![Sample our Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Allied Health journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5944/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Medicine-Dentistry-Nursing-Allied-Health.jpg"})
Abstract
Primary objective: To explore articulatory kinematic differences between normal and dysarthric speakers post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) during syllable and sentence productions.
Research design: A comparison between the control, mild (MTBI) and severe TBI groups for all measured kinematic parameters was carried out using the Kruskal Wallis test.
Methods and procedures: Ten participants with a severe TBI and six post-MTBI formed the experimental group. The control group consisted of 14 age and sex matched non-neurologically impaired speakers. Articulatory kinematic profiles for the three groups were obtained using the Electromagnetic Articulograph (EMA) while repeating sentence and syllable embedded /t/ and /k/ productions at a habitual rate and loudness level.
Main outcomes and results: Significant differences between the severe TBI and control group were identified only for the release phase of the /t/ sentence productions wherein an increase in mean maximum acceleration was observed for the severe TBI group.
Conclusions: While a simple syllable repetition task at a moderate rate was unable to differentiate the three groups, a complex sentence production task precipitated an increase in mean maximum acceleration which may be indicative of increased articulatory effort and impaired speech motor control even at a convenient rate for the severe group.