Neuromotor Disorders Flashcards
Dysarthria
(muscle); any where in motor system
A group of speech disorders resulting from disturbances in muscular control
Damage to the CNS or PNS causes some degree of weakness, slowness, incoordination, or altered muscle tone characterizes the speech mechanism.
Problems:
- Tone (low or high tone – not contracting enough or contracting too much)
- Strength (hypercontration is not an indication of strength)
- ROM (range of motion – tongue movement)
- Coordination
Flaccid Dysarthria
• always due to damage of the LMN; brain stem lesions are most common
• speech observed depends on the speech processes that are involved
• Two significant symptoms:
o 1. Weakness
o 2. Hypotonia
Dysarthria – Weakness
- Stems from damage to the motor unit
- When damaged, motor unit becomes inactivated with a lost or diminished ability to contract
- When there is complete inactivation to a muscle, there is paralysis; when there is reduced inactivation to the muscle, there is paresis
- Difference between high, normal, and low tone
Assessment: vowel prolongation, diadochokinetic rate, connected speech sample
Speech and Vocal Chara. due to a Lesion
- Hypernasality
- Imprecise consonants
- Breathiness
- Monopitch
- Nasal emission
- Audible inspiration
- Harsh voice quality
- Short phrases
- Monoloudness
Spastic Dysarthria
- Caused by bilateral damage to the upper motor neurons
- The muscles described as “spastic” have increases muscle tone, but are not stronger because of it; muscles are stiff and move sluggishly through a limited range
- Speech is labored
Spastic: Most salient charact.
- Strained-strangled, harsh voice w/monopitch and monoloudness
- Hypernasality (related to vowels) w/ nasal emission (related to consonants)
- Slow, labored, imprecise articulation
- Short phrasing (voice qualities and respiration)
Ataxic dysarthria
- Caused by damage to the cerebellum or its pathways
- Damage results in “dragging and blurred” quality of speech that sounds something like drunken speech
Ataxic: Most salient charact.
- Imprecise articulation (consonants and vowels) with irregular breakdowns
- Intonation and stress misplaced with prolonged sounds and intervals
- Harsh vocal quality (not common in all patients)
Hypokinetic Dysarthria (too little movement)
- Caused by damage to the basal ganglia or their connections in the CNS (eg., Substania nigra where dopamine is produced). It typically carries the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease but may have other etiologic factors such as TBI. Stroke, toxic metal poisoning, etc.
- Too much dopamine can have adverse affects
- Characteristics may be found in any of the processes; respiration, resonatory, phonatory, articulatory, or prosody
- Characteristics are most evident in phonatory, articulatory, and prosodic processes
- Only dysarthria where increased rate of speech is a symptom (walking after a stroke – slow down to be safe, even though it’s the normal rate; weaker muscles in speech, so normal rate is still too fast)
• Hypokinetic: Most salient characteristics
- Imprecise artic w. rushes of speech and palilalia (jumbled speech sounds because how fast they are talking) at times
- Inappropriate silences (akinesia? – ask them to do something and they don’t do it or do so slowly)
- Breathy and possibly harsh vocal quality (low and soft)
- Monoloudness and monopitch
- Masked facies (have difficulty expressing feeling in their faces – like flat affect)
Typical charact. Of Parkinson’s Disease
- Tremors
- resting – tremor you see at rest (can see it in the lingual muscle or in the face)
- action – see them when they start to move
-
Bradykinesia
* Slow and reduced ROM
* tiny shuffling; arms don’t swing
-
Bradykinesia
-
Muscle rigidity
* there is constant resistance to extending a joint; relatively equal in all muscle groups
-
Muscle rigidity
-
Akinesia
* delay initiating movements
* problem with postural reflexes
-
Akinesia
Hyperkinetic dysarthria (too much movement)
Multiplicity of causes that all relate to problems with the basal ganglia
- Multiple movement doesn’t seem to have any meaning
- Chorea (random involuntary movements that appear smooth, coordinated, and dancelike)
Hyperkinetic dysarthria: Most Salient Charact
- Variations of the speech rate and loudness
- imprecise articulation (consonants and vowels)
- long silence (internals) between syllables and words and prolonged phonemes
Unilateral UMN Dysarthria
- This is not part of the initial classification system espoused by Mayo Clinic
- Bilateral damage to the brain often causes significant speech symptoms
- Unilateral damage usually produces only mild to moderate speech impairment (tongue deviates to one side)
- The most apparent symptoms are those of the lower face and tongue
- With milder cases, recovery may be over a short period of time and may be relatively complete
- May co-occur with aphasia, apraxia, and other disorders (makes it difficult to distinguish between the others
Unilateral UMN Dysarthria: Most salient charact.
- Imprecise artic w. slowed diadoch. Rates
- Mild to moderate harsh vocal quality (only in some patients)
- Temporary and mild symptoms typical