title: Associations of acoustically measured tongue/jaw movements and portion of time speaking with negative symptom severity in patients with schizophrenia in Italy and the United States.
abstract: This is the first cross-language study of the effect of schizophrenia on speech as measured by analyzing phonetic parameters with sound spectrography. We hypothesized that reduced variability in pitch and formants would be correlated with negative symptom severity in two samples of patients with schizophrenia, one from Italy, and one from the United States. Audio recordings of spontaneous speech were available from 40 patients. From each speech sample, a file of F0 (pitch) and formant values (F1 and F2, resonance bands indicating the moment-by-moment shape of the oral cavity), and the portion of the recording in which there was speaking ("fraction voiced," FV), was created. Correlations between variability in the phonetic indices and negative symptom severity were tested and further examined using regression analyses. Meaningful negative correlations between Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) total score and standard deviation (SD) of F2, as well as variability in pitch (SD F0) were observed in the Italian sample. We also found meaningful associations of SANS affective flattening and SANS alogia with SD F0, and of SANS avolition/apathy and SD F2 in the Italian sample. In both samples, FV was meaningfully correlated with SANS total score, avolition/apathy, and anhedonia/asociality.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, United States. Electronic address: francescobernardini78@yahoo.fr.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bernardini
authors.affiliation: College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, United States.
authors.forename: Anya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lunden
authors.affiliation: The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Covington
authors.affiliation: Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Broussard
authors.affiliation: Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Brooke
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Halpern
authors.affiliation: The George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States.
authors.forename: Yazeed
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Alolayan
authors.affiliation: The George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Crisafio
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pauselli
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Pierfrancesco M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Balducci
authors.affiliation: Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Capulong
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Attademo
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lucarini
authors.affiliation: Community Mental Health Service, Magione, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Salierno
authors.affiliation: Community Mental Health Service, Ponte San Giovanni, Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Natalicchi
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; Division of Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Quartesan
authors.affiliation: Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, United States; Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Hempstead, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Compton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Phonetics; Psycholinguistics; Psychotic disorders; Speech acoustics