The current study explored the possibility that the consonantal landmarks served as predictors of dysarthric speech produced by English-speaking adults with cerebral palsy (CP). Additionally, the relationship between the perceptual severity of dysarthric speech and the consonantal landmarks was explored. The analyses included 210 sentences from the TORGO database produced by seven English-speaking CP speakers with dysarthria and seven typically developing controls matched in age and gender. The results indicated that the clinical group produced more total landmark features than did the control group. A binominal regression analysis revealed that the improper control of laryngeal vibration and the inability to tactically control the energy in a voiced segment would lead to the higher likelihood of dysarthric speech. A multinominal regression analysis revealed that producing too many +v and −v landmark features would lead to higher perceptual severity levels among the CP speakers. Together with literature, the current study proposed that the landmark-based acoustic analysis could quantify the differences in consonantal productions between dysarthric and non-dysarthric speech and reflect the underlying speech motor deficits of the population in concern.