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. 2022 Jul 18;65(7):2586-2593.
doi: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00632. Epub 2022 Jul 5.

Voice Onset Time in Early- and Late-Stage Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Anusha Thomas  1 , Kristin J Teplansky  1 , Alan Wisler  2 , Daragh Heitzman  3 , Sara Austin  4 , Jun Wang  1   4
Affiliations

Voice Onset Time in Early- and Late-Stage Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Anusha Thomas et al. J Speech Lang Hear Res. .

Abstract

Purpose: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects bulbar functions including speech and voice. Voice onset time (VOT) was examined in speakers with ALS in early and late stages to explore the coordination of the articulatory and phonatory systems during speech production.

Method: VOT was measured in nonword /bap/ produced by speakers with early-stage ALS (n = 11), late-stage ALS (n = 6), and healthy controls (n = 13), and compared with speech performance decline (a marker of disease progression) in ALS.

Results: Overall comparison of the VOT values among the three groups showed a significant difference, F(2,27) = 11.71, p < .01. Speakers in late-stage ALS displayed longer voicing lead (negative VOT) than both healthy speakers and speakers in early-stage ALS. VOT was also significantly negatively correlated with speech performance (i.e., Intelligible Speaking Rate), r(15) = .74, p < .01.

Conclusions: Speakers with more severe ALS showed greater occurrence of voicing lead and longer voicing lead. Findings show voicing precedes articulatory onset with disease progression in the production of bilabial stops, which suggests that the relative timing of coordination between the supralaryngeal structures and the phonatory system is affected in the late stage of ALS.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Example spectrograms showing voicing lead and short voicing lag in word-initial /b/ in stimuli /bap/. Spectrograms show (A) prevoiced/lead and (B) short-lag voice onset time (VOT). The onset of periodicity can be seen on the spectrogram at the first occurrence of the vertical lines, which correspond to the glottal pulses. The stop burst is seen after the voicing or glottal pulsing in the prevoicing or lead VOT while stop burst occurs before voicing onset in short lag VOT.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Voice onset time in healthy, early-stage, and late-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) groups. Statistically significant comparisons are marked in asterisk.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Scatterplot of voice onset time (VOT) for /b/ with intelligible speaking rate in early-stage (filled circles) and late-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) groups (unfilled circles).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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