Speech Entrainment Treatment for Broca's Aphasia

 描述（由申请人提供）：中风是美国成年人严重残疾的主要原因。1失语症是一种由左半球言语和语言区域受损引起的语言障碍，是中风最具破坏性的结果之一，影响个人有效沟通的能力。布罗卡氏失语症是最常见的失语症类型之一，其特征是言语输出受限，通常每次发声不超过1- 3个单词，并且相对保留听觉理解。一旦进入慢性期，大多数布洛卡失语症患者的言语产生改善非常有限。在最近的一项研究中，我们发现Broca失语症患者在模仿听觉/视觉语音模型时可以产生流利的语音。简而言之，患者能够模仿预先录制并呈现的一分钟脚本，以便在计算机屏幕上看到演讲者的嘴，并通过耳机听到演讲。我们将这种效应称为语音夹带，其中音频/视觉语音模型使非流利患者的语音轭合，使他/她能够产生流利的语音。而语音夹带可能是重要的理解正常的语音生产，我们建议，它可以有重要的意义，康复患者与布洛卡失语症，让他们练习流利的语音生产，这是本质上非常困难的人口。 这个试点项目的目的是估计与语音诱导治疗（SET）的结果，在语音生产的改善相关的效果大小。如果SET在改善言语产生方面产生了中等或较大的效应量，我们将继续进行更大规模的试验，在那里可以确定SET的效果，并与其他类型的失语症言语产生治疗进行比较。第二个目标是了解认知语言因素与患者说话能力的帮助下，语音夹带。这将使我们能够识别出与SET相矛盾的因素（在一项更广泛的试验中定义纳入/排除标准），并将我们的研究结果与当代语音处理模型联系起来。长期目标是开发一种治疗方法，可用于改善Broca失语症的言语产生，这种失语症已被证明特别难以治疗。我们强调，这里提出的治疗方法代表了我们开发的起点;更多的数据将使我们能够修改SET，并更好地针对特定患者进行定制。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Stroke is the leading cause of serious disability among adults in the United States.1 Aphasia, a language disorder caused by damage to the speech and language regions in the left hemisphere, is one of the most devastating results of stroke and affects individuals' ability to communicate effectively. Broca's aphasia is one of the most common types of aphasia and is characterized by restricted speech output, often not exceeding 1- 3 words per utterance, and relatively preserved auditory comprehension. Once in the chronic phase, most patients with Broca's aphasia experience very limited improvement in speech production. In a recent study2, we showed that patients with Broca's aphasia could produce fluent speech while mimicking an audio/visual speech model. In short, patients were able to mimic a one-minute script that was prerecorded and presented so that the speaker's mouth was seen on a computer screen and the speech was heard via headphones. We refer to this effect as speech entrainment, where the audio/visual speech model yokes the speech of the non-fluent patient, allowing him/her to produce fluent speech. Whereas speech entrainment might be important for understanding normal speech production, we propose that it could have important implications for rehabilitating patients with Broca's aphasia by allowing them to practice fluent speech production, something that is inherently very difficult for this population. The purpose of this pilot project is to estimate effect sizes associated with improvements in speech production as a result of speech entrainment treatment (SET). If SET results in medium or large effect sizes for improvements in speech production, we will move on to a larger trial where the effects of SET can be established and compared to other kinds of treatments for speech production in aphasia. The second goal is to understand cognitive-linguistic factors in relation to patients' ability to speak with the aid of speech entrainment. This will allow us to identify factors that are contraindicative for SET (to define inclusion/exclusion criteria in a larer trial) as well as relate our findings to contemporary models of speech processing. The long-term goal is to develop a treatment approach that can be used to improve speech production in Broca's aphasia, something that has been shown to be particularly resistant to treatment. We emphasize that the treatment approach presented here represents a starting point in our development; more data will allow us to modify SET and better tailor it towards specific patients.