Ziegler, W. & von Cramon, D. (1986). Spastic dysarthria after acquired brain injury: An acoustic study. British Journal of Disorders of Communication, 21,173-187.
Type of
Study
Research study with controls
Subjects 9 males, 1 female; ages 21-62; 10-36 months post-onset
Gender-matched, age-matched controls
Diagnoses Severe TBI (8)
CVA (2)
Normal controls
Speech
Condition
Spastic dysarthria with varying degrees of severity
Purpose To obtain a quantitative description of speech rate and articulatory motility by acoustic measures of vowel and consonant realization in CVC sequences.
To analyze sustaining lingual fricatives.
To examine syllable repetitions to assess the subjects' ability to perform rapid changes in movement direction.
Methods Phonetic testing including repeating utterances in carrier phrases, sustaining /s/, and rapid repetitions of diphthongs.
Consonant production was assessed with sound pressure level contours.
Vowel articulation was characterized by the frequencies of the first 2 formants.
Total word duration of the trisyllabic utterances and period duration were used as time parameters.
FFT spectra were calculated for the sustained fricative.
Formant trajectories were used to assess the repeated diphthongs.
Results There was an increase in word and CV syllable duration for TBI subjects.
There was a reduction of SPL contrast in consonant articulation.
There was a centralization of vowel formants.
Stability of the sustained fricatives was preserved.
Rapid diphthongs repetitions were impaired in all TBI subjects.
There was a disproportionate impairment of the tongue back movements compared to the tongue blade movements.
Treatment
Implications
n/a
 
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