Investigating Intelligibility Gains for a Slowed Rate Using Hybridization

Abstract

Studying the speech characteristics underlying intelligibility gains in dysarthria is critical for shaping targeted behavioral treatment techniques including rate reduction. The current study used the analysis-resynthesis approach of hybridization to investigate acoustic variables causing increased intelligibility for sentences produced at a slowed rate by speakers with dysarthria secondary to Multiple Sclerosis. Intelligibility measures indicated that hybridized and resynthesized spectral and durational characteristics explained increased intelligibility associated with rate reduction. Acoustic analyses of speech stimuli further suggested that increases in vocal quality and articulatory movement range were linked to increased intelligibility. Collectively, findings suggest that hybridization is a powerful technique to systematically manipulate and identify acoustic variables explaining intelligibility gains of global dysarthria treatment techniques.

Frits van Brenk

External consultant in the Motor Speech Disorders Laboratory

My research and teaching interests include motor speech disorders, clinical linguistics, experimental psycholinguistics, speech science, and research methods.