Aspects of disturbed prosody in dysarthria

It is well known that disturbed prosody is a symptom which can be observed in all types of dysarthria. However, there is no standardized way of assessing disturbed prosody in dysarthria quantitatively. This makes it difficult or impossible to study the efficacy of treatment. In this study the following aspects of prosody were analysed in the spontaneous speech of 84 dysarthric patients and of 154 normal controls: length of tone units, fundamental frequency, and standard deviation of fundamental frequency. The results revealed significant differences between normal controls and dysarthric patients on the one hand, and between severely and mildly dysarthric patients on the other hand: severe dysarthrics have shorter tone units and higher mean fundamental frequencies than mild dysarthrics and normal controls. Patients with mild dysarthria have lower standard deviations of fundamental frequency than normal controls and severely disturbed patients, i.e. their speech is more ‘monotonous’. The variables analysed...