Open AccessVoice quality and speech fluency distinguish individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment from Healthy Controls
Author(s) -
Charalambos Themistocleous,
Marie Eckerström,
Dimitrios Kokkinakis
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0236009
Subject(s) - fluency , audiology , articulation (sociology) , verbal fluency test , cognition , cognitive impairment , medicine , psychology , speech recognition , computer science , neuropsychology , neuroscience , mathematics education , politics , political science , law
Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a syndrome characterized by cognitive decline greater than expected for an individual's age and education level. This study aims to determine whether voice quality and speech fluency distinguish patients with MCI from healthy individuals to improve diagnosis of patients with MCI. We analyzed recordings of the Cookie Theft picture description task produced by 26 patients with MCI and 29 healthy controls from Sweden and calculated measures of voice quality and speech fluency. The results show that patients with MCI differ significantly from HC with respect to acoustic aspects of voice quality, namely H1-A3, cepstral peak prominence, center of gravity, and shimmer; and speech fluency, namely articulation rate and averaged speaking time. The method proposed along with the obtainability of connected speech productions can enable quick and easy analysis of speech fluency and voice quality, providing accessible and objective diagnostic markers of patients with MCI.