Characteristics of speech prosody function in adults with non-fluent aphasia after stroke
Objective To explore the characteristics of speech prosody chunking,affect,focus and interaction function in patients with non-fluent aphasia after stroke.Methods From December,2023 to March,2024,patients with non-fluent aphasia after stroke(experimental group,n=25)and healthy subjects(control group,n=25)were recruited from Shanghai Fifth Rehabilitation Hospital,and the two groups were compared in terms of chunking,affect,focus and interaction performance using a self-ad-ministered speech prosody function assessment tool and acoustic analyzing instrument.Results In chunking prosody,there were differences in auditory discrimination(Z=-4.856,P<0.001),auditory recog-nition of"two chunks"(Z=-3.024,P=0.002),and subjective scores,total pause duration,average pause dura-tion,average syllabic duration and structural sonic rate(|Z|>2.911,P<0.001)of imitating"two chunks"and au-tonomously outputing"two chunks"and"three chunks"between two groups.In affect prosody,there were differ-ences in listening to distinguish different emotions(Z=-3.322,P=0.001),listening to identify"like emotion"(Z=-3.481,P=0.001),and the subjective score(Z=-6.214,P<0.001),average intensity(Z=-3.581,P<0.001)and standard deviation of intensity(Z=-3.181,P=0.001)of imitating"like emotion"between two groups;there were differences in the subjective score(Z=-5.510,P<0.001),average intensity(Z=-3.429,P=0.001),standard deviation of intensity(Z=-4.777,P<0.001)and fundamental frequency variation range(t=1.852,P=0.029)of autonomously outputing"like emotion"between two groups.In focus prosody,there were differences in listening to distinguish different focuses(Z=-2.658,P=0.008),listening to identify the"end of sentence"focus(Z=-2.023,P=0.011),and the peak stress intensity of imitating the"first sentence"focus(t=8.294,P<0.001);the subjective score(|Z|>5.102,P<0.001)and peak stress intensity(t>8.298,P<0.001)of imitating the"mid-sentence"and"end-sentence",and the subjective score(Z=-4.371,P<0.001)and peak stress intensity(t=8.842,P<0.001)of autonomously outputing the focus of the"first sentence"between two groups;there were differences in the subjective score(|Z|>4.970,P<0.001),peak stress intensity(t>9.373,P<0.001)and stress duration(|t|>2.912,P<0.01)of autonomously outputing the focus of the"mid-sentence"and"end-sentence".In the interaction prosody,there were no significant difference in auditory resolution and au-ditory recognition between two groups(P>0.05),however,there were significant differences in the subjective score(|Z|>4.938,P<0.001)and the fundamental frequency slope k(|t|>4.609,P<0.001)of the interrogative tone both in imitative output and autonomous output.Conclusion Patients with non-fluent aphasia showed significant abnormalities in the recognition and expression of"2 chunks""like emotion""sentence-final focus"and"questioning tone."