Acoustic cues to lexical stress in spastic dysarthria

Abstract

The current study examined the acoustic cues to lexical stress produced by speakers with spastic dysarthria and healthy control speakers. of particular interest was the effect of stress location, which represented whether lexical stress was on the first vs. second syllable of the word. Results suggest that speakers with dysarthria convey lexical stress differently than do control speakers. The difference was greater for second-syllable stressed words compared to first-syllable stressed words. In addition, for the first-syllable stressed words, speakers with dysarthria utilized the pitch and intensity cues to a greater degree compared to control speakers.