DYNAMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SPEECH APPARATUS IN HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE

Authors

  • Jan Hlavnička

Keywords:

Huntington's disease, syllable detection, rhythm test, speech disorders, speech assessment

Abstract

This paper presents new approach to measuring dynamical characteristics of the articulation and phonation apparatus in Huntington's disease (HD). This study utilizes the rhythm task in unusual way. Each repetition of the syllable is explored as unique measurement of dynamical characteristics of speech apparatus. The evaluation of dynamical characteristics was implemented into fully automatic algorithm. The database is gender balanced and consists of 43 Czech native participants including 20 healthy control (HC) and 23 HD subjects. The evaluation is based on recently designed segmentation method with very high accuracy of syllable detection and set of 6 descriptive features. All features of the set showed significant statistical difference (p<0.05) between HC and HD group. Longer duration of syllables and longer volume increase time reflect the decline of coordination of vocal and articulatory muscles. Higher instability in volume increase time and instability of reproduction are related to ataxic movements of vocal muscles in HD. Instability of duration of syllables and pauses corresponds with all motor manifestations in HD include vocal, articulatory and respiratory system dysfunction.

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Published

2015-09-30

Issue

Section

Original Research