This research project is aimed at understanding the basis of intonation disturbance in patients with aphasia. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether the root of intonation disorder in this population is attributable to primary linguistic deficit or to underlying speech timing problems related to utterance length. Three experiments, two acoustic and one perceptual, are proposed. In the acoustic studies, subjects will be presented matched statements and echo questions of two lengths to produce. Fundamental frequency (F0) contours associated with the productions will be decomposed into linguistically and nonlinguistically relevant components in order to determine if intonation abnormalities exhibited by the patients are related to linguistic or nonlinguistic underlying deficit. In addition to the F0 evaluation, aspects of duration will be measured to assess speech timing. To understand whether intonation disorder is attributable to primary speech timing problems related to utterance length, the performance of subjects on spectral and temporal measures across the two stimulus lengths will be compared. The perceptual experiment will be in three sessions. In session one, subjects will be presented tape recorded statements and (echo) questions to discriminate. In session two, the same sentences sliced into two parts that correspond to terminal and preterminal F0 regions will be presented to subjects to identify each as part of a statement or part of a question. This approach is intended to determine if the acoustic (F0) information in one part of the sentence is more difficult for the patients to process compared to the information in the other part. In session 3, subjects will be presented tape recorded nonsense stimuli structured as statements and questions to identify as 'statement-like' or 'question-like' utterances. This is in order to understand whether problems of intonation perception for the patients are related to nonlinguistic underlying deficit. Few studies have examined the basis of intonation disturbance in aphasia. Given that the study of a language disorder can shed light on the normal form of that aspect of language, this study will contribute to the elucidation of the nature of not only intonation disorder, but also normal intonation. The proposed paradigm involving decomposition of the F0 contours into linguistically and nonlinguistically relevant components is a unique approach that has ramifications for diagnosis and management of the disorder. ? ?
