Prosody in Congenital and Acquired Dysarthria.

描述(由申请人提供)：交流不仅取决于说话的方式(韵律)，还取决于说话的内容(分段讲话)。构音障碍是最常见的神经沟通障碍，有先天性和获得性病因。由于语音产生的节段和韵律两个方面经常在构音障碍中受到影响，它可能会严重阻碍口语交流。历史上，构音障碍的研究主要集中在有后天损害的说话者中观察到的节段错误，这导致了目前的分类和治疗干预。最近的工作已经开始调查构音障碍的韵律障碍的性质，并发现先天性人群的韵律缺陷与获得性构音障碍的韵律障碍的传统描述不一致。具体地说，患有先天性构音障碍的人倾向于产生夸张的或非典型的韵律，而后天构音障碍的人表现出抑制或限制典型对比的调制。由于后天群体和先天群体经常使用不同的刺激和任务被分开研究，因此韵律产生的这些差异一直没有被调和，并且产生产生差异的潜在原因尚不清楚。然而，典型的语音发展，包括韵律，是一个部分闭环系统，其中学习受到感觉运动反馈的影响。鉴于儿童时期就有运动障碍，以及已知的生产对知觉的影响，患有先天性构音障碍的人在发育过程中不适当地学习韵律似乎是合理的，但对于后天(发育后发病)构音障碍的人则不是这样。了解这些群体之间韵律产生差异的来源对于提供量身定做的干预措施至关重要。这项拟议的工作首次调查了发育过程中感觉运动反馈受损对学习和产生韵律的影响。主要的创新包括：1)使用相同的刺激和任务进行客观比较，研究先天和后天亚组的知觉-生产交互作用；2)使用一种新的非发声任务，将发声运动执行缺陷与韵律知识差异分开。实验1通过检验对不同韵律对比程度不同的话语的分类能力来考察韵律知觉。实验2通过非发声的视觉空间界面(韵律木偶)将声音模仿与产生进行比较，考察知觉-产生的交互作用。这些相互关联的实验将提供对构音障碍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，这些实践解释了发展经验对感知和产生韵律的影响，并可能引发关于构音障碍的节段性损害中是否存在类似因素的新的探究。

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.