Acoustic identification of sentence accent in speakers with dysarthria : cross-population validation and severity related patterns
Mendoza Ramos, Viviana and Lowit, Anja and Van den Steen, Leen and Kairuz Hernandez-Diaz, Hector A. and Hernandez-Diaz Huici, Maria Esperanza and De Bodt, Marc and Van Nuffelen, Gwen (2021) Acoustic identification of sentence accent in speakers with dysarthria : cross-population validation and severity related patterns. Brain Sciences, 11 (10). 1344. ISSN 2076-3425 (https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11101344)
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Abstract
Dysprosody is a hallmark of dysarthria, which can affect the intelligibility and naturalness of speech. This includes sentence accent, which helps to draw listeners’ attention to important information in the message. Although some studies have investigated this feature, we currently lack properly validated automated procedures that can distinguish between subtle performance differences observed across speakers with dysarthria. This study aims for cross-population validation of a set of acoustic features that have previously been shown to correlate with sentence accent. In addition, the impact of dysarthria severity levels on sentence accent production is investigated. Two groups of adults were analysed (Dutch and English speakers). Fifty-eight participants with dysarthria and 30 healthy control participants (HCP) produced sentences with varying accent positions. All speech samples were evaluated perceptually and analysed acoustically with an algorithm that extracts ten meaningful prosodic features and allows a classification between accented and unaccented syllables based on a linear combination of these parameters. The data were statistically analysed using discriminant analysis. Within the Dutch and English dysarthric population, the algorithm correctly identified 82.8 and 91.9% of the accented target syllables, respectively, indicating that the capacity to discriminate between accented and unaccented syllables in a sentence is consistent with perceptual impressions. Moreover, different strategies for accent production across dysarthria severity levels could be demonstrated, which is an important step toward a better understanding of the nature of the deficit and the automatic classification of dysarthria severity using prosodic features.
ORCID iDs
Mendoza Ramos, Viviana, Lowit, Anja ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0842-584X, Van den Steen, Leen, Kairuz Hernandez-Diaz, Hector A., Hernandez-Diaz Huici, Maria Esperanza, De Bodt, Marc and Van Nuffelen, Gwen;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 78143 Dates: DateEvent13 October 2021Published13 October 2021Published Online6 October 2021AcceptedSubjects: Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology
Language and Literature > Philology. LinguisticsDepartment: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Psychological Sciences and Health > Speech and Language Therapy
Strategic Research Themes > Health and WellbeingDepositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 13 Oct 2021 12:12 Last modified: 30 Aug 2024 01:08 URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/78143