Tongue Movement During Speech: A Real-Time Ultrasound Evaluation

✍ Scribed by Thomas H. Shawker; Barbara C. Sonies Phd

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1004 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-2751
• DOI: 10.1002/jcu.1870120303

✦ Synopsis

Tongue movement during production of the speech sounds Id, lil, and IW was examined with a real-time sector scanner positioned submentally. With this technique, it is possible to obtain excellent visualization of the tongue surface and to identify much of the intrinsic soft tissue anatomy of the tongue and floor of the mouth. Tongue movement and configuration were found to be consistent for 10 normal speakers, especially for lit and kl. Three patients with neurological disease and dysarthria showed varying but significant differences in articulation compared to normals. It appears that real-time ultrasound imaging of the oral cavity is a potentially valuable technique for the clinical investigation of normal and abnormal speech. Indexing Words: Ultrasound Speech -Dysarthria -Tongue It is estimated that 10 million people in the United States are affected by speech disabilities ranging from an inability to speak at all to varying levels of difficulties with normal effective speech. Speech production can be thought of as having three components: respiration (lungs), phonation (larynx), and articulation (lips, teeth, jaw, pharynx, palate, and tongue). The primary articulator, or modifier of the air stream, is the tongue. It is not surprising, therefore, that speech scientists have placed great emphasis on developing a method of imaging the tongue during speech. At the present time, cineradiography is used almost exclusively for this purpose.' The state-of-the-art for tongue imaging during speech was presented in a status report on speech research from the Haskins Laboratory in 1976: ''. . . the most important articulator is the tongue, and it is the most difficult to view directly. The only practical widely used method for viewing . . . is cinefl~orography."~ The primary problem with cinefluorography, however, is an unacceptable From the *Diagnostic Radiology Department, and the tRe-