The research focus is on the acoustic and perceptual correlates of the compromised speech intelligibility that is common throughout the lifespan in persons with disorders such as Down syndrome (DS), cerebral palsy (CP), hearing impairment, autism, and a variety of genetic disorders. The proposed project aims to address NIDCD?s priority to better understand the natural history of communication disorders throughout the lifespan in Down syndrome, specifically this proposal aims to establish the lifespan patterns of speech intelligibility and its acoustic and perceptual correlates in individuals with DS (ages 4 to 53 years), with comparisons to the patterns observed in a control group with typically developing (TD) speech. The findings will provide the knowledge base needed to inform and guide the clinical management of communication disorders throughout the lifespan in individuals with Down syndrome, hence addressing another NIDCD priority. To date, there is no evidence-based treatment guidance for DS (e.g., none listed in the Practice Portal of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) even though enhancing speech intelligibility, as a means to improve communication, is a high priority treatment goal that parents and others seek for individuals with DS. The ability to communicate is central to educational, vocational and social interactions, and reduced speech intelligibility can severely restrict these interactions and adversely affect quality of life. The goal of improved intelligibility through the lifespan is made all the more important given that the average lifespan for persons with DS has increased remarkably owing to improved health care. The speech disorder that underlies speech intelligibility in DS is particularly difficult to analyze because it is associated with multiple factors, including, but not limited to, craniofacial dysmorphologies (shortened midfacial skeleton), laryngeal dysmorphology (laryngomalacia), motor impairments (dysarthria and/or apraxia) phonological delay or disorder, dysfluency, and hearing impairment (Kent & Vorperian, 2013). The parent award, supporting the Vocal Tract Development Laboratory (VTLab) research, is studying the craniofacial dysmorphology in DS and CP as a means to understand the role of function (breathing, deglutition and speech) in shaping the anatomic structures in TD individuals during the course of development and across the lifespan (i.e. ?functional anatomy? is an important focus of the parent award). In addition, the VTLab is studying the biological basis of speech development and production in typically and atypically developing speech, and for that purpose has collected a large and unique set of high-quality speech recordings from individuals with DS and TD individuals across the lifespan to examine anatomic-acoustic correlates. For this stated purpose, the VTLab has completed making vowel acoustic measurements from all the TD and DS monosyllabic word recordings and obtained intelligibility ratings on all DS recordings (words and sentences). This supplement provides a natural extension to our work to date, providing a unique opportunity to capitalize on parent award available resources of high quality speech recordings (including vowel prolongations, monosyllabic words, and sentences), as well as intelligibility ratings of words and sentences (obtained from a panel of 5 listeners) to immediately embark on investigating a broad range of speech production and voice quality measures, including both acoustic measures and perceptual ratings, related to speech intelligibility. The data collection protocol used is well-suited to the proposed systems-based approach for speech production where the acoustic and perceptual analyses will examine each of the major subsystems individually, as well as their interactions. The ultimate aim of this application is establishing acoustic-perceptual correlates of speech intelligibility using a lifespan perspective (to our knowledge there is no precedence to this approach). The results are expected to provide a foundation for speech assessment and intervention strategies in individuals with DS.
Imaging and acoustic methods are used to provide detailed information on the typical and atypical anatomic development of the vocal tract. The data will establish normative references that inform sex- and age-specific modeling of the vocal tract and provide a foundation for intervention strategies that are designed to modify developmental patterns in anatomy, physiology, or acoustic output. The information to be obtained is central to the needs of several clinical specialties concerned with behaviors such as feeding, swallowing, speech production, and respiration; also, the data can be used to test prevailing theories on craniofacial development.
| Eichhorn, Julie Traub; Kent, Raymond D; Austin, Diane et al. (2018) Effects of Aging on Vocal Fundamental Frequency and Vowel Formants in Men and Women. J Voice 32:644.e1-644.e9 |
| Story, Brad H; Vorperian, Houri K; Bunton, Kate et al. (2018) An age-dependent vocal tract model for males and females based on anatomic measurements. J Acoust Soc Am 143:3079 |
| Wild, Alyssa; Vorperian, Houri K; Kent, Ray D et al. (2018) Single-Word Speech Intelligibility in Children and Adults With Down Syndrome. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 27:222-236 |
| Chuang, Ying Ji; Doherty, Benjamin M; Adluru, Nagesh et al. (2018) A Novel Registration-Based Semiautomatic Mandible Segmentation Pipeline Using Computed Tomography Images to Study Mandibular Development. J Comput Assist Tomogr 42:306-316 |
| Kent, Raymond D; Vorperian, Houri K (2018) Static measurements of vowel formant frequencies and bandwidths: A review. J Commun Disord 74:74-97 |
| Kelly, Michael P; Vorperian, Houri K; Wang, Yuan et al. (2017) Characterizing mandibular growth using three-dimensional imaging techniques and anatomic landmarks. Arch Oral Biol 77:27-38 |
| Chung, Moo K; Chuang, Ying Ji; Vorperian, Houri K (2017) Online Statistical Inference for Large-Scale Binary Images. Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv 10434:729-736 |
| Fisher, Ellie; Austin, Diane; Werner, Helen M et al. (2016) Hyoid bone fusion and bone density across the lifespan: prediction of age and sex. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 12:146-57 |
| Derdemezis, Ekaterini; Vorperian, Houri K; Kent, Ray D et al. (2016) Optimizing Vowel Formant Measurements in Four Acoustic Analysis Systems for Diverse Speaker Groups. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 25:335-54 |
| Wang, Yuan; Chung, Moo K; Vorperian, Houri K (2016) Composite growth model applied to human oral and pharyngeal structures and identifying the contribution of growth types. Stat Methods Med Res 25:1975-1990 |
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