Monthly Archives: July 2011
Analysis of Video Fluoroscopic Swallowing Study in Patients with Vocal Cord Paralysis
We reviewed the findings of a video fluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) of 28 patients with vocal cord paralysis (VCP) who complained of swallowing difficulties. VFSSs were performed with thick and thin liquid using modified Logemann methods. The patients were grouped according to whether their VCP was of central or peripheral origin, and the VFSS findings of the groups were compared. The patients showed oral phase dysfunction and pharyngeal dysfunction, especially when the cause was of central origin. Oral phase abnormalities were found in 13 patients and pharyngeal phase abnormalities were found in all patients, including penetration in 20 patients and aspiration in 14 patients. Improper lip closure (LC) and bolus formation (BF) and a delay in triggering pharyngeal swallow (TPS) and upper esophageal sphincter release (UESR) were significantly more frequent in patients with central VCP. With thin-liquid swallowing, pharyngeal transit time (PTT) and pharyngeal delay time (PDT) were significantly more prolonged in central VCP. The results suggest that the delay in triggering and poor coordination of swallowing were profound in patients with central VCP, but dysfunction in peripheral VCP may originate from poor pharyngeal movement.
from Dysphagia
A Chimpanzee Recognizes Synthetic Speech with Significantly Reduced Acoustic Cues to Phonetic Content
A long-standing debate concerns whether humans are specialized for speech perception [1,2,3,4,5,6,7], which some researchers argue is demonstrated by the ability to understand synthetic speech with significantly reduced acoustic cues to phonetic content [2,3,4,7]. We tested a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) that recognizes 128 spoken words [8,9], asking whether she could understand such speech. Three experiments presented 48 individual words, with the animal selecting a corresponding visuographic symbol from among four alternatives. Experiment 1 tested spectrally reduced, noise-vocoded (NV) synthesis, originally developed to simulate input received by human cochlear-implant users [10]. Experiment 2 tested impossibly unspeechlike [3] sine-wave (SW) synthesis, which reduces speech to just three moving tones [11]. Although receiving only intermittent and noncontingent reward, the chimpanzee performed well above chance level, including when hearing synthetic versions for the first time. Recognition of SW words was least accurate but improved in experiment 3 when natural words in the same session were rewarded. The chimpanzee was more accurate with NV than SW versions, as were 32 human participants hearing these items. The chimpanzee’s ability to spontaneously recognize acoustically reduced synthetic words suggests that experience rather than specialization is critical for speech-perception capabilities that some have suggested are uniquely human [12,13,14].
from Current Biology
Early Specialization for Voice and Emotion Processing in the Infant Brain
Human voices play a fundamental role in social communication, and areas of the adult social brain show specialization for processing voices and their emotional content (superior temporal sulcus, inferior prefrontal cortex, premotor cortical regions, amygdala, and insula) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. However, it is unclear when this specialization develops. Functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) studies suggest that the infant temporal cortex does not differentiate speech from music or backward speech [9,10], but a prior study with functional near-infrared spectroscopy revealed preferential activation for human voices in 7-month-olds, in a more posterior location of the temporal cortex than in adults [11]. However, the brain networks involved in processing nonspeech human vocalizations in early development are still unknown. To address this issue, in the present fMRI study, 3- to 7-month-olds were presented with adult nonspeech vocalizations (emotionally neutral, emotionally positive, and emotionally negative) and nonvocal environmental sounds. Infants displayed significant differential activation in the anterior portion of the temporal cortex, similarly to adults [1]. Moreover, sad vocalizations modulated the activity of brain regions involved in processing affective stimuli such as the orbitofrontal cortex [12] and insula [7,8]. These results suggest remarkably early functional specialization for processing human voice and negative emotions.
from Current Biology
Language software promises to help children with autism
Oakland, Calif.-based firm Scientific Learning on Friday announced the launch of new software it says can help improve language and communication skills in children with autism.
Called BrainPro Autism, the new software is made up of game-like exercises coupled with remote monitoring by a seasoned tutor who relays progress to the child’s team of specialists on a weekly basis.
from Smart Planet.com
Creators of Verbally Assisted-Speech App Voted in Top 3 of America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs by BusinessWeek Readers
Verbally is a free augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) aid for people with speech disabilities caused by such things as apraxia, ALS, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder, or muscular dystrophy. Since it was launched in March, Verbally has been downloaded more than 28,000 times and is downloaded an average of 210 times per day.
from the Sun Herald.com
Touch screens, apps give a voice to autistic kids
Conley’s line of “TapSpeak” programs are among scores of new apps available to help children with autism or other conditions that interfere with their ability to speak, learn or socialize.
from The Tennessean.com
‘Wait and see’ isn’t best approach for ‘late-talking’ children.
The problem is, how do you know if your child will be one of the majority who will catch up on their own? How long should you wait?
from the CantonRep.com
First words come late, development on track: study finds late talkers grow out of it
Andrew Whitehouse’s study in the coming August issue of Pediatrics may bring comfort, or to parents like Walker, reassure her of what she already knew. Whitehouse and his colleagues found that children who do not speak by the age of 2 — an estimated 15 percent of the population — typically catch up behaviorally and emotionally by adulthood.
from the Deseret News.com
Advocates hope changes to autism bill will prevent veto
Legislation passed by the state Legislature in June that would require health insurance companies to provide coverage of critical autism treatments awaits action by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.com
Smooth Talkers: Researchers in the Developmental Stuttering Lab Examine the Causes of Stuttering
Byrd’s research suggests it takes children who stutter longer to select sounds because they’re not efficiently organized, which means stuttering is not strictly motoric, or a speech behavior. There is a linguistic component as well.
from Newswise.com
Medicare Repeals Videostroboscopy Supervision Rules
As of October 1, 2011, Medicare will no longer require speech-language pathologists performing videostroboscopy (CPT 31579) or nasopharyngoscopy (CPT 92511) to be supervised by physicians.
A Speech Therapist Builds Language Skills Using Zingo!
Kelly Rholes is a Speech Therapist who integrates game play into her practice to engage young players and make learning fun and meaningful! Here she shares creative ways to use ThinkFun’s Zingo! game to target a range of different learning needs:
from Think Fun.com
Current Trends and Perspectives on Collaboration of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists in the Treatment of Children with Hearing Loss: An Exploratory Survey
A research survey is being conducted at Vanderbilt regarding the way audiologists and speech-language pathologists work together to treat children with hearing loss. If you are either (a) a parent of a child with hearing loss, (b) a speech-language pathologist, or (c) an audiologist, sign up to take part in the survey.
Weak Synchronization in Brain May Be a Marker for Autism
In research that appeared in Neuron, scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of California, San Diego have found, for the first time, a method that can accurately identify a biological sign of autism in very young toddlers.
from Newswise.com
Elsevier announces availability of iSpeech Audio Reader application
The iSpeech Audio Reader text-to-speech application instantly converts any full-text article within SciVerse ScienceDirect, the world’s largest source of peer-reviewed scientific content containing more than 10 million articles, into a natural sounding voice file. It enables researchers to easily convert articles into MP3 audio files and listen to them on any MP3-friendly device.
from News-Medical.net
