Single syllable tongue motion analysis using tagged cine MRI

Abstract

The complicated muscle activity of the human tongue and the resultant surface shapes can give us important clues about speech motor control and pathological tongue motion. This study uses tagged magnetic resonance imaging to provide a 2D surface deformation analysis of the tongue, as well as a 4D compression–expansion analysis, during utterances of four different syllables (/ba/, /ta/, /sha/ and /ga/). All speech tasks were performed several times to confirm the repeatability of the motion analysis. The results showed that the tongue has unique motion patterns for utterances of different syllables, and these differences, which may not be observed by a simple surface analysis, can be examined thoroughly by a 4D motion model-based analysis of the tongue muscles.

Keywords::

• tongue
• magnetic resonance tagging
• tissue motion analysis
• 4D motion tracking
• speech physiology

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Dr Danielle Dick and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable contributions to this study.