Rhythmic Entrainment in Bilingual Speakers With Dysarthria

The objectives of this study are to determine i) the effect of rhythmic entrainment of speech with hand gestures and auditory rhythmic cues on intelligibility and speech naturalness in Spanish-accented speakers of English in two pathology groups: ataxic dysarthria and hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to idiopathic Parkinson's disease; and ii) the extent to which speech rate and effort are control parameters of entrainment. These objectives will be achieved with the following specific aims:

Specific Aim 1: Determine the effect of three rates of hand gestures and auditory rhythmic cues and the degree to which learning and carry-over occur.

Specific Aim 2: Determine the effect of increased speech effort, operationalized as clear speech, and the interaction effect of clear speech with hand gestures and auditory rhythmic cues.

Specific Aim 3: Investigate the perception of speech rhythm and its relationship to entrainment.

Study Overview

• Status: Terminated
• Conditions: Parkinson Disease; Ataxia
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Gestures; Behavioral: Auditory

Detailed Description

The objectives of this study are to determine i) the effect of rhythmic entrainment of speech with hand gestures and auditory rhythmic cues on intelligibility and speech naturalness in Spanish-accented speakers of English in two pathology groups: ataxic dysarthria and hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to idiopathic Parkinson's disease; and ii) the extent to which speech rate and effort are control parameters of entrainment. These objectives will be achieved with the following specific aims:

Specific Aim 1: Determine the effect of three rates of hand gestures and auditory rhythmic cues and the degree to which learning and carry-over occur.

Specific Aim 2: Determine the effect of increased speech effort, operationalized as clear speech, and the interaction effect of clear speech with hand gestures and auditory rhythmic cues.

Specific Aim 3: Investigate the perception of speech rhythm and its relationship to entrainment.

The protocol calls for 12 talkers to participate in a single case experimental design: 6 Spanish-accented speakers of English and 6 native English speakers, and each language group consisting of 2 healthy controls, 2 adults diagnosed with ataxic dysarthria and 2 adults diagnosed with hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Sixty monolingual healthy adult listeners will rate intelligibility, accentedness, and ease of understanding.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 6
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • Bronx, New York, United States, 10468
      • Lehman College

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 21 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (4) or dysarthria secondary to ataxia (4) or healthy (4)
• monolingual speaker of American English (6) or native speaker of Spanish who speaks English with a Spanish accent (6)
• age 21 or older

Exclusion Criteria:

• Cognitive impairment that prevents participation in the therapy
• Fluent speakers of languages other than English or Spanish
• younger than 21 years

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
• Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Gestures; Use of hand gestures to improve speech rhythm and speech production	Behavioral: Gestures; Use of gestures to improve speech production
EXPERIMENTAL: Auditory; Use of auditory cues to improve speech rhythm and speech production	Behavioral: Auditory; Use of auditory cues to improve speech production

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Intelligibility	Intelligibility = the accuracy with which a listener understands a speaker. It will be measured by having the subjects undergoing the therapy ("the talkers") read 28 phrases using accompanying gesture or auditory cues and listeners will transcribe the sentences. The number of words accurately transcribed / the number of words in the phrase = intelligibility score for each phrase per listener	immediately upon completion of the therapy

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Ease of understanding	Ease of understanding = the ease with which listeners understand the speakers. It will be measured by having the subjects undergoing the therapy ("the talkers") read 28 phrases using accompanying gesture or auditory cues and listeners will rate how easy it is to understand the talkers using a 0 to 9 visual analog scale with 0 = very easy and 9= very hard, for each phrase per listener	Immediately upon completion of the therapy
Speech naturalness	Speech naturalness = the degree to which the listeners consider the speakers to have natural or unnatural speech. It will be measured by having the subjects undergoing the therapy ("the talkers") read 28 phrases using accompanying gesture or auditory cues and listeners will rate how natural-sounding the talker sounds by using a 0 to 9 visual analog scale with 0 = very natural and 9 = very unnatural, for each phrase per listener	immediately upon completion of the therapy

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of New York
• Collaborators: University of Utah
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Alison Behrman, PhD, Lehman College

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): September 1, 2018
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): February 20, 2019
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): February 20, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 21, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 22, 2018
• First Posted (ACTUAL): August 24, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): February 26, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 22, 2019
• Last Verified: February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: speech therapy; speech rhythm
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Neurologic Manifestations; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Parkinsonian Disorders; Basal Ganglia Diseases; Movement Disorders; Synucleinopathies; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Language Disorders; Communication Disorders; Speech Disorders; Articulation Disorders; Parkinson Disease; Dysarthria
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2017-0851

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: De-identified data will be shared with other researchers
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: After completion of the study and publication of the data
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Researchers who have contacted me directly with clear purpose and plan for use of data and then have IRB approval.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No