Sequential Motion Rate Research Articles

Is the Articulatory Trajectory of Changing Syllables Important for Achieving Higher Syllable Rates Compared to Repeated Syllables?

The production of speech-like sequences composed of varying syllables has been reported to achieve higher syllable rates than the production of repeated syllables (commonly designed as sequential motion rate [SMR] and alternating motion rate [AMR] tasks, respectively). The faster rate for SMR relative to AMR sequences is explained by different interpretative hypotheses, which remain empirically unexplored. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether the high syllable rates of SMR sequences are due to the specific sequences used in most studies that involve front-to-back articulatory movements. Syllable rates of SMR sequences composed of different articulatory trajectories (i.e., labial-alveolar-velar [/pateko/], alveolar-velar-labial [/tekopa/], and velar-labial-alveolar [/kopate/]) were compared with those of the AMR sequences /papapa/, /tetete/, and /kokoko/ in 20 participants. The results show higher syllable rates for each of the three SMR sequences as compared to AMR, suggesting that the trajectory of the articulatory movements in the sequential sequences is not the key to achieving higher syllable rates. The syllable rate advantage for SMR over AMR sequences is not explained by the articulatory trajectories included in the former task, indicating that the front-to-back movements generally included in SMR sequences (i.e., /pataka/) are not decisive in achieving a higher syllable rate.

A Fine-Grained Temporal Analysis of Multimodal Oral Diadochokinetic Performance to Assess Speech Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

This study used a semiautomated fine-grained temporal analysis to extract features of temporal oral diadochokinetic (DDK) performance across multiple modalities and tasks, from neurologically healthy and impaired individuals secondary to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The aims were to (a) delineate temporal oral DDK deficits relating to the neuromotor pathology of ALS and (b) identify the optimal task-feature combinations to detect speech impairment in ALS. Mandibular myoelectric, kinematic, and acoustic data were acquired from 13 individuals with ALS and 10 healthy controls producing three alternating motion rate tasks and one sequential motion rate task. Twenty-seven features were extracted from the multimodal data, characterizing three temporal constructs: duration/rate, variability, and coordination. The disease impacts on these features were assessed across tasks, and the task eliciting the greatest disease-related change was identified for each feature. Such "optimal" task-feature combinations were fed into logistic regression to differentiate individuals with ALS from healthy controls. Temporal deficits in ALS were characterized by (a) increased duration and variability and reduced coordination of jaw muscle activities, (b) increased duration and variability and altered temporal symmetry of jaw velocity profile, (c) increased muscle-burst-to-peak-velocity duration, and (d) increased motion-to-voice onset duration. These temporal features were differentially affected across tasks. The optimal task-feature combinations, which were further clustered into three composite factors reflecting temporal variability, coarser-grained duration, and finer-grained duration, differentiated ALS from controls with an F1 score of 0.86 (precision = 1.00, recall = 0.75). Temporal oral DDK deficits are likely attributed to a hierarchy of interrelated neurophysiological and biomechanical factors associated with the neuromotor pathology of ALS. These deficits, as assessed crossmodally, provide previously unavailable insights into the multifaceted timing impairment of oromotor performance in ALS. The optimal task-feature combinations targeting these deficits show promise as quantitative markers for (early) detection of speech impairment in ALS.

Evaluation of orofacial force-related measures using a novel measuring device: explanation of associations with speech rate in dysarthria

ABSTRACT Background The aim of this study was to examine the potential associations between orofacial force-related measures and speech rate in matched groups of 23 adults with dysarthria, and 69 healthy adults. Research design and methods A novel piezoresistive sensor-based device was utilized to obtain the orofacial maximum forces (OMFs) and rate of force development (RFD) measures. The study computed alternating motion rates (AMRs), sequential motion rates (SMRs), and articulation rate (AR) for all participants. The analysis included between-group comparisons and correlation analyses. The study also examined the reliability of the OMFs and RFD measures. Results Individuals with dysarthria exhibited significantly slower speech rates (approximately 41.89% to 56.53% slower) compared to the control group. Except for a few exceptions in the jaw, the dysarthria group demonstrated significantly lower OMFs and RFD measures. The correlation analysis revealed that OMFs were weakly to moderately correlated (r = .488–.674) and RFD measures were very weak to moderately correlated (r = .047–.578) with speech rate measures. Conclusions The findings suggest that reduced OMFs and RFD measures may contribute to the slowed speech rate observed in adults with dysarthria. The study also highlights that OMFs are significantly more reliable (day-to-day) than RFD measures.

Oral-diadochokinesis rates for Spanish, German and Czech: reference values for normotypical adults

Oral diadochokinesis (oral-DDK) is one of the common maximum performance task used in clinical practice to evaluate the oral motor mechanism. Although there are reference values ​​for some languages, there are no recent publications of adult population speaking Spanish, German or Czech. Aims: 1) to describe the values ​​of oral-DDK in adult speakers of Spanish, German and Czech, 2) to determine the influence of gender on the values ​​of oral-DDK, 3) to determine the influence of age on the values ​​of oral-DDK and, 4) to compare the inter-language values ​​of the oral-DDK. Methods & Procedures: the recordings of 189 healthy adults were considered (between 26 to 86 years), 94 females and 95 males, while producing the sequential motion rate (SMR) /pa-ta-ka/. Count-by-time method was used using an acoustic analysis software. Oral-DDK averages were established for each language and the effect of gender and age was determined. The variability of the measure among languages ​​was also established. Results: reference data were obtained for each language. Age did not show any significant effect on oral-DDK despite its decline as age advanced; there was no gender effect on the oral-DDK, and the comparison of the oral-DDK among languages showed statistically significant differences. Conclusions: This study determined the reference data of the oral-DDK for Spanish, German and Czech and found significant differences among the three languages ​​and no significant effects of age or gender on the measure studied.

Acoustic Voice Analysis as a Useful Tool to Discriminate Different ALS Phenotypes.

Approximately 80-96% of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) become unable to speak during the disease progression. Assessing upper and lower motor neuron impairment in bulbar regions of ALS patients remains challenging, particularly in distinguishing spastic and flaccid dysarthria. This study aimed to evaluate acoustic voice parameters as useful biomarkers to discriminate ALS clinical phenotypes. Triangular vowel space area (tVSA), alternating motion rates (AMRs), and sequential motion rates (SMRs) were analyzed in 36 ALS patients and 20 sex/age-matched healthy controls (HCs). tVSA, AMR, and SMR values significantly differed between ALS and HCs, and between ALS with prevalent upper (pUMN) and lower motor neuron (pLMN) impairment. tVSA showed higher accuracy in discriminating pUMN from pLMN patients. AMR and SMR were significantly lower in patients with bulbar onset than those with spinal onset, both with and without bulbar symptoms. Furthermore, these values were also lower in patients with spinal onset associated with bulbar symptoms than in those with spinal onset alone. Additionally, AMR and SMR values correlated with the degree of dysphagia. Acoustic voice analysis may be considered a useful prognostic tool to differentiate spastic and flaccid dysarthria and to assess the degree of bulbar involvement in ALS.

The automated screening of speech motor development in children based on the sequential motion rate

BackgroundMotor skills in children have traditionally been examined via challenging speech tasks such as syllable repetition, and calculating the syllabic rate using a stopwatch or by inspecting the oscillogram followed by a laborious comparison of the scores on a look-up table representing the typical performances of children of the given age and sex. As the commonly used performance tables are over-simplified to allow for manual scoring, we raise the question of whether a computational model of motor skills development could be more informative, and could allow for the automated screening of children to detect underdeveloped motor skills. MethodsWe recruited a total of 275 children aged four to 15 years. All the participants were native Czech speakers with no history of hearing or neurological impairments. We recorded each child's performance of/pa/-/ta/-/ka/syllable repetition. Various parameters of diadochokinesis (DDK; DDK rate, DDK regularity, voice onset time [VOT] ratio, syllable, vowel and VOT duration) were investigated in the acoustic signals using supervised reference labels. Female and male participants were analyzed separately by comparing younger, middle, and older age groups of children via ANOVA. Finally, we implemented a fully automated model that estimated the developmental age of a child based on the acoustic signal, and evaluated its accuracy using Pearson's correlation coefficient and normalized root-mean-squared errors (RMSEs). ResultsThe DDK rate reflected the ages of the children proportionally (p < 0.001). Other DDK parameters also showed strong sensitivity to age (p < 0.001), with the exception of VOT duration, which had a smaller effect (p = 0.091). The effect of age was found to be sex specific for the syllable length (p < 0.001) and DDK rate (p = 0.003). We observed that females spoke more slowly and had a longer VOT at preschool age (p < 0.001). The DDK rate obtained via the automated algorithm was strongly correlated with the reference (p < 0.001, Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.97), with a low normalized RMSE of 3.77%. ConclusionsAs children develop their motor skills, they are capable of shortening the vowels to increase the rate of syllabic repetitions. The nonlinear development in childhood and adolescence, with a steady state in adulthood, follows a logistic function for the DDK rate. This study demonstrates that the development of motor skills can be examined sensitively and more appropriately by a fully automated noninvasive procedure that also accounts for the dispersion of values within age brackets.

What Do Differences between Alternating and Sequential Diadochokinetic Tasks Tell Us about the Development of Oromotor Skills? An Insight from Childhood to Adulthood.

Oral diadochokinetic (DDK) tasks are common research and clinical tools used to test oromotor skills across different age groups. They include alternating motion rate (AMR) and sequential motion rate (SMR) tasks. AMR tasks involve repeating a single syllable, whereas SMR tasks involve repeating varying syllables. DDK performance is mostly discussed regarding the increasing rates of AMR and SMR tasks from childhood to adulthood, although less attention is given to the performance differences between SMR and AMR tasks across age groups. Here, AMR and SMR syllabic rates were contrasted in three populations: 7-9-year-old children, 14-16-year-old adolescents and 20-30-year-old adults. The results revealed similar syllabic rates for the two DDK tasks in children, whereas adolescents and adults achieved faster SMR rates. Acoustic analyses showed similarities in prosodic features between AMR and SMR sequences and in anticipatory coarticulation in the SMR sequences in all age groups. However, a lower degree of coarticulation was observed in children relative to adults. Adolescents, on the contrary, showed an adult-like pattern. These findings suggest that SMR tasks may be more sensitive to age-related changes in oromotor skills than AMR tasks and that greater gestural overlap across varying syllables may be a factor in achieving higher rates in SMR tasks.

Acoustic analysis and neuroimaging correlates of diadochokinetic rates in mild-moderate primary progressive apraxia of speech

Speech rate can be judged clinically using diadochokinetic (DDK) tasks, such as alternating motion rates (AMR) and sequential motion rates (SMR). We evaluated whether acoustic AMR/SMR speech rates would differentiate primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS) from healthy controls, and determined how DDK rates relate to phonetic and prosodic speech characteristics and brain metabolism on FDG-PET. Rate was calculated for each of three AMRs (repetitions of ‘puh’, ‘tuh’, and ‘kuh’) and for SMRs (repetitions of ‘puhtuhkuh’) for 27 PPAOS patients and 52 controls who underwent FDG-PET. PPAOS patients were slower than controls on all DDK tasks. All DDK rates correlated with apraxia of speech severity, with strongest associations with prosodic speech features. Slower DDK rates were associated with hypometabolism in the right cerebellar dentate and left supplementary motor area. Performance on AMR rate, not just SMR rate, may be impaired in mild PPAOS, but sensitivity and specificity require further study.

Oral-diadochokinetic rate for healthy young Jordanian adults

ABSTRACT We used a sequential motion rate (SMR) oral-diadochokinetic (oral-DDK) rate task to examine speech motor performance in healthy young adults. The goals of this study were to: (1) establish SMR oral-DDK rate values for healthy young adult Jordanians, (2) examine the effect of gender on oral-DDK rate, and (3) examine the trial-to-trial variability of mean oral-DDK rate in consecutive trials. One hundred and six healthy young adults (53 males and 53 females, age range 18–26) participated in this study. One hundred and six healthy young adults (53 males and 53 females, age range 18–26) participated in this study. Participants repeated the trisyllable /pataka/ as fast as they could in three consecutive trials. For each participant and group, (a) the number of syllables per second were examined and analyzed, and (b) the oral-DDK rate values were compared across the three trials in order to examine trial-to-trial variability. The results of the study indicated that: (1) SMR oral-DDK mean rate for the participants in the study was 6.57 syllables/s (SD = 0.84); (2) There were no significant differences between gender groups in oral-DDK rate; (3) Mean oral-DDK rate for repetitions was comparable across the three trials for participants. Gender does not seem to affect oral-DDK rate in healthy young adult Jordanian speakers. Also, performance is stable in consecutive trials of SMR oral-DDK rate tasks. Implications of these findings are presented and discussed.

The efficacy of acoustic-based articulatory phenotyping for characterizing and classifying four divergent neurodegenerative diseases using sequential motion rates.

Despite the impacts of neurodegeneration on speech function, little is known about how to comprehensively characterize the resulting speech abnormalities using a set of objective measures. Quantitative phenotyping of speech motor impairments may have important implications for identifying clinical syndromes and their underlying etiologies, monitoring disease progression over time, and improving treatment efficacy. The goal of this research was to investigate the validity and classification accuracy of comprehensive acoustic-based articulatory phenotypes in speakers with distinct neurodegenerative diseases. Articulatory phenotypes were characterized based on acoustic features that were selected to represent five components of motor performance: Coordination, Consistency, Speed, Precision, and Rate. The phenotypes were first used to characterize the articulatory abnormalities across four progressive neurologic diseases known to have divergent speech motor deficits: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), progressive ataxia (PA), Parkinson's disease (PD), and the nonfluent variant of primary progressive aphasia and progressive apraxia of speech (nfPPA + PAOS). We then examined the efficacy of articulatory phenotyping for disease classification. Acoustic analyses were conducted on audio recordings of 217 participants (i.e., 46 ALS, 52 PA, 60 PD, 20 nfPPA + PAOS, and 39 controls) during a sequential speech task. Results revealed evidence of distinct articulatory phenotypes for the four clinical groups and that the phenotypes demonstrated strong classification accuracy for all groups except ALS. Our results highlight the phenotypic variability present across neurodegenerative diseases, which, in turn, may inform (1) the differential diagnosis of neurological diseases and (2) the development of sensitive outcome measures for monitoring disease progression or assessing treatment efficacy.

Consonant articulation acoustics and intelligibility in Swedish speakers with Parkinson’s disease: a pilot study

ABSTRACT Imprecise consonant articulation is common in speakers with Parkinson’s disease and can affect intelligibility. The research on the relationship between acoustic speech measures and intelligibility in Parkinson’s disease is limited, and most of the research has been conducted on English. This pilot study investigated aspects of consonant articulation acoustics in eleven Swedish speakers with Parkinson’s disease and six neurologically healthy persons. The focus of the study was on consonant cluster production, articulatory motion rate and variation, and voice onset time, and how these acoustic features correlate with speech intelligibility. Among the measures in the present study, typicality ratings of heterorganic consonant clusters /spr/ and /skr/ had the strongest correlations with intelligibility. Measures based on syllable repetition, such as repetition rate and voice onset time, showed varying results with weak to moderate correlations with intelligibility. One conclusion is that some acoustic measures may be more sensitive than others to the impact of the underlying sensory-motor impairment and dysarthria on speech production and intelligibility in speakers with Parkinson’s disease. Some aspects of articulation appear to be equally demanding in terms of acoustic realisation for elderly healthy speakers and for speakers with Parkinson’s disease, such as sequential motion rate measures. Clinically, this would imply that for the purpose of detecting signs of disordered speech motor control, choosing measures with less variation among older speakers without articulation impairment would lead to more robust results.

Short-term effect of dopaminergic medication on speech in early-stage Parkinson\u2019s disease

The effect of dopaminergic medication on speech has rarely been examined in early-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD) and the respective literature is inconclusive and limited by inappropriate design with lack of PD control group. The study aims to examine the short-term effect of dopaminergic medication on speech in PD using patients with good motor responsiveness to levodopa challenge compared to a control group of PD patients with poor motor responsiveness. A total of 60 early-stage PD patients were investigated before (OFF) and after (ON) acute levodopa challenge and compared to 30 age-matched healthy controls. PD patients were categorised into two clinical subgroups (PD responders vs. PD nonresponders) according to the comparison of their motor performance based on movement disorder society-unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale, part III. Seven distinctive parameters of hypokinetic dysarthria were examined using quantitative acoustic analysis. We observed increased monopitch (p > 0.01), aggravated monoloudness (p > 0.05) and longer duration of stop consonants (p > 0.05) in PD compared to healthy controls, confirming the presence of hypokinetic dysarthria in early PD. No speech alterations from OFF to ON state were revealed in any of the two PD groups and speech dimensions investigated including monopitch, monoloudness, imprecise consonants, harsh voice, slow sequential motion rates, articulation rate, or inappropriate silences, although a subgroup of PD responders manifested obvious improvement in motor function after levodopa intake (p > 0.001). Since the short-term usage of levodopa does not easily affect voice and speech performance in PD, speech assessment may provide a medication state-independent motor biomarker of PD.

Oral and Laryngeal Diadochokinesis Across the Life Span: A Scoping Review of Methods, Reference Data, and Clinical Applications.

The aim of this study was to conduct a scoping review of research on oral and laryngeal diadochokinesis (DDK) in children and adults, either typically developing/developed or with a clinical diagnosis. Searches were conducted with PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, CINAHL, and legacy sources in retrieved articles. Search terms included the following: DDK, alternating motion rate, maximum repetition rate, sequential motion rate, and syllable repetition rate. Three hundred sixty articles were retrieved and included in the review. Data source tables for children and adults list the number and ages of study participants, DDK task, and language(s) spoken. Cross-sectional data for typically developing children and typically developed adults are compiled for the monosyllables /pʌ/, /tʌ/, and /kʌ/; the trisyllable /pʌtʌkʌ/; and laryngeal DDK. In addition, DDK results are summarized for 26 disorders or conditions. A growing number of multidisciplinary reports on DDK affirm its role in clinical practice and research across the world. Atypical DDK is not a well-defined singular entity but rather a label for a collection of disturbances associated with diverse etiologies, including motoric, structural, sensory, and cognitive. The clinical value of DDK can be optimized by consideration of task parameters, analysis method, and population of interest.

Validation of an Acoustic-Based Framework of Speech Motor Control: Assessing Criterion and Construct Validity Using Kinematic and Perceptual Measures.

This study investigated the criterion (analytical and clinical) and construct (divergent) validity of a novel, acoustic-based framework composed of five key components of motor control: Coordination, Consistency, Speed, Precision, and Rate. Acoustic and kinematic analyses were performed on audio recordings from 22 subjects with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis during a sequential motion rate task. Perceptual analyses were completed by two licensed speech-language pathologists, who rated each subject's speech on the five framework components and their overall severity. Analytical and clinical validity were assessed by comparing performance on the acoustic features to their kinematic correlates and to clinician ratings of the five components, respectively. Divergent validity of the acoustic-based framework was then assessed by comparing performance on each pair of acoustic features to determine whether the features represent distinct articulatory constructs. Bivariate correlations and partial correlations with severity as a covariate were conducted for each comparison. Results revealed moderate-to-strong analytical validity for every acoustic feature, both with and without controlling for severity, and moderate-to-strong clinical validity for all acoustic features except Coordination, without controlling for severity. When severity was included as a covariate, the strong associations for Speed and Precision became weak. Divergent validity was supported by weak-to-moderate pairwise associations between all acoustic features except Speed (second-formant [F2] slope of consonant transition) and Precision (between-consonant variability in F2 slope). This study demonstrated that the acoustic-based framework has potential as an objective, valid, and clinically useful tool for profiling articulatory deficits in individuals with speech motor disorders. The findings also suggest that compared to clinician ratings, instrumental measures are more sensitive to subtle differences in articulatory function. With further research, this framework could provide more accurate and reliable characterizations of articulatory impairment, which may eventually increase clinical confidence in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with different articulatory phenotypes.

Speech and swallowing deficits in X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism

IntroductionX-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism (XDP) is a progressive, disabling disease characterized by the devastating impairment of bulbar function, including speech and swallowing. Despite these detrimental impacts, bulbar impairments in this population are not well characterized. ObjectivesTo identify impairments in the bulbar system measured by oromotor performance in individuals with XDP relative to healthy controls. Secondarily, to detect diagnostic bulbar markers that are sensitive and specific to the initial years of XDP. MethodsThis case-control study included 25 healthy controls and 30 participants with XDP, divided into two subgroups based on the median of their disease length. Multiple clinical and instrumental oromotor tasks and measures were used to evaluate bulbar motor function. ResultsDifferences were found between both the subgroups with XDP and healthy controls on almost all measures, including maximum performance tasks such as tongue strength, alternating motion rate (AMR), and sequential motion rate (SMR) (p < 0.05). Differences were found between the XDP subgroups and the control group for the percentage of pause time during the speech, a rating of speech severity, and a swallowing task (ps < 0.05). Scores on self-reported questionnaires, tongue strength, the number of repetitions produced during an AMR, percent pause, and speech severity demonstrated good sensitivity and specificity to differentiate the initial years of XDP onset from healthy controls. ConclusionsOur findings revealed impairments across bulbar functions in participants within the first 7 years of the XDP onset. Highly sensitive and specific bulbar impairment measures were detected in instrumental and self-reported measures that are fundamental for monitoring disease.

Sequential motion rate and oral reading rate: normative data for Greek and clinical implications

Introduction The aim of the present study was to provide normative data in Greek, regarding sequential motion rate (SMR) and oral reading rate (ORR), and to show the sensitivity of both tasks to predict Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods The speech rate of sixty-five healthy control participants was recorded and analyzed using speech acoustics. The speech rate of a subsample of 20 healthy control participants was compared to the speech rate of 20 pair-matched dysarthric parkinsonian participants. All participants produced the syllables /pataka/ (SMR task) as quickly as possible and read aloud a standard Greek passage (ORR task). Results In normative data, the mean score for the SMR variable was 4.91 syllables per second (SD = 0.73) and for the ORR variable was 4.42 syllables per second (SD = 0.87). The Mann–Whitney test showed significant differences between the two groups of participants in the SMR (U = 64.000, Z = –4.60, p < .001) and ORR (U = 77.000, Z = –4.36, p < .001). Multiple binary logistic regression analysis examined the combined effect of ORR and SMR on the occurrence of the disease. The sensitivity of both tasks to predict PD was found to be 0.88 and the specificity 0.90. The optimal screening cutoff point was found to be 4.66 syllables/second for the SMR task and 2.79 syllables/second for the ORR task. Conclusions This study provided Greek normative data in SMR and ORR tasks. Both tasks showed high sensitivity and specificity to predict PD in the Greek sample of participants.

Spatiotemporal Control of Articulation During Speech and Speechlike Tasks in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Purpose This study examined the articulatory control of speech and speechlike tasks in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and neurologically healthy individuals with the aim to identify the most useful set of articulatory features and tasks for assessing bulbar motor involvement in ALS. Method Tongue and jaw kinematics were recorded in 12 individuals with bulbar ALS and 10 healthy controls during a speech task and two speechlike tasks (i.e., alternating motion rate [AMR], sequential motion rate [SMR]). Eight articulatory features were derived for each participant per task, including the range, maximum speed, and acceleration time of tongue and jaw movements as well as the coupling and timing between tongue and jaw movements. The effects of task (i.e., AMR, SMR, speech) and group (i.e., ALS, control) on these articulatory features were evaluated. For each feature, the task that yielded the largest difference between the ALS and control groups was identified. The diagnostic efficacy of these task-specific features was assessed using the receiver operating characteristic analysis; the relation of these task-specific features to a well-established bulbar severity index-speaking rate-was determined using Spearman's rank correlation. Results Seven task-specific articulatory features were identified, including (a) tongue and jaw acceleration time during the AMR task, (b) tongue-jaw coupling during the SMR task, and (c) range of tongue movement, maximum tongue and jaw speed, and temporal lag between tongue and jaw movements during the speech task. Among these features, tongue and jaw acceleration time and their temporal lag showed relatively high accuracy (i.e., 0.83-0.95) in differentiating individuals with ALS from healthy controls. Range of tongue movement and maximum tongue and jaw speed showed significant correlations with speaking rate. Conclusion Findings provided preliminary evidence for the utility of task-specific articulatory measurements as a novel quantitative assessment to detect and predict bulbar motor involvement in ALS.

Characteristics of Diadochokinesis in Typically Developing Children and Adults

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of the rate and perceptual judgment of diadochokinesis (DDK) in typically developing children and adults.Methods: Participants were typically developing children aged 2;6 to 9;11 and normal adults. For DDK tasks, they were asked to repeat [p*a], [t*a], [k*a], [p*at*a], and [p*at*ak*a] accurately and quickly with one breath. The number of repetitions per second was measured as DDK rate for each stimuli. The perceptual judgment of DDK were also performed in terms of regularity, rate, and accuracy using a three-point scale.Results: Children showed increases in the number of repetitions per second for all the DDK tasks with age. However, all the children groups between ages 2;6 and 9:11 exhibited significantly slower DDK rates than adults. In the perceptual judgment of DDK tasks, accuracy, rate, and consistency of sequential motion rates using [p*at*a] and [p*at*ak*a] showed statistically significant differences across age groups. Children demonstrated similar accuracy of SMR tasks with adults after age 6;0.Conclusion: This study showed developmental patterns of speech motor skills based on rate, accuracy, and consistency of DDK tasks. This study provides references for assessing speech motor skills related to children with speech difficulties.

Neuromotor Control of Speech and Speechlike Tasks: Implications From Articulatory Gestures

Purpose This study aimed to provide a preliminary examination of the articulatory control of speech and speechlike tasks based on a gestural framework and identify shared and task-specific articulatory factors in speech and speechlike tasks. Method Ten healthy participants performed two speechlike tasks (i.e., alternating motion rate [AMR] and sequential motion rate [SMR]) and three speech tasks (i.e., reading of “clever Kim called the cat clinic” at the regular, fast, and slow rates) that varied in phonological complexity and rate. Articulatory kinematics were recorded using an electromagnetic kinematic tracking system (Wave, Northern Digital Inc.). Based on the gestural framework for articulatory phonology, the gestures of tongue body and lips were derived from the kinematic data. These gestures were subjected to a fine-grained analysis, which extracted (a) four gestural features (i.e., range of magnitude [ROM], frequency [Freq], acceleration time, and maximum speed [maxSpd]) for the tongue body gesture; (b) three intergestural measures including the peak intergestural coherence (InterCOH), frequency at which the peak intergestural coherence occurs (Freq_InterCOH), and the mean absolute relative phase between the tongue body and lip gestures; and (c) three intragestural (i.e., interarticulator) measures including the peak intragestural coherence (IntraCOH), Freq_IntraCOH, and mean absolute relative phase between the tongue body and the jaw, which are the component articulators that underlie the tongue body gesture. In addition, the performance rate for each task was also derived. The effects of task and sex on all the articulatory and behavioral measures were examined using mixed-design analysis of variance followed by post hoc pairwise comparisons across tasks. Results Task had a significant effect on performance rate, ROM, Freq, maxSpd, InterCOH, Freq_InterCOH, IntraCOH, and Freq_IntraCOH. Compared to the speech tasks, the AMR task showed a decrease in ROM and increases in Freq, InterCOH, Freq_InterCOH, IntraCOH, and Freq_IntraCOH. The SMR task showed similar ROM, Freq, maxSpd, InterCOH, and IntraCOH as the fast and regular speech tasks. Conclusions The simple phonological structure and demand for rapid syllable rate for the AMR task may elicit a distinct articulatory control mechanism. Despite being a rapid nonsense syllable repetition task, the relatively complex phonological structure of the SMR task appeared to elicit a similar articulatory control mechanism as that of speech production. Based on these shared and task-specific articulatory features between speech and speechlike tasks, the clinical implications for articulatory assessment were discussed.

Comparison of Automated Acoustic Methods for Oral Diadochokinesis Assessment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Purpose The purpose of this research note is to provide a performance comparison of available algorithms for the automated evaluation of oral diadochokinesis using speech samples from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Method Four different algorithms based on a wide range of signal processing approaches were tested on a sequential motion rate /pa/-/ta/-/ka/ syllable repetition paradigm collected from 18 patients with ALS and 18 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs). Results The best temporal detection of syllable position for a 10-ms tolerance value was achieved for ALS patients using a traditional signal processing approach based on a combination of filtering in the spectrogram, Bayesian detection, and polynomial thresholding with an accuracy rate of 74.4%, and for HCs using a deep learning approach with an accuracy rate of 87.6%. Compared to HCs, a slow diadochokinetic rate (p < .001) and diadochokinetic irregularity (p < .01) were detected in ALS patients. Conclusions The approaches using deep learning or multiple-step combinations of advanced signal processing methods provided a more robust solution to the estimation of oral DDK variables than did simpler approaches based on the rough segmentation of the signal envelope. The automated acoustic assessment of oral diadochokinesis shows excellent potential for monitoring bulbar disease progression in individuals with ALS.