Citation

Cannito MP, Kondraske GV. J. Speech Hear. Res. 1990; 33(1): 123-133.

Affiliation

Department of Speech Communication, University of Texas, Austin.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, American Speech and Hearing Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2314070

Abstract

This study quantitatively examined upper extremity motor performance in 18 spasmodic dysphonic females, in comparison to matched normal controls, across variables of finger lift reaction time, index finger tapping speed, and peg placing (Purdue Pegboard) speed. Significant differences were noted for both upper extremities on the finger tapping and pegboard tasks, with better performance by the controls. A linear combination of these manual variables was able to discriminate the spasmodic dysphonic from matched normal subjects with 78% accuracy. Motor performance was uncorrelated with psychometric measures of anxiety and depression in both groups. The dysphonic subjects exhibited a significant correlation between nondominant finger tapping speed and severity ratings of motor speech impairment. Possible localizing significance of these findings is discussed.

Language: en