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The relationship of rate and pause features to the communicative participation of people living with ALS.

Author information

Affiliations

  • 1. Speech and Social Interaction Lab, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
      Authors
    • Connaghan KP 1
    • Haenssler AE 1, 2
    • Okada J 1, 2
    (3 authors)
  • 2. Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
      Authors
    • Green JR 2
    • Haenssler AE 1, 2
    • Richburg BD 2
    • Okada J 1, 2
    (4 authors)
  • 3. Speech, Physiology, and Neurobiology of Aging and Dementia Lab, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
      Authors
    • Eshghi M 3
    (1 author)
  • 4. Healey Center for ALS, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
      Authors
    • Scheier ZA 4
    • Clark A 4
    • Iyer A 4
    • Burke KM 4
    • Berry JD 4
    (5 authors)
  • 5. Speech Neuroscience Lab, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
      Authors
    • Rowe HP 5
    (1 author)
    • Show all (7)

ORCIDs linked to this article

Show all (11)

Muscle & Nerve, 04 Jun 2024, 70(2):217-225
https://doi.org/10.1002/mus.28170 PMID: 38837773 

Free full text available after 01 Aug 2025

Abstract 

Introduction/aims

Many people living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (PALS) report restrictions in their day-to-day communication (communicative participation). However, little is known about which speech features contribute to these restrictions. This study evaluated the effects of common speech symptoms in PALS (reduced overall speaking rate, slowed articulation rate, and increased pausing) on communicative participation restrictions.

Methods

Participants completed surveys (the Communicative Participation Item Bank-short form; the self-entry version of the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised) and recorded themselves reading the Bamboo Passage aloud using a smartphone app. Rate and pause measures were extracted from the recordings. The association of various demographic, clinical, self-reported, and acoustic speech features with communicative participation was evaluated with bivariate correlations. The contribution of salient rate and pause measures to communicative participation was assessed using multiple linear regression.

Results

Fifty seven people living with ALS participated in the study (mean age = 61.1 years). Acoustic and self-report measures of speech and bulbar function were moderately to highly associated with communicative participation (Spearman rho coefficients ranged from rs = 0.48 to rs = 0.77). A regression model including participant age, sex, articulation rate, and percent pause time accounted for 57% of the variance of communicative participation ratings.

Discussion

Even though PALS with slowed articulation rate and increased pausing may convey their message clearly, these speech features predict communicative participation restrictions. The identification of quantitative speech features, such as articulation rate and percent pause time, is critical to facilitating early and targeted intervention and for monitoring bulbar decline in ALS.

Full text links 

Read article at publisher's site: https://doi.org/10.1002/mus.28170

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Funding 

Funders who supported this work.

NIDCD NIH HHS (3)

NIH HHS (4)

NIMH NIH HHS (1)

National Institutes of Health (4)