Speech in Alzheimer's disease: can temporal and acoustic parameters discriminate dementia?
OBJECTIVE
The study explores how speech measures may be linked to language profiles in participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and how these profiles could distinguish AD from changes associated with normal aging.


METHODS
We analysed simple sentences spoken by older adults with and without AD. Spectrographic analysis of temporal and acoustic characteristics was carried out using the Praat software.


RESULTS
We found that measures of speech, such as variations in the percentage of voice breaks, number of periods of voice, number of voice breaks, shimmer (amplitude perturbation quotient), and noise-to-harmonics ratio, characterise people with AD with an accuracy of 84.8%.


CONCLUSIONS
These measures offer a sensitive method of assessing spontaneous speech output in AD, and they discriminate well between people with AD and healthy older adults. This method of evaluation is a promising tool for AD diagnosis and prognosis, and it could be used as a dependent measure in clinical trials.
Institute of Neurosciences of Castilla y León, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
Juan José G
JJ
Meilán
Francisco
F
Martínez-Sánchez
Juan
J
Carro
Dolores E
DE
López
Lymarie
L
Millian-Morell
José M
JM
Arana
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013997:Time Factors