Intonational patterns of nonverbal vocalizations in people with dementia

Abstract

Nonverbal vocalizations in dementia are important clinically since they generally have been regarded as disruptive behavior that is disturbing. The aim of the present study is to describe the interactional pattern, including the prosodic package, of nonverbal vocalizations in a participant in a late stage of dementia. The acoustic analysis shows that the vocalizations do not differ significantly from the verbal utterances regarding mean fundamental frequency or pitch range. The mean fundamental frequency, F0, of the utterances from Anna was significantly higher than the mean F0 from the other elderly participants. The analysis demonstrates that there is a singing-like type of vocalizations that does not resemble the previously described patterns of nonverbal vocalizations. This pattern of the nonverbal vocalization does not resemble the intonation of Anna's verbal utterances. The other participants perceive Anna's vocalizations as potentially meaningful turns. Nonverbal vocalizations in clinical settings should be taken as communicative contributions. © 2011 SAGE Publications.