ERIC Number: EJ1086076
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Dec
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
The Role of Somatosensory Information in Speech Perception: Imitation Improves Recognition of Disordered Speech
Borrie, Stephanie A.; Schäfer, Martina C. M.
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v58 n6 p1708-1716 Dec 2015
Purpose: Perceptual learning paradigms involving written feedback appear to be a viable clinical tool to reduce the intelligibility burden of dysarthria. The underlying theoretical assumption is that pairing the degraded acoustics with the intended lexical targets facilitates a remapping of existing mental representations in the lexicon. This study investigated whether ties to mental representations can be strengthened by way of a somatosensory motor trace. Method: Following an intelligibility pretest, 100 participants were assigned to 1 of 5 experimental groups. The control group received no training, but the other 4 groups received training with dysarthric speech under conditions involving a unique combination of auditory targets, written feedback, and/or a vocal imitation task. All participants then completed an intelligibility posttest. Results: Training improved intelligibility of dysarthric speech, with the largest improvements observed when the auditory targets were accompanied by both written feedback and an imitation task. Further, a significant relationship between intelligibility improvement and imitation accuracy was identified. Conclusions: This study suggests that somatosensory information can strengthen the activation of speech sound maps of dysarthric speech. The findings, therefore, implicate a bidirectional relationship between speech perception and speech production as well as advance our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie perceptual learning of degraded speech.
Descriptors: Articulation Impairments, Feedback (Response), Acoustics, Pretests Posttests, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Comparative Analysis, Imitation, Auditory Perception, Training, Speech, Instructional Effectiveness
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Tel: 800-638-8255; Fax: 301-571-0457; e-mail: subscribe@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A