Speech disorders following severe traumatic grain injury: Kinematic analysis of syllable repetitions using electromagnetic articulography

Using electromagnetic articulography, the lips, the tip of the tongue, and the tongue dorsum were tracked during repetitions of the syllables [pa], [t a] and [ka] in 10 speakers with dysarthria following severe traumatic brain injury and in 10 age-matched control subjects. When asked to produce the s yllable trains as fast as possible, the patient group showed a rather homog eneous pattern of movement abnormalities including prolonged syllable durat ions and reduced peak velocity/amplitude ratios. Most presumably, limited s peed generation gives rise to the impaired ability to increase speech rate. During the habitual speaking condition, reduced velocity/amplitude ratios were restricted to the tongue tip and tongue dorsum. Obviously, the tongue and the lips are differentially affected in dysarthria following severe tra umatic brain injury. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.