Prosody in Congenital and Acquired Dysarthria.

描述（由申请人提供）：沟通既依赖于说话的方式（韵律），也依赖于说话的内容（分段式讲话）。构音障碍是最常见的神经沟通障碍，有先天性和后天的病因。由于在构音障碍中，语音产生的分音和韵律方面都经常受到损害，因此它会严重阻碍口语交流。从历史上看，构音障碍的研究主要集中在观察到的具有后天障碍的说话者的音段错误，这导致了目前的分类和治疗干预。最近的研究工作已经开始调查构音障碍韵律障碍的本质，并揭示先天性人群的韵律缺陷与后天性构音障碍韵律障碍的传统描述不一致。具体来说，先天性构音障碍的说话者倾向于产生夸张的或非典型的韵律，而那些获得性构音障碍的人表现出典型对比的抑制或限制调制。这些韵律产生的差异一直没有得到协调，因为后天和先天群体经常使用不同的刺激和任务分开研究，而产生差异的潜在原因尚不清楚。然而，典型的语言发展，包括韵律，是一个部分闭环系统，其中学习受感觉运动反馈的影响。考虑到儿童时期开始的运动障碍，以及已知的产生对感知的影响，似乎有可能先天性构音障碍患者在发育过程中不正确地学习韵律，但对于那些获得性构音障碍（发育后发病）患者则不然。了解这些群体之间韵律产生差异的起源对于提供量身定制的干预措施至关重要。本研究首次探讨了发育过程中感觉运动反馈受损对韵律学习和产生的影响。主要的创新包括：(1)使用相同的刺激和任务对先天性和后天亚群的感知-产生相互作用的研究进行客观比较；(2)使用一种新的非语音任务将语音运动执行缺陷与韵律知识差异分离开来。实验1通过测试对不同韵律对比大小的话语进行分类的能力来研究韵律感知。实验2通过比较声音模仿与通过非声音、视觉-空间界面（韵律木偶）产生的产品来检验感知-生产的相互作用。这些相互关联的实验将提供对构音障碍中韵律的更完整的理解。由此产生的进展有可能推动新的诊断和干预实践，这些实践解释了发育经历对感知和产生韵律的影响，并可能引发新的研究思路，即类似的因素是否在构音障碍的节段性障碍中起作用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Communication is dependent as much on what one says (segmental speech) as on how one says it (prosody). Dysarthria is the most prevalent neurologic communication disorder and has congenital and acquired etiologies. Since both segmental and prosodic aspects of speech production are often compromised in dysarthria, it can profoundly hinder spoken communication. Historically, dysarthria research has primarily focused on segmental errors observed in speakers with acquired impairments, which has led to the current taxonomy and therapeutic interventions. Recent work has begun to investigate the nature of prosodic impairments in dysarthria and has revealed that prosodic deficits in congenital populations do not conform to conventional descriptions of dysprosody in acquired dysarthria. Specifically, speakers with congenital dysarthria tend to yield exaggerated, or otherwise atypical prosody while those with acquired dysarthria exhibit dampened or restricted modulation of typical contrasts. These differences in prosody production have not been reconciled since acquired and congenital groups are often studied separately using different stimuli and tasks, and the underlying cause of production differences is unknown. However, typical speech development, including prosody, is a partially closed-loop system in which learning is influenced by sensorimotor feedback. Given a motor disorder beginning in childhood, and known effects of production on perception, it is plausible that prosody is improperly learned during development for those with congenital dysarthria, but not for those with acquired (post-developmental onset) dysarthria. Understanding the origin of prosodic production differences between these groups is critical for delivering tailored interventions. The proposed work is the first to investigate the effect of impaired sensorimotor feedback during development on learning and producing prosody. Major innovations include 1) the study of perception-production interactions in congenital and acquired subgroups using the same stimuli and tasks for objective comparison and 2) the use of a novel non-vocal task to dissociate vocal motor execution deficits from prosodic knowledge differences. Experiment 1 investigates prosodic perception by examining the ability to classify utterances varying in prosodic contrast magnitude. Experiment 2 examines perception-production interactions by comparing vocal imitations to productions via a non-vocal, visuo-spatial interface (Prosodic Marionette). These interconnected experiments will provide a more complete understanding of prosody in dysarthria. Resulting advances have the potential to fuel new diagnostic and intervention practices that account for the impact of developmental experience on perceiving and producing prosody and may spark new lines of inquiry into whether similar factors are at play in segmental impairments in dysarthria.