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Angelopoulou G, Kasselimis D, Goutsos D, Potagas C. A Methodological Approach to Quantifying Silent Pauses, Speech Rate, and Articulation Rate across Distinct Narrative Tasks: Introducing the Connected Speech Analysis Protocol (CSAP). Brain Sci 2024; 14:466. [PMID: 38790445 PMCID: PMC11119743 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14050466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2024] [Revised: 04/24/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
The examination of connected speech may serve as a valuable tool for exploring speech output in both healthy speakers and individuals with language disorders. Numerous studies incorporate various fluency and silence measures into their analyses to investigate speech output patterns in different populations, along with the underlying cognitive processes that occur while speaking. However, methodological inconsistencies across existing studies pose challenges in comparing their results. In the current study, we introduce CSAP (Connected Speech Analysis Protocol), which is a specific methodological approach to investigate fluency metrics, such as articulation rate and speech rate, as well as silence measures, including silent pauses' frequency and duration. We emphasize the importance of employing a comprehensive set of measures within a specific methodological framework to better understand speech output patterns. Additionally, we advocate for the use of distinct narrative tasks for a thorough investigation of speech output in different conditions. We provide an example of data on which we implement CSAP to showcase the proposed pipeline. In conclusion, CSAP offers a comprehensive framework for investigating speech output patterns, incorporating fluency metrics and silence measures in distinct narrative tasks, thus allowing a detailed quantification of connected speech in both healthy and clinical populations. We emphasize the significance of adopting a unified methodological approach in connected speech studies, enabling the integration of results for more robust and generalizable conclusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgia Angelopoulou
- Neuropsychology & Language Disorders Unit, 1st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece; (G.A.); (D.K.)
| | - Dimitrios Kasselimis
- Neuropsychology & Language Disorders Unit, 1st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece; (G.A.); (D.K.)
- Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
| | - Dionysios Goutsos
- Department of Linguistics, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 106 79 Athens, Greece
| | - Constantin Potagas
- Neuropsychology & Language Disorders Unit, 1st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece; (G.A.); (D.K.)
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He R, Al-Tamimi J, Sánchez-Benavides G, Montaña-Valverde G, Domingo Gispert J, Grau-Rivera O, Suárez-Calvet M, Minguillon C, Fauria K, Navarro A, Hinzen W. Atypical cortical hierarchy in Aβ-positive older adults and its reflection in spontaneous speech. Brain Res 2024; 1830:148806. [PMID: 38365129 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2024.148806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2024] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
Abnormal deposition of Aβ amyloid is an early neuropathological marker of Alzheimer's disease (AD), arising long ahead of clinical symptoms. Non-invasive measures of associated early neurofunctional changes, together with easily accessible behavioral readouts of these changes, could be of great clinical benefit. We pursued this aim by investigating large-scale cortical gradients of functional connectivity with functional MRI, which capture the hierarchical integration of cortical functions, together with acoustic-prosodic features from spontaneous speech, in cognitively unimpaired older adults with and without Aβ positivity (total N = 188). We predicted distortions of the cortical hierarchy associated with prosodic changes in the Aβ + group. Results confirmed substantially altered cortical hierarchies and less variability in these in the Aβ + group, together with an increase in quantitative prosodic measures, which correlated with gradient variability as well as digit span test scores. Overall, these findings confirm that long before the clinical stage and objective cognitive impairment, increased risk of cognitive decline as indexed by Aβ accumulation is marked by neurofunctional changes in the cortical hierarchy, which are related to automatically extractable speech patterns and alterations in working memory functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui He
- Department of Translation & Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08018 Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Jalal Al-Tamimi
- Université Paris Cité, Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle (LLF), CNRS, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Gonzalo Sánchez-Benavides
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Neurosciences Department, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBERFES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Juan Domingo Gispert
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Neurosciences Department, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBERBBN), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Oriol Grau-Rivera
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Neurosciences Department, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBERFES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain; Servei de Neurologia, Hospital del Mar, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marc Suárez-Calvet
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Neurosciences Department, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBERFES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain; Servei de Neurologia, Hospital del Mar, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Carolina Minguillon
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Neurosciences Department, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBERFES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Karine Fauria
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBERFES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Arcadi Navarro
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain; Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain; CRG, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Department of Translation & Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08018 Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain
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Burke E, Gunstad J, Pavlenko O, Hamrick P. Distinguishable features of spontaneous speech in Alzheimer's clinical syndrome and healthy controls. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2024; 31:575-586. [PMID: 37272884 PMCID: PMC10696129 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2023.2221020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
There is growing evidence that subtle changes in spontaneous speech may reflect early pathological changes in cognitive function. Recent work has found that lexical-semantic features of spontaneous speech predict cognitive dysfunction in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The current study assessed whether Ostrand and Gunstad's (OG) lexical-semantic features extend to predicting cognitive status in a sample of individuals with Alzheimer's clinical syndrome (ACS) and healthy controls. Four additional (New) speech indices shown to be important in language processing research were also explored in this sample to extend prior work. Speech transcripts of the Cookie Theft Task from 81 individuals with ACS (Mage = 72.7 years, SD = 8.80, 70.4% female) and 61 healthy controls (HC) (Mage = 63.9 years, SD = 8.52, 62.3% female) from Dementia Bank were analyzed. Random forest and logistic machine learning techniques examined whether subject-level lexical-semantic features could be used to accurately discriminate those with ACS from HC. Results showed that logistic models with the New lexical-semantic features obtained good classification accuracy (78.4%), but the OG features had wider success across machine learning model types. In terms of sensitivity and specificity, the random forest model trained on the OG features was the most balanced. Findings from the current study suggest that features of spontaneous speech used to predict MCI may also distinguish between individuals with ACS and healthy controls. Future work should evaluate these lexical-semantic features in pre-clinical persons to further explore their potential to assist with early detection through speech analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin Burke
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University
| | - John Gunstad
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University
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Angelopoulou G, Kasselimis D, Varkanitsa M, Tsolakopoulos D, Papageorgiou G, Velonakis G, Meier E, Karavassilis E, Pantoleon V, Laskaris N, Kelekis N, Tountopoulou A, Vassilopoulou S, Goutsos D, Kiran S, Weiller C, Rijntjes M, Potagas C. Investigating silent pauses in connected speech: integrating linguistic, neuropsychological, and neuroanatomical perspectives across narrative tasks in post-stroke aphasia. Front Neurol 2024; 15:1347514. [PMID: 38682034 PMCID: PMC11047180 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1347514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Silent pauses are regarded as integral components of the temporal organization of speech. However, it has also been hypothesized that they serve as markers for internal cognitive processes, including word access, monitoring, planning, and memory functions. Although existing evidence across various pathological populations underscores the importance of investigating silent pauses' characteristics, particularly in terms of frequency and duration, there is a scarcity of data within the domain of post-stroke aphasia. Methods The primary objective of the present study is to scrutinize the frequency and duration of silent pauses in two distinct narrative tasks within a cohort of 32 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia, in comparison with a control group of healthy speakers. Subsequently, we investigate potential correlation patterns between silent pause measures, i.e., frequency and duration, across the two narrative tasks within the patient group, their performance in neuropsychological assessments, and lesion data. Results Our findings showed that patients exhibited a higher frequency of longer-duration pauses in both narrative tasks compared to healthy speakers. Furthermore, within-group comparisons revealed that patients tended to pause more frequently and for longer durations in the picture description task, while healthy participants exhibited the opposite trend. With regard to our second research question, a marginally significant interaction emerged between performance in semantic verbal fluency and the narrative task, in relation to the location of silent pauses-whether between or within clauses-predicting the duration of silent pauses in the patient group. However, no significant results were observed for the frequency of silent pauses. Lastly, our study identified that the duration of silent pauses could be predicted by distinct Regions of Interest (ROIs) in spared tissue within the left hemisphere, as a function of the narrative task. Discussion Overall, this study follows an integrative approach of linguistic, neuropsychological and neuroanatomical data to define silent pauses in connected speech, and illustrates interrelations between cognitive components, temporal aspects of speech, and anatomical indices, while it further highlights the importance of studying connected speech indices using different narrative tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- G. Angelopoulou
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - D. Kasselimis
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
| | - M. Varkanitsa
- Center for Brain Recovery, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - D. Tsolakopoulos
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - G. Papageorgiou
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - G. Velonakis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - E. Meier
- The Aphasia Network Lab, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - E. Karavassilis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
| | - V. Pantoleon
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - N. Laskaris
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering, School of Engineering, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
| | - N. Kelekis
- 2nd Department of Radiology, General University Hospital “Attikon”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - A. Tountopoulou
- Stroke Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - S. Vassilopoulou
- Stroke Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - D. Goutsos
- Department of Linguistics, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - S. Kiran
- Center for Brain Recovery, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - C. Weiller
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - M. Rijntjes
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - C. Potagas
- Neuropsychology&Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
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Kaser AN, Lacritz LH, Winiarski HR, Gabirondo P, Schaffert J, Coca AJ, Jiménez-Raboso J, Rojo T, Zaldua C, Honorato I, Gallego D, Nieves ER, Rosenstein LD, Cullum CM. A novel speech analysis algorithm to detect cognitive impairment in a Spanish population. Front Neurol 2024; 15:1342907. [PMID: 38638311 PMCID: PMC11024431 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1342907] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2023] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Objective Early detection of cognitive impairment in the elderly is crucial for diagnosis and appropriate care. Brief, cost-effective cognitive screening instruments are needed to help identify individuals who require further evaluation. This study presents preliminary data on a new screening technology using automated voice recording analysis software in a Spanish population. Method Data were collected from 174 Spanish-speaking individuals clinically diagnosed as cognitively normal (CN, n = 87) or impaired (mild cognitive impairment [MCI], n = 63; all-cause dementia, n = 24). Participants were recorded performing four common language tasks (Animal fluency, alternating fluency [sports and fruits], phonemic "F" fluency, and Cookie Theft Description). Recordings were processed via text-transcription and digital-signal processing techniques to capture neuropsychological variables and audio characteristics. A training sample of 122 subjects with similar demographics across groups was used to develop an algorithm to detect cognitive impairment. Speech and task features were used to develop five independent machine learning (ML) models to compute scores between 0 and 1, and a final algorithm was constructed using repeated cross-validation. A socio-demographically balanced subset of 52 participants was used to test the algorithm. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), covarying for demographic characteristics, was used to predict logistically-transformed algorithm scores. Results Mean logit algorithm scores were significantly different across groups in the testing sample (p < 0.01). Comparisons of CN with impaired (MCI + dementia) and MCI groups using the final algorithm resulted in an AUC of 0.93/0.90, with overall accuracy of 88.4%/87.5%, sensitivity of 87.5/83.3, and specificity of 89.2/89.2, respectively. Conclusion Findings provide initial support for the utility of this automated speech analysis algorithm as a screening tool for cognitive impairment in Spanish speakers. Additional study is needed to validate this technology in larger and more diverse clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alyssa N. Kaser
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
| | - Laura H. Lacritz
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
- Department of Neurology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
| | - Holly R. Winiarski
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
| | | | - Jeff Schaffert
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
| | - Alberto J. Coca
- AcceXible Impacto, Sociedad Limitada, Bilbao, Spain
- Cambridge Mathematics of Information in Healthcare Hub, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | - Tomas Rojo
- AcceXible Impacto, Sociedad Limitada, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Carla Zaldua
- AcceXible Impacto, Sociedad Limitada, Bilbao, Spain
| | | | | | - Emmanuel Rosario Nieves
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
- Parkland Health and Hospital System Behavioral Health Clinic, Dallas, TX, United States
| | - Leslie D. Rosenstein
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
- Parkland Health and Hospital System Behavioral Health Clinic, Dallas, TX, United States
| | - C. Munro Cullum
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
- Department of Neurology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
- Department of Neurological Surgery, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
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Pistono A, Pariente J, Jucla M. Disfluency patterns in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2024; 38:345-358. [PMID: 36004675 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2022.2112085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2022] [Revised: 07/28/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Disfluencies may reflect various mechanisms: word-finding difficulties, planning strategies, inter-individual cognitive variability, etc. In the current paper, we examined disfluency production in patients with a behavioural variant of Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (bvFTLD), compared to patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and healthy older adults. We showed that bvFTLD participants have lower speech rate and produce more incomplete utterances. However, those measures were not correlated with naming and fluency tasks. On the contrary, AD participants did not differ from healthy controls on disfluency production, but discourse measures were correlated with the participants' lexical-semantic impairment. This provides evidence for different causes of disfluency in AD and FTLD, and a distinct role of each disfluency phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurélie Pistono
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Jérémie Pariente
- Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Toulouse University, Inserm, UPS, Toulouse, France
- Neurology Department, Neuroscience Centre, Toulouse University Hospital, Toulouse, France
| | - Mélanie Jucla
- Laboratory of NeuroPsychoLinguistics, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France
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Gumus M, Koo M, Studzinski CM, Bhan A, Robin J, Black SE. Linguistic changes in neurodegenerative diseases relate to clinical symptoms. Front Neurol 2024; 15:1373341. [PMID: 38590720 PMCID: PMC10999640 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1373341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Background The detection and characterization of speech changes may help in the identification and monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases. However, there is limited research validating the relationship between speech changes and clinical symptoms across a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases. Method We analyzed speech recordings from 109 patients who were diagnosed with various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Vascular Cognitive Impairment, in a cognitive neurology memory clinic. Speech recordings of an open-ended picture description task were processed using the Winterlight speech analysis platform which generates >500 speech features, including the acoustics of speech and linguistic properties of spoken language. We investigated the relationship between the speech features and clinical assessments including the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS), Western Aphasia Battery (WAB), and Boston Naming Task (BNT) in a heterogeneous patient population. Result Linguistic features including lexical and syntactic features were significantly correlated with clinical assessments in patients, across diagnoses. Lower MMSE and DRS scores were associated with the use of shorter words and fewer prepositional phrases. Increased impairment on WAB and BNT was correlated with the use of fewer nouns but more pronouns. Patients also differed from healthy adults as their speech duration was significantly shorter with more pauses. Conclusion Linguistic changes such as the use of simpler vocabularies and syntax were detectable in patients with different neurodegenerative diseases and correlated with cognitive decline. Speech has the potential to be a sensitive measure for detecting cognitive impairments across various neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melisa Gumus
- Winterlight Labs, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Morgan Koo
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
- School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | | | - Aparna Bhan
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Medicine (Neurology), University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | | | - Sandra E. Black
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Medicine (Neurology), University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
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He R, Yuan X, Hinzen W. Episodic Thinking in Alzheimer's Disease Through the Lens of Language: Linguistic Analysis and Transformer-Based Classification. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2024; 33:87-95. [PMID: 37870893 DOI: 10.1044/2023_ajslp-23-00066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Episodic memory decline is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and linked to deficits in episodic thinking directed to the future. We addressed the question whether a deficit in episodic thinking can be picked up directly from connected speech and its detection can be automatized. METHOD We linguistically classified 2,809 utterances (including embedded clauses in the utterances) from picture descriptions from 70 healthy older controls, 82 people with mild probable AD (pAD), and 46 people with moderate pAD for whether they were episodic, nonepisodic, or "other" (e.g., off-task). Generalized linear regression models were used to investigate how ratios of these categories change in AD, controlling for age, gender, and education. Finally, we applied deep learning technique to explore the feasibility of automating the episodicity analysis. RESULTS Decline in episodicity significantly distinguished controls from both mild pAD and moderate pAD. Correlation analysis suggested this decline not to be an effect of age, gender, and education but of cognitive ability. The decline was not compensated by an increase of nonepisodic utterances but mainly of off-task expressions. A transformer-based classifier to explore the possibility of automatizing the classification of episodicity achieved a macro F1 score of 0.913 in the ternary classification. CONCLUSION These results show that a loss of episodicity is an early effect in AD that is manifested in spontaneous speech and can be reliably measured by both humans and machines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui He
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Xiaofeng Yuan
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Intitut Català de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
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Ivanova O, Martínez-Nicolás I, Meilán JJG. Speech changes in old age: Methodological considerations for speech-based discrimination of healthy ageing and Alzheimer's disease. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2024; 59:13-37. [PMID: 37140204 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2022] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent evidence suggests that speech substantially changes in ageing. As a complex neurophysiological process, it can accurately reflect changes in the motor and cognitive systems underpinning human speech. Since healthy ageing is not always easily discriminable from early stages of dementia based on cognitive and behavioural hallmarks, speech is explored as a preclinical biomarker of pathological itineraries in old age. A greater and more specific impairment of neuromuscular activation, as well as a specific cognitive and linguistic impairment in dementia, unchain discriminating changes in speech. Yet, there is no consensus on such discriminatory speech parameters, neither on how they should be elicited and assessed. AIMS To provide a state-of-the-art on speech parameters that allow for early discrimination between healthy and pathological ageing; the aetiology of these parameters; the effect of the type of experimental stimuli on speech elicitation and the predictive power of different speech parameters; and the most promising methods for speech analysis and their clinical implications. METHODS & PROCEDURES A scoping review methodology is used in accordance with the PRISMA model. Following a systematic search of PubMed, PsycINFO and CINAHL, 24 studies are included and analysed in the review. MAIN CONTRIBUTION The results of this review yield three key questions for the clinical assessment of speech in ageing. First, acoustic and temporal parameters are more sensitive to changes in pathological ageing and, of these two, temporal variables are more affected by cognitive impairment. Second, different types of stimuli can trigger speech parameters with different degree of accuracy for the discrimination of clinical groups. Tasks with higher cognitive load are more precise in eliciting higher levels of accuracy. Finally, automatic speech analysis for the discrimination of healthy and pathological ageing should be improved for both research and clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Speech analysis is a promising non-invasive tool for the preclinical screening of healthy and pathological ageing. The main current challenges of speech analysis in ageing are the automatization of its clinical assessment and the consideration of the speaker's cognitive background during evaluation. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS What is already known on the subject Societal aging goes hand in hand with the rising incidence of ageing-related neurodegenerations, mainly Alzheimer's disease (AD). This is particularly noteworthy in countries with longer life expectancies. Healthy ageing and early stages of AD share a set of cognitive and behavioural characteristics. Since there is no cure for dementias, developing methods for accurate discrimination of healthy ageing and early AD is currently a priority. Speech has been described as one of the most significantly impaired features in AD. Neuropathological alterations in motor and cognitive systems would underlie specific speech impairment in dementia. Since speech can be evaluated quickly, non-invasively and inexpensively, its value for the clinical assessment of ageing itineraries may be particularly high. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Theoretical and experimental advances in the assessment of speech as a marker of AD have developed rapidly over the last decade. Yet, they are not always known to clinicians. Furthermore, there is a need to provide an updated state-of-the-art on which speech features are discriminatory to AD, how they can be assessed, what kind of results they can yield, and how such results should be interpreted. This article provides an updated overview of speech profiling, methods of speech measurement and analysis, and the clinical power of speech assessment for early discrimination of AD as the most common cause of dementia. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? This article provides an overview of the predictive potential of different speech parameters in relation to AD cognitive impairment. In addition, it discusses the effect that the cognitive state, the type of elicitation task and the type of assessment method may have on the results of the speech-based analysis in ageing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga Ivanova
- Spanish Language Department, Faculty of Philology, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
- Institute of Neuroscience of Castilla y León, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Israel Martínez-Nicolás
- Department of Basic Psychology, Psychobiology and Behavioral Science Methodology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
- Institute of Neuroscience of Castilla y León, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Juan José García Meilán
- Department of Basic Psychology, Psychobiology and Behavioral Science Methodology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
- Institute of Neuroscience of Castilla y León, Salamanca, Spain
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10
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He R, Chapin K, Al-Tamimi J, Bel N, Marquié M, Rosende-Roca M, Pytel V, Tartari JP, Alegret M, Sanabria A, Ruiz A, Boada M, Valero S, Hinzen W. Automated Classification of Cognitive Decline and Probable Alzheimer's Dementia Across Multiple Speech and Language Domains. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2023; 32:2075-2086. [PMID: 37486774 DOI: 10.1044/2023_ajslp-22-00403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/26/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Decline in language has emerged as a new potential biomarker for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It remains unclear how sensitive language measures are across different tasks, language domains, and languages, and to what extent changes can be reliably detected in early stages such as subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHOD Using a scene construction task for speech elicitation in a new Spanish/Catalan speaking cohort (N = 119), we automatically extracted features across seven domains, three acoustic (spectral, cepstral, and voice quality), one prosodic, and three from text (morpholexical, semantic, and syntactic). They were forwarded to a random forest classifier to evaluate the discriminability of participants with probable AD dementia, amnestic and nonamnestic MCI, SCD, and cognitively healthy controls. Repeated-measures analyses of variance and paired-samples Wilcoxon signed-ranks test were used to assess whether and how performance differs significantly across groups and linguistic domains. RESULTS The performance scores of the machine learning classifier were generally satisfactorily high, with the highest scores over .9. Model performance was significantly different for linguistic domains (p < .001), and speech versus text (p = .043), with speech features outperforming textual features, and voice quality performing best. High diagnostic classification accuracies were seen even within both cognitively healthy (controls vs. SCD) and MCI (amnestic and nonamnestic) groups. CONCLUSION Speech-based machine learning is powerful in detecting cognitive decline and probable AD dementia across a range of different feature domains, though important differences exist between these domains as well. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23699733.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui He
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Kayla Chapin
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jalal Al-Tamimi
- Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle (LLF), CNRS, Université Paris Cité, France
| | - Núria Bel
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marta Marquié
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
- Networking Research Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Maitee Rosende-Roca
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
| | - Vanesa Pytel
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
| | - Juan Pablo Tartari
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
| | - Montse Alegret
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
- Networking Research Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Angela Sanabria
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
- Networking Research Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Agustín Ruiz
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
- Networking Research Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Mercè Boada
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
- Networking Research Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Sergi Valero
- Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain
- Networking Research Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain
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11
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Martínez-Nicolás I, Martínez-Sánchez F, Ivanova O, Meilán JJG. Reading and lexical-semantic retrieval tasks outperforms single task speech analysis in the screening of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Sci Rep 2023; 13:9728. [PMID: 37322073 PMCID: PMC10272227 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-36804-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Age-related cognitive impairment have increased dramatically in recent years, which has risen the interes in developing screening tools for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Speech analysis allows to exploit the behavioral consequences of cognitive deficits on the patient's vocal performance so that it is possible to identify pathologies affecting speech production such as dementia. Previous studies have further shown that the speech task used determines how the speech parameters are altered. We aim to combine the impairments in several speech production tasks in order to improve the accuracy of screening through speech analysis. The sample consists of 72 participants divided into three equal groups of healthy older adults, people with mild cognitive impairment, or Alzheimer's disease, matched by age and education. A complete neuropsychological assessment and two voice recordings were performed. The tasks required the participants to read a text, and complete a sentence with semantic information. A stepwise linear discriminant analysis was performed to select speech parameters with discriminative power. The discriminative functions obtained an accuracy of 83.3% in simultaneous classifications of several levels of cognitive impairment. It would therefore be a promising screening tool for dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Olga Ivanova
- Faculty of Philology, University of Salamanca, 37008, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Juan J G Meilán
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, 37008, Salamanca, Spain
- Institute of Neuroscience of Castilla y León, 37007, Salamanca, Spain
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12
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Efficient Pause Extraction and Encode Strategy for Alzheimer’s Disease Detection Using Only Acoustic Features from Spontaneous Speech. Brain Sci 2023; 13:brainsci13030477. [PMID: 36979287 PMCID: PMC10046767 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13030477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2023] [Revised: 03/06/2023] [Accepted: 03/10/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Clinical studies have shown that speech pauses can reflect the cognitive function differences between Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and non-AD patients, while the value of pause information in AD detection has not been fully explored. Herein, we propose a speech pause feature extraction and encoding strategy for only acoustic-signal-based AD detection. First, a voice activity detection (VAD) method was constructed to detect pause/non-pause feature and encode it to binary pause sequences that are easier to calculate. Then, an ensemble machine-learning-based approach was proposed for the classification of AD from the participants’ spontaneous speech, based on the VAD Pause feature sequence and common acoustic feature sets (ComParE and eGeMAPS). The proposed pause feature sequence was verified in five machine-learning models. The validation data included two public challenge datasets (ADReSS and ADReSSo, English voice) and a local dataset (10 audio recordings containing five patients and five controls, Chinese voice). Results showed that the VAD Pause feature was more effective than common feature sets (ComParE: 6373 features and eGeMAPS: 88 features) for AD classification, and that the ensemble method improved the accuracy by more than 5% compared to several baseline methods (8% on the ADReSS dataset; 5.9% on the ADReSSo dataset). Moreover, the pause-sequence-based AD detection method could achieve 80% accuracy on the local dataset. Our study further demonstrated the potential of pause information in speech-based AD detection, and also contributed to a more accessible and general pause feature extraction and encoding method for AD detection.
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13
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Lanzi AM, Saylor AK, Fromm D, Liu H, MacWhinney B, Cohen ML. DementiaBank: Theoretical Rationale, Protocol, and Illustrative Analyses. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2023; 32:426-438. [PMID: 36791255 PMCID: PMC10171844 DOI: 10.1044/2022_ajslp-22-00281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2022] [Revised: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Dementia from Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized primarily by a significant decline in memory abilities; however, language abilities are also commonly affected and may precede the decline of other cognitive abilities. To study the progression of language, there is a need for open-access databases that can be used to build algorithms to produce translational models sensitive enough to detect early declines in language abilities. DementiaBank is an open-access repository of transcribed video/audio data from communicative interactions from people with dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and controls. The aims of this tutorial are to (a) describe the newly established standardized DementiaBank discourse protocol, (b) describe the Delaware corpus data, and (c) provide examples of automated linguistic analyses that can be conducted with the Delaware corpus data and describe additional DementiaBank resources. METHOD The DementiaBank discourse protocol elicits four types of discourse: picture description, story narrative, procedural, and personal narrative. The Delaware corpus currently includes data from 20 neurotypical adults and 33 adults with MCI from possible AD who completed the DementiaBank discourse protocol and a cognitive-linguistic battery. Language samples were video- and audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and uploaded to DementiaBank. The protocol materials and transcription programs can be accessed for free via the DementiaBank website. RESULTS Illustrative analyses show the potential of the Delaware corpus data to help understand discourse metrics at the individual and group levels. In addition, they highlight analyses that could be used across TalkBank's other clinical banks (e.g., AphasiaBank). Information is also included on manual and automatic speech recognition transcription methods. CONCLUSIONS DementiaBank is a shared online database that can facilitate research efforts to address the gaps in knowledge about language changes associated with MCI and dementia from AD. Identifying early language markers could lead to improved assessment and treatment approaches for adults at risk for dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alyssa M. Lanzi
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Delaware, Newark
- Delaware Center for Cognitive Aging Research, University of Delaware, Newark
| | - Anna K. Saylor
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Delaware, Newark
| | - Davida Fromm
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
| | | | - Brian MacWhinney
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
| | - Matthew L. Cohen
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Delaware, Newark
- Delaware Center for Cognitive Aging Research, University of Delaware, Newark
- Center for Health Assessment Research and Translation, University of Delaware, Newark
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14
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Yamada Y, Shinkawa K, Nemoto M, Nemoto K, Arai T. A mobile application using automatic speech analysis for classifying Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. COMPUT SPEECH LANG 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.csl.2023.101514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/16/2023]
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15
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Petti U, Baker S, Korhonen A, Robin J. The Generalizability of Longitudinal Changes in Speech Before Alzheimer's Disease Diagnosis. J Alzheimers Dis 2023; 92:547-564. [PMID: 36776053 DOI: 10.3233/jad-220847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Language impairment in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been widely studied but due to limited data availability, relatively few studies have focused on the longitudinal change in language in the individuals who later develop AD. Significant differences in speech have previously been found by comparing the press conference transcripts of President Bush and President Reagan, who was later diagnosed with AD. OBJECTIVE In the current study, we explored whether the patterns previously established in the single AD-healthy control (HC) participant pair apply to a larger group of individuals who later receive AD diagnosis. METHODS We replicated previous methods on two larger corpora of longitudinal spontaneous speech samples of public figures, consisting of 10 and 9 AD-HC participant pairs. As we failed to find generalizable patterns of language change using previous methodology, we proposed alternative methods for data analysis, investigating the benefits of using different language features and their change with age, and compiling the single features into aggregate scores. RESULTS The single features that showed the strongest results were moving average type:token ratio (MATTR) and pronoun-related features. The aggregate scores performed better than the single features, with lexical diversity capturing a similar change in two-thirds of the participants. CONCLUSION Capturing universal patterns of language change prior to AD can be challenging, but the decline in lexical diversity and changes in MATTR and pronoun-related features act as promising measures that reflect the cognitive changes in many participants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulla Petti
- University of Cambridge, Language Technology Lab, Cambridge, UK
| | - Simon Baker
- University of Cambridge, Language Technology Lab, Cambridge, UK
| | - Anna Korhonen
- University of Cambridge, Language Technology Lab, Cambridge, UK
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16
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Petti U, Baker S, Korhonen A, Robin J. How Much Speech Data Is Needed for Tracking Language Change in Alzheimer's Disease? A Comparison of Random Length, 5-Min, and 1-Min Spontaneous Speech Samples. Digit Biomark 2023; 7:157-166. [PMID: 38029002 PMCID: PMC10673351 DOI: 10.1159/000533423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2022] [Accepted: 07/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Changes in speech can act as biomarkers of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD). While shorter speech samples would promote data collection and analysis, the minimum length of informative speech samples remains debated. This study aims to provide insight into the effect of sample length in analyzing longitudinal recordings of spontaneous speech in AD by comparing the original random length, 5- and 1-minute-long samples. We hope to understand whether capping the audio improves the accuracy of the analysis, and whether an extra 4 min conveys necessary information. Methods 110 spontaneous speech samples were collected from decades of Youtube videos of 17 public figures, 9 of whom eventually developed AD. 456 language features were extracted and their text-length-sensitivity, comparability, and ability to capture change over time were analyzed across three different sample lengths. Results Capped audio files had advantages over the random length ones. While most extracted features were statistically comparable or highly correlated across the datasets, potential effects of sample length should be acknowledged for some features. The 5-min dataset presented the highest reliability in tracking the evolution of the disease, suggesting that the 4 extra minutes do convey informative data. Conclusion Sample length seems to play an important role in extracting the language feature values from speech and tracking disease progress over time. We highlight the importance of further research into optimal sample length and standardization of methods when studying speech in AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulla Petti
- Language Technology Lab, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Simon Baker
- Language Technology Lab, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Anna Korhonen
- Language Technology Lab, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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17
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Patel S, Grabowski C, Dayalu V, Testa AJ. Speech error rates after a sports-related concussion. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1135441. [PMID: 36960009 PMCID: PMC10027790 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1135441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2022] [Accepted: 02/13/2023] [Indexed: 03/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Alterations in speech have long been identified as indicators of various neurologic conditions including traumatic brain injury, neurodegenerative diseases, and stroke. The extent to which speech errors occur in milder brain injuries, such as sports-related concussions, is unknown. The present study examined speech error rates in student athletes after a sports-related concussion compared to pre-injury speech performance in order to determine the presence and relevant characteristics of changes in speech production in this less easily detected neurologic condition. Methods A within-subjects pre/post-injury design was used. A total of 359 Division I student athletes participated in pre-season baseline speech testing. Of these, 27 athletes (18-22 years) who sustained a concussion also participated in speech testing in the days immediately following diagnosis of concussion. Picture description tasks were utilized to prompt connected speech samples. These samples were recorded and then transcribed for identification of errors and disfluencies. These were coded by two trained raters using a 6-category system that included 14 types of error metrics. Results Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to compare the difference in error rates at baseline and post-concussion. Results revealed significant increases in the speech error categories of pauses and time fillers (interjections/fillers). Additionally, regression analysis showed that a different pattern of errors and disfluencies occur after a sports-related concussion (primarily time fillers) compared to pre-injury (primarily pauses). Conclusion Results demonstrate that speech error rates increase following even mild head injuries, in particular, sports-related concussion. Furthermore, the speech error patterns driving this increase in speech errors, rate of pauses and interjections, are distinct features of this neurological injury, which is in contrast with more severe injuries that are marked by articulation errors and an overall reduction in verbal output. Future studies should consider speech as a diagnostic tool for concussion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sona Patel
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Seton Hall University, Nutley, NJ, United States
- Department of Medical Sciences, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Nutley, NJ, United States
- *Correspondence: Sona Patel,
| | - Caryn Grabowski
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Seton Hall University, Nutley, NJ, United States
| | - Vikram Dayalu
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Seton Hall University, Nutley, NJ, United States
| | - Anthony J. Testa
- Center for Sports Medicine, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, United States
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18
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Pistono A, Hartsuiker RJ. Can object identification difficulty be predicted based on disfluencies and eye-movements in connected speech? PLoS One 2023; 18:e0281589. [PMID: 36917572 PMCID: PMC10013892 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/26/2023] [Indexed: 03/15/2023] Open
Abstract
In the current study, we asked whether delays in the earliest stages of picture naming elicit disfluency. To address this question, we used a network task, where participants describe the route taken by a marker through visually presented networks of objects. Additionally, given that disfluencies are arguably multifactorial, we combined this task with eye tracking, to be able to disentangle disfluency related to word preparation from other factors (e.g., stalling strategy). We used visual blurring, which hinders visual identification of the items and thereby slows down selection of a lexical concept. We tested the effect of this manipulation on disfluency production and visual attention. Blurriness did not lead to more disfluency on average and viewing times decreased with blurred pictures. However, multivariate pattern analyses revealed that a classifier could predict above chance, from the pattern of disfluency, whether each participant was about to name blurred or control pictures. Impeding the conceptual generation of a message therefore affected the pattern of disfluencies of each participant individually, but this pattern was not consistent from one participant to another. Additionally, some of the disfluency and eye-movement variables correlated with individual cognitive differences, in particular with inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurélie Pistono
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- * E-mail:
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19
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Wang HL, Tang R, Ren RJ, Dammer EB, Guo QH, Peng GP, Cui HL, Zhang YM, Wang JT, Xie XY, Huang Q, Li JP, Yan FH, Chen SD, He NY, Wang G. Speech silence character as a diagnostic biomarker of early cognitive decline and its functional mechanism: a multicenter cross-sectional cohort study. BMC Med 2022; 20:380. [PMID: 36336678 PMCID: PMC9639269 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-022-02584-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Language deficits frequently occur during the prodromal stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the characteristics of linguistic impairment and its underlying mechanism(s) remain to be explored for the early diagnosis of AD. METHODS The percentage of silence duration (PSD) of 324 subjects was analyzed, including patients with AD, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and normal controls (NC) recruited from the China multi-center cohort, and the diagnostic efficiency was replicated from the Pitt center cohort. Furthermore, the specific language network involved in the fragmented speech was analyzed using task-based functional magnetic resonance. RESULTS In the China cohort, PSD increased significantly in aMCI and AD patients. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curves is 0.74, 0.84, and 0.80 in the classification of NC/aMCI, NC/AD, and NC/aMCI+AD. In the Pitt center cohort, PSD was verified as a reliable diagnosis biomarker to differentiate mild AD patients from NC. Next, in response to fluency tasks, clusters in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule deactivated markedly in the aMCI/AD group (cluster-level P < 0.05, family-wise error (FWE) corrected). In the patient group (AD+aMCI), higher activation level of the right pars triangularis was associated with higher PSD in in both semantic and phonemic tasks. CONCLUSIONS PSD is a reliable diagnostic biomarker for the early stage of AD and aMCI. At as early as aMCI phase, the brain response to fluency tasks was inhibited markedly, partly explaining why PSD was elevated simultaneously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hua-Long Wang
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Hebei Medical University; Brain Aging and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang, 050031, Hebei, People's Republic of China
| | - Ran Tang
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
| | - Ru-Jing Ren
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
| | - Eric B Dammer
- Department of Biochemistry and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA
| | - Qi-Hao Guo
- Department of Gerontology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Guo-Ping Peng
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Hai-Lun Cui
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
| | - You-Min Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Jin-Tao Wang
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
| | - Xin-Yi Xie
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
| | - Qiang Huang
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
| | - Jian-Ping Li
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
| | - Fu-Hua Yan
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Sheng-Di Chen
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China
| | - Na-Ying He
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
| | - Gang Wang
- Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China.
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Potagas C, Nikitopoulou Z, Angelopoulou G, Kasselimis D, Laskaris N, Kourtidou E, Constantinides VC, Bougea A, Paraskevas GP, Papageorgiou G, Tsolakopoulos D, Papageorgiou SG, Kapaki E. Silent Pauses and Speech Indices as Biomarkers for Primary Progressive Aphasia. Medicina (B Aires) 2022; 58:medicina58101352. [PMID: 36295513 PMCID: PMC9611099 DOI: 10.3390/medicina58101352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 09/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Recent studies highlight the importance of investigating biomarkers for diagnosing and classifying patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Even though there is ongoing research on pathophysiological indices in this field, the use of behavioral variables, and especially speech-derived factors, has drawn little attention in the relevant literature. The present study aims to investigate the possible utility of speech-derived indices, particularly silent pauses, as biomarkers for primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Materials and Methods: We recruited 22 PPA patients and 17 healthy controls, from whom we obtained speech samples based on two elicitation tasks, i.e., cookie theft picture description (CTP) and the patients’ personal narration of the disease onset and course. Results: Four main indices were derived from these speech samples: speech rate, articulation rate, pause frequency, and pause duration. In order to investigate whether these indices could be used to discriminate between the four groups of participants (healthy individuals and the three patient subgroups corresponding to the three variants of PPA), we conducted three sets of analyses: a series of ANOVAs, two principal component analyses (PCAs), and two hierarchical cluster analyses (HCAs). The ANOVAs revealed significant differences between the four subgroups for all four variables, with the CTP results being more robust. The subsequent PCAs and HCAs were in accordance with the initial statistical comparisons, revealing that the speech-derived indices for CTP provided a clearer classification and were especially useful for distinguishing the non-fluent variant from healthy participants as well as from the two other PPA taxonomic categories. Conclusions: In sum, we argue that speech-derived indices, and especially silent pauses, could be used as complementary biomarkers to efficiently discriminate between PPA and healthy speakers, as well as between the three variants of the disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Constantin Potagas
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- Correspondence:
| | - Zoi Nikitopoulou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Georgia Angelopoulou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- Department of Speech and Language Therapy, School of Health Sciences, University of Peloponnese, 241 00 Kalamata, Greece
| | - Dimitrios Kasselimis
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
| | - Nikolaos Laskaris
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering, School of Engineering, University of West Attica, 122 43 Athens, Greece
| | - Evie Kourtidou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Vasilios C. Constantinides
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Anastasia Bougea
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - George P. Paraskevas
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
- 2nd Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Attikon University Hospital, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Georgios Papageorgiou
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Dimitrios Tsolakopoulos
- Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Sokratis G. Papageorgiou
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
| | - Elisabeth Kapaki
- 1st Department of Neurology, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
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21
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Soroski T, da Cunha Vasco T, Newton-Mason S, Granby S, Lewis C, Harisinghani A, Rizzo M, Conati C, Murray G, Carenini G, Field TS, Jang H. Evaluating Web-Based Automatic Transcription for Alzheimer Speech Data: Transcript Comparison and Machine Learning Analysis. JMIR Aging 2022; 5:e33460. [PMID: 36129754 PMCID: PMC9536526 DOI: 10.2196/33460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Revised: 07/11/2022] [Accepted: 07/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Speech data for medical research can be collected noninvasively and in large volumes. Speech analysis has shown promise in diagnosing neurodegenerative disease. To effectively leverage speech data, transcription is important, as there is valuable information contained in lexical content. Manual transcription, while highly accurate, limits the potential scalability and cost savings associated with language-based screening. Objective To better understand the use of automatic transcription for classification of neurodegenerative disease, namely, Alzheimer disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or subjective memory complaints (SMC) versus healthy controls, we compared automatically generated transcripts against transcripts that went through manual correction. Methods We recruited individuals from a memory clinic (“patients”) with a diagnosis of mild-to-moderate AD, (n=44, 30%), MCI (n=20, 13%), SMC (n=8, 5%), as well as healthy controls (n=77, 52%) living in the community. Participants were asked to describe a standardized picture, read a paragraph, and recall a pleasant life experience. We compared transcripts generated using Google speech-to-text software to manually verified transcripts by examining transcription confidence scores, transcription error rates, and machine learning classification accuracy. For the classification tasks, logistic regression, Gaussian naive Bayes, and random forests were used. Results The transcription software showed higher confidence scores (P<.001) and lower error rates (P>.05) for speech from healthy controls compared with patients. Classification models using human-verified transcripts significantly (P<.001) outperformed automatically generated transcript models for both spontaneous speech tasks. This comparison showed no difference in the reading task. Manually adding pauses to transcripts had no impact on classification performance. However, manually correcting both spontaneous speech tasks led to significantly higher performances in the machine learning models. Conclusions We found that automatically transcribed speech data could be used to distinguish patients with a diagnosis of AD, MCI, or SMC from controls. We recommend a human verification step to improve the performance of automatic transcripts, especially for spontaneous tasks. Moreover, human verification can focus on correcting errors and adding punctuation to transcripts. However, manual addition of pauses is not needed, which can simplify the human verification step to more efficiently process large volumes of speech data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Soroski
- Vancouver Stroke Program and Division of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Thiago da Cunha Vasco
- Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Sally Newton-Mason
- Vancouver Stroke Program and Division of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Saffrin Granby
- Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Caitlin Lewis
- Vancouver Stroke Program and Division of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Anuj Harisinghani
- Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Matteo Rizzo
- Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Cristina Conati
- Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Gabriel Murray
- School of Computing, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, BC, Canada
| | - Giuseppe Carenini
- Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Thalia S Field
- Vancouver Stroke Program and Division of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Hyeju Jang
- Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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22
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Sanborn V, Ostrand R, Ciesla J, Gunstad J. Automated assessment of speech production and prediction of MCI in older adults. APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY. ADULT 2022; 29:1250-1257. [PMID: 33377800 PMCID: PMC8243401 DOI: 10.1080/23279095.2020.1864733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
The population of older adults is growing dramatically and, with it comes increased prevalence of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Though existing cognitive screening tests can aid early detection of cognitive decline, these methods are limited in their sensitivity and require trained administrators. The current study sought to determine whether it is possible to identify persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using automated analysis of spontaneous speech. Participants completed a brief neuropsychological test battery and a spontaneous speech task. MCI was classified using established research criteria, and lexical-semantic features were calculated from spontaneous speech. Logistic regression analyses compared the predictive ability of a commonly-used cognitive screening instrument (the Modified Mini Mental Status Exam, 3MS) and speech indices for MCI classification. Testing against constant-only logistic regression models showed that both the 3MS [χ2(1) = 6.18, p = .013; AIC = 41.46] and speech indices [χ2(16) = 32.42, p = .009; AIC = 108.41] were able to predict MCI status. Follow-up testing revealed the full speech model better predicted MCI status than did 3MS (p = .049). In combination, the current findings suggest that spontaneous speech may have value as a potential screening measure for the identification of cognitive deficits, though confirmation is needed in larger, prospective studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victoria Sanborn
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, U.S
| | - Rachel Ostrand
- Department of Healthcare & Life Sciences, IBM Research,
Yorktown Heights, NY, U.S
| | - Jeffrey Ciesla
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, U.S
| | - John Gunstad
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, U.S
- Brain Health Research Institute, Kent State University,
Kent, OH U.S
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23
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Schaffner E, Sandoz M, Grisot C, Auclair-Ouellet N, Fossard M. Mental Time Travel and Time Reference Difficulties in Alzheimer's Disease: Are They Related? A Systematic Review. Front Psychol 2022; 13:858001. [PMID: 35615204 PMCID: PMC9126194 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.858001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Mental time travel and language enable us to go back and forth in time and to organize and express our personal experiences through time reference. People with Alzheimer's disease have both mental time travel and time reference impairments, which can greatly impact their daily communication. Currently, little is known about the potential relationship between time conceptualization (i.e., mental time travel) and time reference difficulties in this disease. A systematic review of the literature was performed to determine if this link had already been investigated. Only three articles integrated both time conceptualization and time reference measures. However, the link between the two was not systematically analyzed and interpreted. This review highlights the lack of research addressing the question of the influence of time conceptualization impairments in Alzheimer's disease on other cognitive domains, and especially language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evodie Schaffner
- Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Institut des Sciences Logopédiques, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Mélanie Sandoz
- Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Institut des Sciences Logopédiques, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Cristina Grisot
- Zurich Center for Linguistics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Marion Fossard
- Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Institut des Sciences Logopédiques, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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24
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Salis C, DeDe G. Sentence Production in a Discourse Context in Latent Aphasia: A Real-Time Study. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2022; 31:1284-1296. [PMID: 35363996 DOI: 10.1044/2022_ajslp-21-00232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to improve our understanding as to which factors determine online, spoken sentence production abilities of adults with latent aphasia in a discourse context. METHOD Discourse samples of the story of Cinderella elicited from AphasiaBank were analyzed with speech analysis software. Participants comprised people with latent and anomic aphasia as well as neurotypical controls (10 per group). Durations of pauses (silent and filled) were analyzed according to (a) the location they occurred (between or within sentences), (b) the syntactic complexity of sentences (simple, complex), and (c) sentence length (number of words). Statistical comparisons were conducted using mixed-effect models. RESULTS The two clinical groups (latent and anomic) differed from controls in the duration of pauses, both between and within sentences. Syntactic complexity did not exert an effect on either of the two clinical groups as compared with controls. As compared with controls, both clinical groups paused more before long in comparison with short sentences. CONCLUSION Reduction in processing speed, which affects the ability to simultaneously maintain multiple linguistic and other cognitive demands associated with planning and monitoring of utterances, is a major factor that compromises sentence production in spoken discourse in latent aphasia. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19448726.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christos Salis
- Speech & Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Gayle DeDe
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
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25
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Ayers MR, Bushnell J, Gao S, Unverzagt F, Gaizo JD, Wadley VG, Kennedy R, Clark DG. Verbal fluency response times predict incident cognitive impairment. ALZHEIMER'S & DEMENTIA (AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS) 2022; 14:e12277. [PMID: 35571962 PMCID: PMC9074715 DOI: 10.1002/dad2.12277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2021] [Revised: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Introduction In recent decades, researchers have defined novel methods for scoring verbal fluency tasks. In this work, we evaluate novel scores based on speed of word responses. Methods We transcribed verbal fluency recordings from 641 cases of incident cognitive impairment (ICI) and matched controls, all participants in a large national epidemiological study. Timing measurements of utterances were used to calculate a speed score for each recording. Traditional raw and speed scores were entered into Cox proportional hazards (CPH) regression models predicting time to ICI. Results Concordance of the CPH model with speed scores was 0.599, an improvement of 3.4% over a model with only raw scores and demographics. Scores with significant effects included animals raw and speed scores, and letter F speed score. Discussion Novel verbal fluency scores based on response times could enable use of remotely administered fluency tasks for early detection of cognitive decline. Highlights The current work evaluates prognostication with verbal fluency speed scores. These speed scores improve survival models predicting cognitive decline. Cases with progressive decline have some characteristics suggestive of Alzheimer's disease. The subset of acute decliners is probably pathologically heterogeneous.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew R. Ayers
- Department of PsychiatryRichard L. Roudebush VA Medical CenterIndianapolisIndianaUSA
| | - Justin Bushnell
- Department of NeurologyIndiana UniversityIndianapolisIndianaUSA
| | - Sujuan Gao
- Department of BiostatisticsIndiana UniversityIndianapolisIndianaUSA
| | | | - John Del Gaizo
- Biomedical Informatics CenterMedical University of South CarolinaCharlestonSouth CarolinaUSA
| | - Virginia G. Wadley
- Department of MedicineUniversity of Alabama at BirminghamBirminghamAlabamaUSA
| | - Richard Kennedy
- Department of MedicineUniversity of Alabama at BirminghamBirminghamAlabamaUSA
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26
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Lofgren M, Hinzen W. Breaking the flow of thought: Increase of empty pauses in the connected speech of people with mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2022; 97:106214. [PMID: 35397387 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2022.106214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2021] [Revised: 03/03/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The profile of spontaneous speech in Alzheimer's disease (AD) includes increased pausing as a window into cognitive decline. We here aimed to further characterize the pausing profile of AD by linking pauses to the syntactic positions in which they appear and disease progression. METHODS Speech was obtained through a picture description task, thus minimizing demands on episodic memory (EM), from a group of mild (N = 21) and moderate AD (N = 19), and healthy elderly controls (N = 40). Pauses were sub-indexed according to whether they occurred within-clauses, clause-initially, or utterance-initially, and whether they preceded nouns, verbs, or adjectives/adverbs, when occurring within-clauses. Additionally, relations to verbal fluency (VF) measures at the single-word level were explored. RESULTS Pause rate but not duration distinguished controls from both AD groups, while fillers did not distinguish any groups. The analysis by syntactic position revealed a highly differentiated picture, with largest effect sizes of significant group differences seen in the utterance-initial pause rate. The two AD groups patterned differently when compared to controls, while none of the measures differentiated the AD groups. Specifically, moderate but not mild AD differed from controls in clause-initial pauses, while mild but not moderate AD differed from controls in within-clause positions. At the within-clause level, the effect dividing controls from mild-AD was specifically driven by pauses ahead of nouns. A significant negative correlation emerged between pausing rate in spontaneous speech and VF measures in the mild-AD group only. CONCLUSIONS Increased empty (non-filled) pauses in AD are not confined to pauses in within-clause positions, which are most directly related to problems in the retrieval of words. Even in early disease stages, where these within-clause pause effects are seen, they are confined to nouns, revealing a grammatically specific problem possibly related to the referencing of objects. At all disease stages, pauses increase in utterance-sized units of structure, indicating progressive problems in the creative configuration of complete thoughts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mary Lofgren
- Dept. Translation & Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer Roc Boronat, 138, Barcelona 08018, Spain.
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Dept. Translation & Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer Roc Boronat, 138, Barcelona 08018, Spain; Intitut Català de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
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27
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Kálmán J, Devanand DP, Gosztolya G, Balogh R, Imre N, Tóth L, Hoffmann I, Kovács I, Vincze V, Pákáski M. Temporal speech parameters detect mild cognitive impairment in different languages: validation and comparison of the Speech-GAP Test® in English and Hungarian. Curr Alzheimer Res 2022; 19:373-386. [PMID: 35440309 DOI: 10.2174/1567205019666220418155130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2021] [Revised: 02/08/2022] [Accepted: 02/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The development of automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology allows the analysis of temporal (time-based) speech parameters characteristic of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, no information has been available on whether the analysis of spontaneous speech can be used with the same efficiency in different language environments. OBJECTIVE The main goal of this international pilot study is to address the question whether the Speech-Gap Test® (S-GAP Test®), previously tested in the Hungarian language, is appropriate for and applicable to the recognition of MCI in other languages such as English. METHOD After an initial screening of 88 individuals, English-speaking (n = 33) and Hungarian-speaking (n = 33) participants were classified as having MCI or as healthy controls (HC) based on Petersen's criteria. Speech of each participant was recorded via a spontaneous speech task. 15 temporal parameters were determined and calculated by means of ASR. RESULTS Seven temporal parameters in the English-speaking sample and 5 in the Hungarian-speaking sample showed significant differences between the MCI and the HC group. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis clearly distinguished the English-speaking MCI cases from the HC group based on speech tempo and articulation tempo with 100% sensitivity, and on three more temporal parameters with high sensitivity (85.7%). In the Hungarian-speaking sample, the ROC analysis showed similar sensitivity rates (92.3%). CONCLUSION The results of this study in different native-speaking populations suggest that changes in acoustic parameters detected by the S-GAP Test® might be present across different languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- János Kálmán
- Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School, University of Szeged, Szeged
| | - Davangere P Devanand
- Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY.,New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY
| | - Gábor Gosztolya
- MTA-SZTE Research Group on Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Szeged
| | - Réka Balogh
- Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School, University of Szeged, Szeged
| | - Nóra Imre
- Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School, University of Szeged, Szeged
| | - László Tóth
- Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Szeged
| | - Ildikó Hoffmann
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Szeged, Szeged.,Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Budapest
| | - Ildikó Kovács
- Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School, University of Szeged, Szeged
| | - Veronika Vincze
- MTA-SZTE Research Group on Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Szeged
| | - Magdolna Pákáski
- Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School, University of Szeged, Szeged
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28
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A Comparison of Speech Features between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Healthy Aging Groups. Dement Neurocogn Disord 2021; 20:52-61. [PMID: 34795768 PMCID: PMC8585532 DOI: 10.12779/dnd.2021.20.4.52] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Revised: 09/11/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and Purpose Language dysfunction is a symptom common to patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Speech feature analysis may be a patient-friendly screening test for early-stage AD. We aimed to investigate the speech features of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) compared to normal controls (NCs). Methods Spoken responses to test questions were recorded with a microphone placed 15 cm in front of each participant. Speech samples delivered in response to four spoken test prompts (free speech test, Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE], picture description test, and sentence repetition test) were obtained from 98 patients with aMCI and 139 NCs. Each recording was transcribed, with speech features noted. The frequency of the ten speech features assessed was evaluated to compare speech abilities between the test groups. Results Among the ten speech features, the frequency of pauses (p=0.001) and mumbles (p=0.001) were significantly higher in patients with aMCI than in NCs. Moreover, MMSE score was found to negatively correlate with the frequency of pauses (r=−0.441, p<0.001) and mumbles (r=−0.341, p<0.001). Conclusions Frequent pauses and mumbles reflect cognitive decline in aMCI patients in episodic and semantic memory tests. Speech feature analysis may prove to be a speech-based biomarker for screening early-stage cognitive impairment.
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29
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Robin J, Xu M, Kaufman LD, Simpson W. Using Digital Speech Assessments to Detect Early Signs of Cognitive Impairment. Front Digit Health 2021; 3:749758. [PMID: 34778869 PMCID: PMC8579012 DOI: 10.3389/fdgth.2021.749758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 09/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Detecting early signs of cognitive decline is crucial for early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. Most of the current screening tools for Alzheimer's Disease represent a significant burden, requiring invasive procedures, or intensive and costly clinical testing. Recent findings have highlighted changes to speech and language patterns that occur in Alzheimer's Disease, and may be detectable prior to diagnosis. Automated tools to assess speech have been developed that can be used on a smartphone or tablet, from one's home, in under 10 min. In this study, we present the results of a study of older adults who completed a digital speech assessment task over a 6-month period. Participants were grouped according to those who scored above (N = 18) or below (N = 18) the recommended threshold for detecting cognitive impairment on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and those with diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early Alzheimer's Disease (AD) (N = 14). Older adults who scored above the MoCA threshold had better performance on speech composites reflecting language coherence, information richness, syntactic complexity, and word finding abilities. Those with MCI and AD showed more rapid decline in the coherence of language from baseline to 6-month follow-up, suggesting that this score may be useful both for detecting cognitive decline and monitoring change over time. This study demonstrates that automated speech assessments have potential as sensitive tools to detect early signs of cognitive impairment and monitor progression over time.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - William Simpson
- Winterlight Labs, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
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30
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De Looze C, Dehsarvi A, Crosby L, Vourdanou A, Coen RF, Lawlor BA, Reilly RB. Cognitive and Structural Correlates of Conversational Speech Timing in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: Relevance for Early Detection Approaches. Front Aging Neurosci 2021; 13:637404. [PMID: 33986656 PMCID: PMC8110716 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2021.637404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Increasing efforts have focused on the establishment of novel biomarkers for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and prediction of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)-to-AD conversion. Behavioral changes over the course of healthy ageing, at disease onset and during disease progression, have been recently put forward as promising markers for the detection of MCI and AD. The present study examines whether the temporal characteristics of speech in a collaborative referencing task are associated with cognitive function and the volumes of brain regions involved in speech production and known to be reduced in MCI and AD pathology. We then explore the discriminative ability of the temporal speech measures for the classification of MCI and AD. Method: Individuals with MCI, mild-to-moderate AD and healthy controls (HCs) underwent a structural MRI scan and a battery of neuropsychological tests. They also engaged in a collaborative referencing task with a caregiver. The associations between the conversational speech timing features, cognitive function (domain-specific) and regional brain volumes were examined by means of linear mixed-effect modeling. Genetic programming was used to explore the discriminative ability of the conversational speech features. Results: MCI and mild-to-moderate AD are characterized by a general slowness of speech, attributed to slower speech rate and slower turn-taking in conversational settings. The speech characteristics appear to be reflective of episodic, lexico-semantic, executive functioning and visuospatial deficits and underlying volume reductions in frontal, temporal and cerebellar areas. Conclusion: The implementation of conversational speech timing-based technologies in clinical and community settings may provide additional markers for the early detection of cognitive deficits and structural changes associated with MCI and AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Céline De Looze
- Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Amir Dehsarvi
- Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Lisa Crosby
- Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Aisling Vourdanou
- Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Robert F Coen
- Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Brian A Lawlor
- Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.,Institute of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Richard B Reilly
- Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,Institute of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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31
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Jonell P, Moëll B, Håkansson K, Henter GE, Kucherenko T, Mikheeva O, Hagman G, Holleman J, Kivipelto M, Kjellström H, Gustafson J, Beskow J. Multimodal Capture of Patient Behaviour for Improved Detection of Early Dementia: Clinical Feasibility and Preliminary Results. FRONTIERS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fcomp.2021.642633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Non-invasive automatic screening for Alzheimer’s disease has the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy while lowering healthcare costs. Previous research has shown that patterns in speech, language, gaze, and drawing can help detect early signs of cognitive decline. In this paper, we describe a highly multimodal system for unobtrusively capturing data during real clinical interviews conducted as part of cognitive assessments for Alzheimer’s disease. The system uses nine different sensor devices (smartphones, a tablet, an eye tracker, a microphone array, and a wristband) to record interaction data during a specialist’s first clinical interview with a patient, and is currently in use at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Furthermore, complementary information in the form of brain imaging, psychological tests, speech therapist assessment, and clinical meta-data is also available for each patient. We detail our data-collection and analysis procedure and present preliminary findings that relate measures extracted from the multimodal recordings to clinical assessments and established biomarkers, based on data from 25 patients gathered thus far. Our findings demonstrate feasibility for our proposed methodology and indicate that the collected data can be used to improve clinical assessments of early dementia.
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32
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Yamada Y, Shinkawa K, Kobayashi M, Caggiano V, Nemoto M, Nemoto K, Arai T. Combining Multimodal Behavioral Data of Gait, Speech, and Drawing for Classification of Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment. J Alzheimers Dis 2021; 84:315-327. [PMID: 34542076 PMCID: PMC8609704 DOI: 10.3233/jad-210684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Gait, speech, and drawing behaviors have been shown to be sensitive to the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, previous studies focused on only analyzing individual behavioral modalities, although these studies suggested that each of these modalities may capture different profiles of cognitive impairments associated with AD. OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate if combining behavioral data of gait, speech, and drawing can improve classification performance compared with the use of individual modality and if each of these behavioral data can be associated with different cognitive and clinical measures for the diagnosis of AD and MCI. METHODS Behavioral data of gait, speech, and drawing were acquired from 118 AD, MCI, and cognitively normal (CN) participants. RESULTS Combining all three behavioral modalities achieved 93.0% accuracy for classifying AD, MCI, and CN, and only 81.9% when using the best individual behavioral modality. Each of these behavioral modalities was statistically significantly associated with different cognitive and clinical measures for diagnosing AD and MCI. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate that these behaviors provide different and complementary information about cognitive impairments such that classification of AD and MCI is superior to using either in isolation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Vittorio Caggiano
- Healthcare and Life Sciences, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA
| | - Miyuki Nemoto
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Tsukuba Hospital, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Kiyotaka Nemoto
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Tetsuaki Arai
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
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Smith E, Storch EA, Vahia I, Wong STC, Lavretsky H, Cummings JL, Eyre HA. Affective Computing for Late-Life Mood and Cognitive Disorders. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:782183. [PMID: 35002802 PMCID: PMC8732874 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.782183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 11/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Affective computing (also referred to as artificial emotion intelligence or emotion AI) is the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate emotion or other affective phenomena. With the rapid growth in the aging population around the world, affective computing has immense potential to benefit the treatment and care of late-life mood and cognitive disorders. For late-life depression, affective computing ranging from vocal biomarkers to facial expressions to social media behavioral analysis can be used to address inadequacies of current screening and diagnostic approaches, mitigate loneliness and isolation, provide more personalized treatment approaches, and detect risk of suicide. Similarly, for Alzheimer's disease, eye movement analysis, vocal biomarkers, and driving and behavior can provide objective biomarkers for early identification and monitoring, allow more comprehensive understanding of daily life and disease fluctuations, and facilitate an understanding of behavioral and psychological symptoms such as agitation. To optimize the utility of affective computing while mitigating potential risks and ensure responsible development, ethical development of affective computing applications for late-life mood and cognitive disorders is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin Smith
- The PRODEO Institute, San Francisco, CA, United States.,Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, France.,Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.,Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.,Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Eric A Storch
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Ipsit Vahia
- Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Boston, MA, United States.,Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Stephen T C Wong
- Systems Medicine and Biomedical Engineering Houston Methodist, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Helen Lavretsky
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Jeffrey L Cummings
- Chambers-Grundy Center for Transformative Neuroscience, Department of Brain Health, School of Integrated Health Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Las Vegas, NV, United States
| | - Harris A Eyre
- The PRODEO Institute, San Francisco, CA, United States.,Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, France.,Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.,Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States.,IMPACT, The Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia
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Petti U, Baker S, Korhonen A. A systematic literature review of automatic Alzheimer's disease detection from speech and language. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2020; 27:1784-1797. [PMID: 32929494 PMCID: PMC7671617 DOI: 10.1093/jamia/ocaa174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2020] [Revised: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE In recent years numerous studies have achieved promising results in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) detection using automatic language processing. We systematically review these articles to understand the effectiveness of this approach, identify any issues and report the main findings that can guide further research. MATERIALS AND METHODS We searched PubMed, Ovid, and Web of Science for articles published in English between 2013 and 2019. We performed a systematic literature review to answer 5 key questions: (1) What were the characteristics of participant groups? (2) What language data were collected? (3) What features of speech and language were the most informative? (4) What methods were used to classify between groups? (5) What classification performance was achieved? RESULTS AND DISCUSSION We identified 33 eligible studies and 5 main findings: participants' demographic variables (especially age ) were often unbalanced between AD and control group; spontaneous speech data were collected most often; informative language features were related to word retrieval and semantic, syntactic, and acoustic impairment; neural nets, support vector machines, and decision trees performed well in AD detection, and support vector machines and decision trees performed well in decline detection; and average classification accuracy was 89% in AD and 82% in mild cognitive impairment detection versus healthy control groups. CONCLUSION The systematic literature review supported the argument that language and speech could successfully be used to detect dementia automatically. Future studies should aim for larger and more balanced datasets, combine data collection methods and the type of information analyzed, focus on the early stages of the disease, and report performance using standardized metrics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulla Petti
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Language Technology Lab, Cambridge, UK
| | - Simon Baker
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Language Technology Lab, Cambridge, UK
| | - Anna Korhonen
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Language Technology Lab, Cambridge, UK
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Radjenovic S, Voracek M, Adler G. [Validity Study of the Cookie Theft Picture Test - Early Detection of Dementia Based on Linguistic Abnormalities]. PSYCHIATRISCHE PRAXIS 2020; 48:149-155. [PMID: 32869219 DOI: 10.1055/a-1207-1255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Previous studies have provided inconsistent results regarding discriminatory language variables between subjects with dementia and healthy controls. In this study, using the Cookie Theft Picture Test (CTP), selected language variables are tested for predicting actual diagnoses. METHODS 24 healthy subjects and 24 subjects with mild dementia were included in the present study. RESULTS All language variables except repetitions, word finding difficulties and paraphasias showed significant differences between the groups. The variables pause length and clues increase significantly the likelihood of AD, while the variable sentence length decreases it. CONCLUSION Due to the small sample size and insufficient standardization, the study can only be interpreted to a limited extent. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the CTP appears to be suitable for practical use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonja Radjenovic
- Institut für Psychologische Grundlagenforschung und Forschungsmethoden, Fakultät für Psychologie, Universität Wien, Österreich
| | - Martin Voracek
- Institut für Psychologische Grundlagenforschung und Forschungsmethoden, Fakultät für Psychologie, Universität Wien, Österreich
| | - Georg Adler
- Institut für Studien zur Psychischen Gesundheit (ISPG), Mannheim, Deutschland
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36
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Qiao Y, Xie XY, Lin GZ, Zou Y, Chen SD, Ren RJ, Wang G. Computer-Assisted Speech Analysis in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study from Shanghai, China. J Alzheimers Dis 2020; 75:211-221. [PMID: 32250297 DOI: 10.3233/jad-191056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Yuan Qiao
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Institute, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Department of Neurology, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Xin-Yi Xie
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Institute, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Guo-Zhen Lin
- Department of Psychiatry, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Yang Zou
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Institute, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Sheng-Di Chen
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Institute, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Ru-Jing Ren
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Institute, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Gang Wang
- Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Institute, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
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Sluis RA, Angus D, Wiles J, Back A, Gibson T(A, Liddle J, Worthy P, Copland D, Angwin AJ. An Automated Approach to Examining Pausing in the Speech of People With Dementia. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen 2020; 35:1533317520939773. [PMID: 32648470 PMCID: PMC10623991 DOI: 10.1177/1533317520939773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Dementia is a common neurodegenerative condition involving the deterioration of cognitive and communication skills. Pausing in the speech of people with dementia is a dysfluency that may be used to signal conversational trouble in social interaction. This study aimed to examine the speech-pausing profile within picture description samples from people with dementia and healthy controls (HCs) within the DementiaBank database using the Calpy computational speech processing toolkit. Sixty English-speaking participants between the ages of 53 and 88 years (Mage = 67.43, SD = 8.33; 42 females) were included in the study: 20 participants with mild cognitive impairment, 20 participants with moderate cognitive impairment, and 20 HCs. Quantitative analysis shows a progressive increase in the duration of pausing between HCs, the mild dementia group, and the moderate dementia group, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel A. Sluis
- Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | - Daniel Angus
- School of Communication, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Janet Wiles
- School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Andrew Back
- School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Tingting (Amy) Gibson
- School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Jacki Liddle
- School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Peter Worthy
- School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - David Copland
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Anthony J Angwin
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
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Khatoonabadi AR, Masumi J. Study protocol: Language profile in mild cognitive impairment: A prospective study. Med J Islam Repub Iran 2019; 33:53. [PMID: 31456977 PMCID: PMC6708094 DOI: 10.34171/mjiri.33.53] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The present study will be a longitudinal investigation of language abilities in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The research question will include whether there will be an evidence for language impairment in individuals with MCI, and if so, what aspects of language will be the most affected and whether language abilities will be significantly changed over a 12-month period.
Methods: We will diagnose 30 individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and controlled participants using Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic (MoCA-B), as a cognitive test, and by asking expert opinions and conducting interviews. Participants will be selected from memory clinics and nursing homes in Tehran during 2018-2019. A comprehensive language test (Barnes Language Assessment (BLA)) will be performed to obtain baseline performance in the elderly. These tests will be repeated after 3, 6, and 12 months. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be used to determine whether there will be a significant change in participants' language abilities over a 12-month period. In the case of deficient language performance, a discriminant function analysis will be used to identify the language task type that will be highly sensitive to change.
Results and Conclusion: The present study will provide evidence for the nature of language change and will be done in a-year course on individuals with MCI and AD and on healthy elders. Also, in this study, the relative sensitivity of various language components to MCI will be determined, and the relationship between language performance and performance on (MoCA-B) neuropsychological test will be examined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmad R Khatoonabadi
- Speech Therapy Department, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Jafar Masumi
- Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
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Pereira N, Gonçalves APB, Goulart M, Tarrasconi MA, Kochhann R, Fonseca RP. Age-related differences in conversational discourse abilities A comparative study. Dement Neuropsychol 2019; 13:53-71. [PMID: 31073380 PMCID: PMC6497023 DOI: 10.1590/1980-57642018dn13-010006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Conversational discourse (CD) is among the most complex tasks in everyday life and relies on multiple cognitive domains (communicative and executive abilities). Alterations in discourse comprehension and production are often present in pathological aging. However, there is still a need to identify changes in healthy aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Pereira
- Doctoral student, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Ana Paula Bresolin Gonçalves
- Psychology undergraduate student, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Mariana Goulart
- Psychology undergraduate student, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Marina Amarante Tarrasconi
- Psychology undergraduate student, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Renata Kochhann
- PhD, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Rochele Paz Fonseca
- PhD, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
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40
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Kourtis LC, Regele OB, Wright JM, Jones GB. Digital biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease: the mobile/ wearable devices opportunity. NPJ Digit Med 2019; 2:9. [PMID: 31119198 PMCID: PMC6526279 DOI: 10.1038/s41746-019-0084-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 150] [Impact Index Per Article: 30.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2018] [Accepted: 02/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) represents a major and rapidly growing burden to the healthcare ecosystem. A growing body of evidence indicates that cognitive, behavioral, sensory, and motor changes may precede clinical manifestations of AD by several years. Existing tests designed to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases, while well-validated, are often less effective in detecting deviations from normal cognitive decline trajectory in the earliest stages of the disease. In the quest for gold standards for AD assessment, there is a growing interest in the identification of readily accessible digital biomarkers, which harness advances in consumer grade mobile and wearable technologies. Topics examined include a review of existing early clinical manifestations of AD and a path to the respective sensor and mobile/wearable device usage to acquire domain-centric data towards objective, high frequency and passive digital phenotyping.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lampros C. Kourtis
- Clinical & Translational Science Institute, Tufts University Medical Center, 800 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111 USA
- Evidation Health, 167 2nd Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401 USA
- Cambridge Innovation Center, Eli Lilly and Company, 450 Kendall, Cambridge, MA 02142 USA
| | - Oliver B. Regele
- Cambridge Innovation Center, Eli Lilly and Company, 450 Kendall, Cambridge, MA 02142 USA
- Present Address: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA
| | - Justin M. Wright
- Cambridge Innovation Center, Eli Lilly and Company, 450 Kendall, Cambridge, MA 02142 USA
- Present Address: Novartis Pharmaceuticals, East Hanover, NJ USA
| | - Graham B. Jones
- Clinical & Translational Science Institute, Tufts University Medical Center, 800 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111 USA
- Present Address: Novartis Pharmaceuticals, East Hanover, NJ USA
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What happens when nothing happens? An investigation of pauses as a compensatory mechanism in early Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychologia 2018; 124:133-143. [PMID: 30593773 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.12.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2018] [Revised: 12/21/2018] [Accepted: 12/21/2018] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Lexical-semantic impairment is one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is usually examined by single word processing tasks. During speech production, pauses are often investigated as a hallmark of a patient's lexical-semantic decline. In the current study, we put forward the hypothesis that pauses reflect different processes according to the type of discourse. We believe that lexical and semantic impairment would predict a patient's pause frequency in a picture-based narrative (PBN) while anterograde memory would predict a patient's pause frequency in a memory-based narrative (MBN). To demonstrate this, we recruited 17 early AD patients and 17 matched controls. They underwent a full neuropsychological and language assessment and two narrative production assessments. We compared pause duration and frequency in the AD participants' and healthy controls' PBN and MBN. A multiple regression model was used in each narrative and in each group individually to assess the relationship between cognitive processes and pause frequency. Our results show that participants with AD produced more pauses in the PBN only. The frequency was predicted by semantic fluency performance with which it was positively correlated, contrary to what was expected. In the MBN, pause frequency in the AD participants was positively correlated with and predicted by their memory performance. We then examined the neuroanatomical correlates of pause frequency in the AD participants. Considering the PBN, pause frequency was also positively correlated with the grey matter density of the anterior temporal lobe. These findings suggest that patients use pauses as compensatory mechanisms in the earliest stages of AD. Pauses therefore may reflect the time required for the compensation and the realisation of a weak process depending on the narrative task and should be considered as a positive sign.
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Beltrami D, Gagliardi G, Rossini Favretti R, Ghidoni E, Tamburini F, Calzà L. Speech Analysis by Natural Language Processing Techniques: A Possible Tool for Very Early Detection of Cognitive Decline? Front Aging Neurosci 2018; 10:369. [PMID: 30483116 PMCID: PMC6243042 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2018] [Accepted: 10/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The discovery of early, non-invasive biomarkers for the identification of “preclinical” or “pre-symptomatic” Alzheimer's disease and other dementias is a key issue in the field, especially for research purposes, the design of preventive clinical trials, and drafting population-based health care policies. Complex behaviors are natural candidates for this. In particular, recent studies have suggested that speech alterations might be one of the earliest signs of cognitive decline, frequently noticeable years before other cognitive deficits become apparent. Traditional neuropsychological language tests provide ambiguous results in this context. In contrast, the analysis of spoken language productions by Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques can pinpoint language modifications in potential patients. This interdisciplinary study aimed at using NLP to identify early linguistic signs of cognitive decline in a population of elderly individuals. Methods: We enrolled 96 participants (age range 50–75): 48 healthy controls (CG) and 48 cognitively impaired participants: 16 participants with single domain amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), 16 with multiple domain MCI (mdMCI) and 16 with early Dementia (eD). Each subject underwent a brief neuropsychological screening composed by MMSE, MoCA, GPCog, CDT, and verbal fluency (phonemic and semantic). The spontaneous speech during three tasks (describing a complex picture, a typical working day and recalling a last remembered dream) was then recorded, transcribed and annotated at various linguistic levels. A multidimensional parameter computation was performed by a quantitative analysis of spoken texts, computing rhythmic, acoustic, lexical, morpho-syntactic, and syntactic features. Results: Neuropsychological tests showed significant differences between controls and mdMCI, and between controls and eD participants; GPCog, MoCA, PF, and SF also discriminated between controls and aMCI. In the linguistic experiments, a number of features regarding lexical, acoustic and syntactic aspects were significant in differentiating between mdMCI, eD, and CG (non-parametric statistical analysis). Some features, mainly in the acoustic domain also discriminated between CG and aMCI. Conclusions: Linguistic features of spontaneous speech transcribed and analyzed by NLP techniques show significant differences between controls and pathological states (not only eD but also MCI) and seems to be a promising approach for the identification of preclinical stages of dementia. Long duration follow-up studies are needed to confirm this assumption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Beltrami
- Interdepartmental Centre for Industrial Research in Health Sciences and Technologies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Clinical Neuropsychology Unit, Arcispedale S. Maria Nuova di Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy
| | - Gloria Gagliardi
- Interdepartmental Centre for Industrial Research in Health Sciences and Technologies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Rema Rossini Favretti
- Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Enrico Ghidoni
- Clinical Neuropsychology Unit, Arcispedale S. Maria Nuova di Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy
| | - Fabio Tamburini
- Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Laura Calzà
- Interdepartmental Centre for Industrial Research in Health Sciences and Technologies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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Smith KM, Caplan DN. Communication impairment in Parkinson's disease: Impact of motor and cognitive symptoms on speech and language. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2018; 185:38-46. [PMID: 30092448 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2018.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2017] [Revised: 07/21/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Communication impairment is common in Parkinson's disease (PD) and may have both motor speech control and cognitive-linguistic underpinnings. The neurobiology of communication impairment in PD is poorly understood, and work is needed to disentangle the relative contributions of motor and cognitive dysfunction. In clinical practice, cognitive-linguistic impairments are often overlooked despite the large body of research on this topic in neurocognitive and linguistics literature. In this review, we will discuss the roles of motor speech changes, cognitive and linguistic impairment, and other related functions in the communication disabilities of individuals with PD. We will describe the various types of communication difficulties in PD and tools for measuring these symptoms. We will discuss specific deficits that may further understanding of the neurobiology of communication impairment in PD, including voice and speech acoustic changes, linguistic processing and production difficulties, and pausing. We will emphasize the importance of an interdisciplinary approach and the patient perspective on daily communication in guiding future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kara M Smith
- University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655, USA.
| | - David N Caplan
- Massachusetts General Hospital, 175 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
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44
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45
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Silent pauses in aphasia. Neuropsychologia 2018; 114:41-49. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.04.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2017] [Revised: 04/05/2018] [Accepted: 04/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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46
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Toledo CM, Aluísio SM, Dos Santos LB, Brucki SMD, Trés ES, de Oliveira MO, Mansur LL. Analysis of macrolinguistic aspects of narratives from individuals with Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, and no cognitive impairment. ALZHEIMER'S & DEMENTIA: DIAGNOSIS, ASSESSMENT & DISEASE MONITORING 2017; 10:31-40. [PMID: 29159266 PMCID: PMC5675715 DOI: 10.1016/j.dadm.2017.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Introduction The depiction of features in discourse production promotes accurate diagnosis and helps to establish the therapeutic intervention in cognitive impairment and dementia. We aimed to identify alterations in the macrolinguistic aspects of discourse using a new computational tool. Methods Sixty individuals, aged 60 years and older, were distributed in three different groups: mild Alzheimer's disease (mAD), amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and healthy controls. A narrative created by individuals was analyzed through the Coh-Metrix-Dementia program, extracting the features of interest automatically. Results mAD showed worse overall performance compared to the other groups: less informative discourse, greater impairment in global coherence, greater modalization, and inferior narrative structure. It was not possible to discriminate between amnestic mild cognitive impairment and healthy controls. Discussion Our results are in line with the literature, verifying a pathological change in the macrostructure of discourse in mAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cíntia Matsuda Toledo
- Centro de Referência em Distúrbios Cognitivos, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Sandra Maria Aluísio
- Núcleo Interinstitucional de Linguística Computacional (NILC), Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Leandro Borges Dos Santos
- Núcleo Interinstitucional de Linguística Computacional (NILC), Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Sonia Maria Dozzi Brucki
- Centro de Referência em Distúrbios Cognitivos, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Eduardo Sturzeneker Trés
- Centro de Referência em Distúrbios Cognitivos, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Maira Okada de Oliveira
- Centro de Referência em Distúrbios Cognitivos, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Letícia Lessa Mansur
- Centro de Referência em Distúrbios Cognitivos, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
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47
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Pistono A, Pariente J, Bézy C, Pastor J, Tran TM, Renard A, Fossard M, Nespoulous JL, Jucla M. Inter-individual variability in discourse informativeness in elderly populations. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2017; 31:391-408. [PMID: 28388219 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2016.1277390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2016] [Accepted: 12/24/2016] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
An increasing number of studies focus on discourse production in patients with neurodegenerative diseases and underline its clinical usefulness. However, if this is to be used as a clinical tool, one needs to consider how normal discourse varies within cognitively unimpaired elderly populations. In the current study, the aim has been to investigate discourse macrolinguistic variability. For this, 123 participants aged between 55 and 84 were recruited. A cluster analysis of their discourse macrolinguistic features was conducted. Then, cluster characterisation based on socio-demographic and linguistic performance was tested (fluency, naming, syntax and spelling). This method aims to identify various profiles of speaker and informativeness and then see if inter-individual variability may be related to socio-demographic and/or linguistic aspects. Four clusters of informativeness were found but no socio-demographic features appeared significant. The fourth cluster, defined as 'off topic', had lower performance during linguistic tasks than others and thus the boundary between normality and pathology should be questioned.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurélie Pistono
- a Toulouse NeuroImaging Centre , Toulouse University, Inserm, UPS , Toulouse , France
- b Octogone-Lordat Interdisciplinary Research Unit (EA 4156) , University of Toulouse II-Jean Jaurès , Toulouse , France
| | - Jérémie Pariente
- a Toulouse NeuroImaging Centre , Toulouse University, Inserm, UPS , Toulouse , France
- c Neurology Department, Neuroscience Centre , Toulouse University Hospital , Toulouse , France
| | - Catherine Bézy
- c Neurology Department, Neuroscience Centre , Toulouse University Hospital , Toulouse , France
| | - Josette Pastor
- a Toulouse NeuroImaging Centre , Toulouse University, Inserm, UPS , Toulouse , France
| | - Thi Mai Tran
- d "Knowledge, Texts, Language" Research Unit (UMR 8163), Speech Therapy Department , Faculty of Medicine, Lille University , Lille , France
| | - Antoine Renard
- e Laboratory for the Exploration of Memory in Neurosciences (LMENS) , University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne University Hospital , Lausanne , Switzerland
| | - Marion Fossard
- f Institute of Language and Communication Sciences , Neuchâtel University , Neuchâtel , Switzerland
| | - Jean-Luc Nespoulous
- b Octogone-Lordat Interdisciplinary Research Unit (EA 4156) , University of Toulouse II-Jean Jaurès , Toulouse , France
| | - Mélanie Jucla
- b Octogone-Lordat Interdisciplinary Research Unit (EA 4156) , University of Toulouse II-Jean Jaurès , Toulouse , France
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