Computer mediated speech assessment in aphasia and AOS

描述(由申请人提供)：几乎没有工具可用于客观和灵敏地量化失语症和其他语言障碍患者的言语参与。这种情况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。对于同时存在言语失用症(AOS)的个体来说，对知觉后果和参与程度的评估尤其具有挑战性。这项研究的目的是开发交互式和定制的启发、记录和测试程序，用于对这一人群的言语的知觉和基本声学评估。在其他沟通障碍的言语评估中也有望得到有用的应用。第一年将致力于软件开发。该程序将包括五个部分：(1)目标话语的选择和准备；(2)语音样本的启发和记录；(3)记录信号的持续时间测量和编辑；(4)感知测试；以及(5)样本存储和数据管理。初始规划的目标是最大限度地提高系统的灵活性和效率。初步测试将确定需要改进的领域，并将对软件进行相应的修改。在第二年和第三年，将进行一系列实验，评估失语症和AOS患者手术的适宜性。演讲和语言严重程度不同的演讲者将被包括在内。将收集关于程序效率、成功完成步骤、观察员和重新测试的可靠性以及参与者对协议的看法的评估协议的关键组成部分的数据。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具体建议，以最大限度地提高可靠性、效率和敏感度。最后，将评估该程序作为严重程度指标的有效性。将检查持续时间测量和语音清晰度分数与发音严重程度的其他测量之间的对应关系。这些将包括临床医生和日常听者对言语严重程度的评级，对说话速度的估计，以及在广泛的语音转录上发现的错误频率。

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.