Computer mediated speech assessment in aphasia and AOS

描述（由申请人提供）：很少有工具可用于客观和敏感地量化失语症和其他语言障碍患者的言语参与。这种情况既限制了对言语产生的理论动机研究的追求，也限制了与左半球病理相关的言语障碍的临床管理。对言语失用症患者的知觉后果和参与程度的评估尤其具有挑战性。拟议研究的目的是开发交互式和定制的引出、记录和测试程序，用于该人群的语音感知和基本声学评估。期望在其他沟通障碍的言语评估中也有有用的应用。第一年将致力于软件开发。该计划将包括五个部分：(1)目标话语的选择和准备；（二）提取、录音语音样本；(3)记录信号的时长测量和编辑；(4)知觉测试；(5)样品存储和数据管理。初始规划以系统的最大灵活性和效率为目标。初步测试将确定需要改进的地方，并对软件进行相应的修改。在第二年和第三年，一系列的实验将评估该程序对失语症和AOS患者的适用性。具有不同语言和语言严重程度的讲话者将被包括在内。将收集评估方案的关键组成部分的数据，包括程序效率、成功完成步骤、观察者和测试-重测试可靠性以及参与者对方案的感知。将在不同的管理程序之间进行比较，以便进一步开发工具和提出具体建议，以最大限度地提高可靠性、效率和灵敏度。最后，将评估该程序作为严重性指标的有效性。将检查由程序和其他发音严重程度测量产生的持续时间测量和语音可理解性评分之间的对应关系。这些将包括临床医生和日常听众对语言严重程度的评分，对说话速度的估计，以及在广泛的语音转录中识别出的错误频率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Few tools are available for objective and sensitive quantification of speech involvement in persons with aphasia and other language disorders. This situation limits both the pursuit of theoretically motivated research on speech production and the clinical management of speech disorders associated with left hemisphere pathology. The assessment of perceptual consequences and magnitude of involvement are particularly challenging in individuals who present with coexisting apraxia of speech (AOS). The purpose of the proposed research is to develop interactive and customized elicitation, recording, and testing procedures for perceptual and basic acoustic assessment of speech in this population. Useful applications are anticipated to the evaluation of speech in other communication disorders as well. The first year will be devoted to software development. The program will include five components: (1) selection and preparation of target utterances; (2) elicitation and recording of a speech sample; (3) duration measurement and editing of the recorded signal; (4) perceptual testing; and (5) sample storage and data management. Initial programming will target maximal flexibility and efficiency of the system. Preliminary testing will identify areas for improvement and the software will be modified accordingly. During the second and third years, a series of experiments will assess the suitability of the procedures for persons with aphasia and AOS. Speakers with a range of speech and language severity will be included. Data will be collected for critical components of the assessment protocol with regard to procedural efficiency, successful step completion, observer and test-retest reliability, and participants' perception of the protocol. Comparisons will be made between and among alternate administration procedures to allow further development of the tool and specific recommendations to maximize reliability, efficiency, and sensitivity. Finally, the validity of the procedure as a severity indicator will be evaluated. The correspondence among the duration measures and speech intelligibility scores generated by the procedure and other measures of articulatory severity will be examined. These will include clinicians' and everyday listeners' ratings of speech severity, estimation of speaking rate, and frequency of errors identified on broad phonetic transcription.