Faculty Publications

Visuomotor Tracking Abilities Of Speakers With Apraxia Of Speech Or Conduction Aphasia

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Apraxia of speech, Conduction aphasia, Motor programming, Motor speech disorders, Speech motor control, Visuomotor tracking

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Brain and Language

Volume

106

Issue

2

First Page

98

Last Page

106

Abstract

This investigation examined the visuomotor tracking abilities of persons with apraxia of speech (AOS) or conduction aphasia (CA). In addition, tracking performance was correlated with perceptual judgments of speech accuracy. Five individuals with AOS and four with CA served as participants, as well as an equal number of healthy controls matched by age and gender. Participants tracked predictable (sinusoidal) and unpredictable signals using jaw and lip movements transduced with strain gauges. Tracking performance in participants with AOS was poorest for predictable signals, with decreased kinematic measures of cross-correlation and gain ratio and increased target-tracker difference. In contrast, tracking of the unpredictable signal by participants with AOS was performed as well as for other groups (e.g. participants with CA, healthy controls). Performance of the subjects with AOS on the predictable tracking task was found to strongly correlate with perceptual judgments of speech. These findings suggest that motor control capabilities are impaired in AOS, but not in CA. Results suggest that AOS has its basis in motor programming deficits, not impaired motor execution. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Department

Department of Communicative Disorders

Original Publication Date

8-1-2008

DOI of published version

10.1016/j.bandl.2008.05.002

Link to Full Text

Comments?

Share

COinS