The Motor Speech Laboratory investigates speech production deficits in persons with neurologic impairment, such as Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis.
Director: Kris Tjaden, PhD, CCC-SLP
Cary Hall, Room 108
The Motor Speech Laboratory investigates speech production deficits in persons with neurologic impairment, such as Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. The overall aim of this NIH-funded research is to describe the manner in which different types of neurologic lesions or dysarthrias affect speech. We also aim to identify therapeutic techniques most effective for maximizing intelligibility and speech naturalness in dysarthria - and the underlying speech production changes responsible for adjustments in intelligibility and naturalness. Temporal and spectral acoustic measures (i.e., voiceprints or spectrograms) are used to infer processes underlying speech articulation. Our most recent publications focus on how the overlapping of speech sounds - termed "coarticulation" - is affected in dysarthria. Other studies investigate and compare the effects of speech rate reduction, increased vocal loudness, and a faster than normal speech rate on intelligibility in dysarthria.
The lab is equipped with a sound-treated room for on-line recording of speakers, high fidelity microphones, microphone preamplifier, sound level meter, audio filters, and computer workstations equipped with specialized software for acoustic analyses. The laboratory also has equipment for quantifying air pressures and flows generated during speech.
