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Articulation Rate, Pauses, and Disfluencies in Professional Fighters: Potential Speech Biomarkers for Repetitive Head
Amy Neel1, Sofiya Krasilshchikova, Jessica D Richardson
1Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (Drs Neel, Richardson, and Arenas and Ms Krasilshchikova); Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, California (Dr Bennett); Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla (Dr Banks); and Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, Nevada (Drs Ritter and Bernick).
Objective:
As part of a larger study dedicated to identifying speech and language biomarkers of neurological decline associated with repetitive head injury (RHI) in professional boxers and mixed martial artists (MMAs), we examined articulation rate, pausing, and disfluency in passages read aloud by participants in the Professional Athletes Brain Health Study.
Setting:
A large outpatient medical center specializing in neurological care.
Participants, Design, And Main Measures:
Passages read aloud by 60 boxers, 40 MMAs, and 55 controls were acoustically analyzed to determine articulation rate (the number of syllables produced per second), number and duration of pauses, and number and duration of disfluencies in this observational study.
Results:
Both boxers and MMAs differed from controls in articulation rate, producing syllables at a slower rate than controls by nearly half a syllable per second on average. Boxers produced significantly more pauses and disfluencies in passages read aloud than MMAs and controls.
Conclusions:
Slower articulation rate in both boxers and MMA fighters compared with individuals with no history of RHI and the increased occurrence of pauses and disfluencies in the speech of boxers suggest changes in speech motor behavior that may relate to RHI. These speech characteristics can be measured in everyday speaking conditions and by automatic recognition systems, so they have the potential to serve as effective, noninvasive clinical indicators for RHI-associated neurological decline.
