Acoustic analysis of speech timing in Huntington's disease

Brain Lang. 1994 Aug;47(2):182-96. doi: 10.1006/brln.1994.1048.

Abstract

Duration measurements at the acoustic speech signal of sentence utterances including syllable lengths, vowel durations, and voice-onset-time (VOT) were performed in 13 subjects with Huntington's disease (HD) and in 12 control speakers. First, all 13 HD subjects presented with increased variability of utterance duration and/or VOT. Second, a subgroup had reduced speech tempo concomitant with overproportional lengthening of short vowels. Presumably, these deviations result from slowed movement execution (bradykinesia) and delayed between-movement transitions. Third, durational parameters of phonetic timing, e.g. stress contrast, were largely unimpaired. In a further patient (HD14) severely reduced articulatory accuracy did not allow acoustic measurements. He presented with truncated, barely intelligible, diphthongized sentence utterances. A slight tendency for these deviations could be noted in two of the HD subjects who underwent acoustic analysis. Since all three subjects had a rather long disease duration, this constellation might represent an advanced stage of HD dysarthria into which the other syndromes ultimately will develop.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Dysarthria / etiology
  • Dysarthria / physiopathology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Huntington Disease / complications*
  • Huntington Disease / physiopathology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Speech Acoustics*
  • Speech Disorders / etiology*
  • Speech Disorders / physiopathology
  • Speech Intelligibility
  • Speech Production Measurement*
  • Time Factors