The effects of unison production on speech fluency in people with aphasia

项目摘要 许多旨在改善失语症患者（PWAs）口语输出的治疗方法都包含了一致性言语， 让失语症患者沿着临床医生或录音说话。本研究的目的是 确定个体和刺激特征，这些特征预测从一致讲话中获益的程度， 并研究这种益处的可能机制。这些知识很重要，因为理解 谁受益于这种常用的和潜在的强大的治疗组成部分，在何种条件下， 它们受益以及为什么受益，对于定制治疗以获得最大治疗效率至关重要。齐声 语音是两种不同的定时模式之一：（1）自然会话模式，其用于 日常对话，或（2）韵律模式，遵循基于节拍的时间框架，如歌曲或 一些诗。在任何一种情况下，精确地将一个人的语音与另一个人的语音对齐（即，夹带某人的 语音）需要预测：运动指令必须在相应的输入之前制定， 另一个人被听到和处理。虽然自然的对话时机要求说话者 使用句法知识与另一个人保持一致，韵律模式允许说话者预测讲话 而不严重依赖于句法知识。鉴于许多PWA的能力受损， 过程语法（即，语法错误），我们假设大多数PWA将从统一讲话中受益更多 有韵律和对话节奏的句子然而，在语言上有很大的异质性， 运动语言，以及PWA的计时技能，因此韵律和会话计时模式可能具有 不同程度的有效性。这项研究的结果将评估个人如何 特征和说话时间影响失语症患者是否能从说话中获益。 一致，并将测试是否预测处理，证明了真正的语音夹带，是必要的， 实现了产生一致语音的益处。

Project Summary Many treatments designed to improve spoken output in persons with aphasia (PWAs) incorporate unison speech, having the person with aphasia speak along with the clinician or with a recording. The goal of this study is to determine the individual and stimulus characteristics that predict the degree of benefit from speaking in unison, and to investigate a possible mechanism for this benefit. This knowledge is important because understanding who benefits from this commonly used and potentially powerful therapy component, under which conditions they benefit, and why they do, is critical for customizing therapy for maximum therapeutic efficiency. Unison speech is conducted one of two different timing patterns: (1) a natural conversational pattern, which is used in everyday conversations, or (2) a metrical pattern, which follows a beat-based timing framework, as in songs or some poems. In either case, precisely aligning one's speech with that of another person (i.e., entraining one's speech) requires prediction: motor commands must be formulated before the corresponding input from the other person has been heard and processed. While natural conversational timing requires the speaker to make use of syntactic knowledge to align with the other person, a metrical pattern allows a speaker to predict speech timing without relying heavily on syntactic knowledge. Given that many PWAs have an impaired ability to process syntax (i.e., agrammatism), we hypothesize that most PWAs will benefit more from speaking in unison to sentences with metrical vs. conversational timing patterns. However, there is great heterogeneity in linguistic, motor speech, and timing skills across PWAs, so metrical and conversational timing patterns are likely to have different degrees of effectiveness across individuals. Results from this study will evaluate how individual characteristics and speech timing affect whether or not a person with aphasia will benefit from speaking in unison, and will test whether predictive processing, as evidenced by true speech entrainment, is necessary for a benefit of unison speech production to be realized.