Apraxia of speech is a widely recognized clinical entity. However, its characterization as a phonological (aphasia) disorder or as a phonetic disorder (motor speech) is less widely agreed upon than its entity. This research will exploit recent advances in measurement techniques in physiological (movement, electromyography, aerodynamics), acoustical and perceptual sciences. These data will, in many instances, provide the first simultaneously collected data, at several system levels of the speech apraxic who is without concommitant dysarthria or aphasia. In addition to the descriptive values of this study, the proposed experiments are guided by and will address directly, current theoretical issues in speech motor control and in linguistics, with a goal of disambiguating the mechanisms for apraxia of speech. A comprehansive command of the theoretical and clinical treatment issues and literature on apraxia of speech have resulted in experimental methodologies which invoke the facilitative techniques used in treatment (nonspeech movements, rate manipulations, stimulus repetitions, stimulus modality, contrastive stress, gestural reorganization and intonation) to alter the behavior of the apraxic subject. This will be done so that each subject can serve as his own control in each experiment. These procedures will lead not only to the understanding of mechanisms of apraxia of speech, but will add to the understanding of the most effective treatment techniques available to the person with apraxia of speech. In addition to the single subject design afforded by our methodology, 3 control subject groups will aid in the interpretation of the physiological, acoustic and perceptual data from the apraxic subjects and will address more directly the specific aims of the study. A normal control group will obviate the pathologhical behaviors to be analyzed. A conduction aphasic group without apraxia of speech or dysarthria will allow comparison across measures with a purely phonological disorder. A group of ataxic dysarthric subjects without aphasia or apraxia of speech will allow comparison across measures on a purely phonetic disorder.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01NS018797-04
Application #
3398835
Study Section
Communication Sciences and Disorders (CMS)
Project Start
1983-01-01
Project End
1989-12-31
Budget Start
1987-01-01
Budget End
1987-12-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
1987
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Wisconsin Madison
Department
Type
Graduate Schools
DUNS #
161202122
City
Madison
State
WI
Country
United States
Zip Code
53715
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McNeil, M R; Liss, J M; Tseng, C H et al. (1990) Effects of speech rate on the absolute and relative timing of apraxic and conduction aphasic sentence production. Brain Lang 38:135-58
McNeil, M R; Weismer, G; Adams, S et al. (1990) Oral structure nonspeech motor control in normal, dysarthric, aphasic and apraxic speakers: isometric force and static position control. J Speech Hear Res 33:255-68
Liss, J M (1990) Muscle spindles in the human levator veli palatini and palatoglossus muscles. J Speech Hear Res 33:736-46
Odell, K; McNeil, M R; Rosenbek, J C et al. (1990) Perceptual characteristics of consonant production by apraxic speakers. J Speech Hear Disord 55:345-59
Weismer, G; Fennell, A M (1985) Constancy of (acoustic) relative timing measures in phrase-level utterances. J Acoust Soc Am 78:49-57