Lingual Kinematics During Speech in Persons with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Electromagnetic articulography (EMA) was used to examine lingual kinematics in a heterogeneous group of seven adults with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), including two with relapsing-remitting and five with primary progressive forms of MS, with the latter group including two participants with dysarthria. Tongue tip and tongue body movements were tracked as two sentences, one loaded with alveolar consonants and the other with velar consonants, were read aloud six times each. The results are reported as a series of descriptive case reports. Subclinical kinematic disturbances were identified in nondysarthric participants with MS. Specifically, the results revealed that two MS participants (one dysarthric, one nondysarthric) exhibited significantly increased sentence durations compared to the control group (n = 14). Two other MS participants (one dysarthric, one nondysarthric) exhibited significantly increased tongue movement speed and distances, the effects of which may have counteracted to result in comparable sentence durations to the control group. The remaining three non-dysarthric participants with MS exhibited comparable values