Acoustic, articulatory and perceptual characteristics of dysarthric speechon
Dysarthria is characterized by distorted speech due to imprecise articulation of phonemes and monotonic or excessive variation of loudness and pitch. While production errors are generally not random, they are commonly characterized as distorted, noisy, or non-prototypical versions of normal production, or as phonemic substitution, which is less common. I have investigated the acoustic, articulatory and perceptual characteristics of dysarthric speech. Studies include a frequency analysis of consonant articulation errors with respect to phonological categories and a speaker’s intelligibility, a kinematic analysis of tongue movement control, and acoustic and perceptual analyses of vowels, lexical stress and fricatives in dysarthria. The outcome of these studies reveals the characteristics of articulation errors, and helps clinicians base their decisions on objective data and maximize the efficiency of clinical treatments.
A listener-oriented approach on improving intelligibility for speakers with dysarthria.
I have also pursued the vision of utilizing a listener’s role for communicative success, noting that communication involves speaker-listener interactions. Specifically, I evaluated the benefit of familiarization, a training method in which listeners receive brief exposure to dysarthric speech, as potential intervention in dysarthria management. Using the UA Speech corpus data, my research evaluated different familiarization methods that have been separately used in prior work, by examining word and consonant intelligibility in short- and long-term effects.
To further investigate the functional value of a listener-focused approach for the management of dysarthria, I participated in a local NSF I-corps program at the U of I. Through this program, I interviewed clinicians and conversation partners of people with speech disorder, who affirmed not only the communicative benefits but also socio-emotional and educational benefits of listener training.
Publications and Presentation
- Lee, J., Kim, H., & Jung, Y. (2020). Patterns of Misidentified Vowels in Individuals With Dysarthria Secondary to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Journal of speech, language, and hearing research: JSLHR, 63(8), 2649–2666. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-19-00237
- Kim, H. & Hasegawa-Johnson, M. (2020). Communication improves when human or computer listeners adapt to dysarthria, In Amy Neustein & Hemant A. Patil (Eds.), Acoustic Analysis of Pathologies From Infancy to Young Adulthood: Speech Technology and Text Mining in Medicine and Health Care 7, De Gruyter. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501513138-005/html
- Laureano, M-V., J. Cho, M. Hasegawa-Johnson, S. Watanabe, O. Scharenborg, H. Kim and N. Dehak. (2019). Study of the performance of automatic speech recognition systems in speakers with Parkinson’s Disease. Proceedings of Interspeech: Crossroads of Speech and Language, 2019. https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2019-2993
- Kim H. (2015). Familiarization Effects on Consonant Intelligibility in Dysarthric Speech. Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica: official organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP), 67(5), 245–252. https://doi.org/10.1159/000444255
- Kim, H., & Nanney, S. (2014). Familiarization effects on word intelligibility in dysarthric speech. Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica: official organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP), 66(6), 258–264. https://doi.org/10.1159/000369799
- Kim, H. and Nanney, S. (2014). Familiarization effects on dysarthric speech perception: evidence of enhanced segmental perception. Motor Speech Conference, Sarasota, FL, February 27-March 2, 2014
- Kim, H. and Nanney, S. (2013). Familiarization effects on word and phoneme transcriptions of dysarthric speech. ASHA Convention, Chicago, IL, November 14-16, 2013
- Rong, P., Loucks, T., Kim, H., & Hasegawa-Johnson, M. (2012). Relationship between kinematics, F2 slope and speech intelligibility in dysarthria due to cerebral palsy. Clinical linguistics & phonetics, 26(9), 806–822. https://doi.org/10.3109/02699206.2012.706686
- Kim, H. and Hasegawa-Johnson, M. (2012). Second-formant locus patterns in dysarthric speech. The 164th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Kansas City, Missouri, October 22-26, 2012
- Kim, H., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., & Perlman, A. (2011). Vowel contrast and speech intelligibility in dysarthria. Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica : official organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP), 63(4), 187–194. https://doi.org/10.1159/000318881
- Kim, H., and Hasegawa-Johnson, M. (2011). Temporal and spectral characteristics of fricatives in dysarthria, The 162nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, San Diego, California, October 31 – November 4, 2011
- Kim, H., Martin, K., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., & Perlman, A. (2010). Frequency of consonant articulation errors in dysarthric speech. Clinical linguistics & phonetics, 24(10), 759–770. https://doi.org/10.3109/02699206.2010.497238
- Kim, H., Rong, P., Loucks, T.M., Hasegawa-Johnson, M. (2010) Kinematic analysis of tongue movement control in spastic dysarthria. Proc. Interspeech 2010, 2578-2581, https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2010-697
- Kim, H., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., & Perlman, A. (2010). Acoustic cues to lexical stress in spastic dysarthria. Speech Prosody, Chicago, IL, May 11-14, 2010. https://www.isca-archive.org/speechprosody_2010/kim10_speechprosody.pdf
- Kim, H., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., & Perlman, A. (2008). Vowel space and intelligibility in dysarthric speech. ASHA Convention, Chicago, IL, November 19-21, 2008.
