Spontaneous speech: Quantifying daily communication in Spanish-speaking individuals with aphasia.
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1
University of Barcelona, Spain
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2
University of Groningen, Netherlands
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3
University of Oviedo, Spain
Observable disruptions in spontaneous speech are among the most prominent characteristics of aphasia. The potential of language production analyses in discourse contexts to reveal subtle language deficits has been progressively exploited, becoming essential for diagnosing language disorders (Vermeulen et al., 1989; Goodglass et al., 2000; Prins and Bastiaanse, 2004; Jaecks et al., 2012). Based on previous studies, short and/or fragmentary utterances, and consequently a shorter MLU, are expected in the speech of individuals with aphasia, together with a large proportions of incomplete sentences and a limited use of embeddings. Fewer verbs with a lower diversity (lower type/token ratio) and fewer internal arguments are also predicted, as well as a low proportion of inflected verbs (Bastiaanse and Jonkers, 1998). However, this profile comes mainly from the study of individuals with prototypical aphasia types, mainly Broca’s aphasia, raising the question of how accurate spontaneous speech is to pinpoint deficits in individuals with less clear diagnoses.
To address this question, we present the results of a spontaneous speech analysis of 25 Spanish-speaking subjects: 10 individuals with aphasia (IWAs), 7 male and 3 female (mean age: 64.2) in neural stable condition (> 1 year post-onset) who suffered from a single CVA in the left hemisphere (Rosell, 2005), and 15 non-brain-damaged matched speakers (NBDs). In the aphasia group, 7 of the participants were diagnosed as non-fluent (1 motor aphasia, 4 transcortical motor aphasia or motor aphasia with signs of transcorticality, 2 mixed aphasia with motor predominance), and 3 of them as fluent (mixed aphasia with anomic predominance). The protocol for data collection included semi-standardized interviews, in which participants were asked 3 questions evoking past, present, and future events (last job, holidays, and hobbies). 300 words per participant were analyzed.
The MLU over the total 300 words revealed a decreased ratio of words per sentence related to group: NBDs > Fluent > Non-fluent (MLU = 10.4, 6.5, and 6 respectively). This is also the case for the MLU without repetitions (NBDs = 10.1, Fluent = 6, Non-fluent = 5), the percentage of finite sentences (NBDs = 85.5%, Fluent = 72.3%, Non-fluent = 63.2%), and the percentage of grammatical sentences (NBDs = 97.7%, Fluent = 73.3%, Non-Fluent = 43.8%). Significant differences were found in the comparison of the MLU across groups (Kruskal Wallis: χ2 (2, N = 25) = 17.2, p = .000). Further analyses revealed differences between both aphasia groups and NBDs (Mann-Whitney U Tests; Fluent vs. NBDs: U = 1; Z = -2.547, p = .005; Non-Fluent vs. NBDs: U = 0; Z = -3.701, p = .000), but not between individuals in the fluent and the non-fluent group (Mann Whitney U Test: U = 5; Z = -1.254; p = .267). Main differences between individuals with aphasia and controls have been represented in figure 1.
No differences were found in the production of verbs when both lexical and auxiliary verbs were analyzed together (NBDs = 53.7, 18.4%; Fluent = 60.3, 21.8%; Non-fluent = 48.4, 18.8%) (Kruskal Wallis – N. of verbs: χ2 (2, N = 25) = 3.2, p = .201; Type/token ratio: χ2 (2, N = 25) = 3.5, p = .168). However, the analysis of lexical verbs alone revealed differences in the type/token ratio across groups (χ2 (2, N = 25) = 6.258, p = .044). Contrary to what we would expect, the mean seems to favor individuals in both aphasia groups (Mean Type/Token ratio lexical verbs: 0.64 aphasia groups vs. 0.6 controls). Asymmetries across groups were also traceable when lexical verbs were classified according to their argument structure. Although transitive verbs are relatively more frequent than unergatives and unacussatives, the latter being the less used forms in all groups, significant differences were found between individuals in both aphasia groups and NBDs as for the use of unaccusative verbs (Mann-Whitney U-Test: U=34, Z=-2,299, p=.023). Additionally, while all individuals with aphasia display the following pattern: transitives > unergatives ≥ unaccusatives, there is considerable individual variation among the NBDs.
In summary, in line with what we expected, individuals with aphasia produced shorter and/or fragmentary utterances. Their MLU was shorter than in controls, and there was a larger proportion of ungrammatical sentences in their speech. Shorter utterances were preferred, and they contained a lower proportion of unaccusative verbs. We attribute the lack of differences between the aphasia groups, including the number of verbs and the effects on the type/token ratio, to the small number of participants. Further analyses and more statistical power would allow us to run parametric tests to reveal the correlation between number of sentences, number of lexical verbs and type/token ratio, and to explore other observable deficits.
Acknowledgements
One of the authors acknowledges support of the Beatriu de Pinos fellowship (2011 BP_2_00003) and the research project FFI2013-43823-P.
References
Bastiaanse, R., & Jonkers, R. (1998). Verb retrieval in action naming and spontaneous speech in agrammatic and anomic aphasic aphasia. Aphasiology, 12, 951-969.
Goodglass, H., Kaplan, E., & Baressi, B. (2001). Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination-3rd Edition. Philadelphia: Lippencott, Williams & Wilkins.
Jaecks, P., Hielscher-Fastabend, M., & Stenneken, P. (2012). Diagnosing residual aphasia using spontaneous speech analysis. Aphasiology, 26, 953-970.
Prins, R., & Bastiaanse, R. (2004). Analysing the spontaneous speech of aphasic speakers. Aphasiology, 18, 1075-1091.
Rosell-Clarí, V. (2005). Uso del Verbo en Pacientes Afásicos Motores en Lengua Castellana. Phd Thesis, Universitat de Valencia.
Vermeulen, J., Bastiaanse, R., & Van Wageningen, B. (1989). Spontaneous speech in aphasia: A correlational study. Brain and Language, 36, 252-274.
Keywords:
Aphasia,
spontaneous speech,
morphosyntactic analysis,
verbs,
diagnose
Conference:
Academy of Aphasia 53rd Annual Meeting, Tucson, United States, 18 Oct - 20 Oct, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Not student first author
Citation:
Martínez-Ferreiro
S,
Vares González
E and
Bastiaanse
R
(2015). Spontaneous speech: Quantifying daily communication in Spanish-speaking individuals with aphasia..
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
Academy of Aphasia 53rd Annual Meeting.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2015.65.00046
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Received:
29 Apr 2015;
Published Online:
24 Sep 2015.
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Correspondence:
PhD. Silvia Martínez-Ferreiro, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, martinez.ferreiro.silvia@gmail.com