The Pause Characteristics of Self Speaking in Alzheimer's Disease Patients
10.3969/j.issn.1006-7299.2024.06.007
- VernacularTitle:阿尔茨海默病患者自发言语的停顿特征
- Author:
Xinyu LI
1
;
Jiayan YU
;
Yongtao XIAO
Author Information
1. 浙江中医药大学医学技术与信息工程学院(杭州 310053)
- Keywords:
Alzheimer's disease;
Spontaneous speech;
Pause
- From:
Journal of Audiology and Speech Pathology
2024;32(6):511-515
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective To study the characteristics of spontaneous speech pauses in individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease(AD).Methods A total of 20 patients with AD,exhibiting a Minimum Mental State Examination(MMSE)score ranging from 10 to 20 and a disease duration of 6 months to 5 years,were selected for the AD group.Twenty five cognitively normal and mentally healthy participants were chosen as the control group.Spontaneous speech was elicited from each participant,and 1-minute continuous audio recordings were used to tally pause counts categorized by duration into short pauses(0.25 s≤t＜0.50 s),medium pauses(0.50 s≤t＜0.90 s),long pauses(0.90 s≤t＜2.00 s),and silences(＞2.00 s).Mean values of each pause type were computed for in-ter-group and intra-group comparisons.Correlation and regression analyses between MMSE scores and pause counts were conducted within the AD group.Results Significant statistical differences were observed between the AD and control groups concerning the counts of short pauses,long pauses,and silences(P＜0.05).Within the AD group,significant differences were found in the counts of short pauses versus medium pauses and short pauses versus long pauses(P＜0.05).In the AD group,the count of medium pauses positively predicted MMSE scores(β=0.515,P＜0.05),whereas the count of silences negatively predicted MMSE scores(β=-0.626,P＜0.01).Conclusion Individuals with AD exhibit a higher frequency of longer duration pauses in spontaneous speech and a lower frequen-cy of shorter duration pauses.Higher cognitive functioning in AD patients is associated with increased occurrences of shorter pauses,whereas lower cognitive functioning is linked to more extended pauses.
