DISORDERS OF NASALITY IN SUBJECTS WITH UPPER MOTOR-NEURON TYPE DYSARTHRIA FOLLOWING CEREBROVASCULAR ACCIDENT

The nasality of 19 subjects with upper motor neuron (UMN) damage follo wing cerebrovascular accident (CVA), and 19 control subjects matched f or age and sex, was investigated using both perceptual judgements of n asality and a modified version of the nasal accelerometric procedure d escribed by Horii (1980). Nasality indices were calculated for each su bject during the production of a series of nasal and non-nasal sounds, words, and sentences. Statistical comparison of the two groups reveal ed that the CVA subjects had significantly higher nasality indices on the production of non-nasal speech tasks than the controls. No signifi cant difference was noted between the two groups on nasal tasks. Indiv idual case by case examination of the accelerometer data confirmed the presence of hypernasality in 7 of the 19 CVA subjects. In contrast to the instrumental findings, the results of the perceptual judgements o f nasality identified the presence of hypernasality, hyponasality, and normal nasal resonance within the CVA group.