Acoustic Analysis and Neuroimaging Correlates of Diadochokinetic Rates in Mild-Moderate Primary Progressive Apraxia of Speech

Brain Lang. 2023 May;240:105254. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105254. Epub 2023 Apr 6.ABSTRACTSpeech rate can be judged clinically using diadochokinetic (DDK) tasks, such as alternating motion rates (AMR) and sequential motion rates (SMR). We evaluated whether acoustic AMR/SMR speech rates would differentiate primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS) from healthy controls, and determined how DDK rates relate to phonetic and prosodic speech characteristics and brain metabolism on FDG-PET. Rate was calculated for each of three AMRs (repetitions of 'puh', 'tuh', and 'kuh') and for SMRs (repetitions of 'puhtuhkuh') for 27 PPAOS patients and 52 controls who underwent FDG-PET. PPAOS patients were slower than controls on all DDK tasks. All DDK rates correlated with apraxia of speech severity, with strongest associations with prosodic speech features. Slower DDK rates were associated with hypometabolism in the right cerebellar dentate and left supplementary motor area. Performance on AMR rate, not just SMR rate, may be impaired in mild PPAOS, but sensitivity and specificity require further study.PMID:37584042 | PMC:PMC10424909 | DOI:10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105254

Source: Brain and Language - August 16, 2023 Category: Neurology Authors: Kennedy A Josephs Joseph R Duffy Peter R Martin Yehkyoung C Stephens Neha Atulkumar Singh Heather M Clark Hugo Botha Val J Lowe Jennifer L Whitwell Rene L Utianski Source Type: research