Michael Cannito

• BA, MS, PhD
• Hawthorne/BORSF Distinuished Professor (Full/Tenured) at University of Louisiana at Lafayette

© 2019 The Korean Association of Speech-Language Pathologists This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work i...

This article reviews the occurrence of motor speech disorders of dysarthria and apraxia of speech following closed head injury and other traumatic brain injuries in adults as they apply to sport concussion and related trauma. Athletic sideline and speech-language pathology screenings are considered. Procedures for clinical assessment and diagnosis...

This study evaluated the hypotheses that sentence production by speakers with adductor (AD) and abductor (AB) spasmodic dysphonia (SD) may be differentially influenced by consonant voicing and manner features, in comparison with healthy, matched, nondysphonic controls. This was a prospective, single blind study, using a between-groups, repeated mea...

An exploratory investigation of selected voice characteristics of 21 direct salespeople revealed that rate of speaking, average pause duration, and fundamental frequency contour were significantly related to a measure of output sales performance. Although a sample of 26 housewives (who constituted the target market for the product being sold) was a...

To examine the perceptual structure of voice attributes in adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) before and after botulinum toxin treatment and identify acoustic correlates of underlying perceptual factors. Reliability of perceptual judgments is considered in detail. Pre- and posttreatment trial with comparison to healthy controls, using single-blind...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether sentence intelligibility improves in speakers with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) as a result of Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT). It was hypothesized that all the speakers would improve following treatment, in association with increased vocal loudness, which was the primary target of the...

This study was designed to investigate the effects of signal independent sentence characteristics on speech intelligibility scores. Six adult speakers with untreated hypokinetic dysarthria were audio recorded while orally reading randomly selected sentences from the Sentence Intelligibility Test (SIT). These audio recordings were then utilized in a...

Kinematic and acoustic time-series measurements were employed to evaluate the utility of sustained vowel formant tracks as an index of vocal tract steadiness (Gerratt, 1983). Two healthy adult speakers produced sustained vowels under normal phonation conditions and while simulating articulatory dyskinesia or dysphonia. The influence of F0 variabili...

The comprehension and production of affective prosody and facial expression was investigated in subjects with traumatic brain injury and matched normal subjects. Performance on tasks designed to assess the ability to recognise affect in congruous, neutral, and ambiguous sentences and the ability to portray emotions in affectively neutral sentences...

Background: Investigations of prosodic tempos during conversations between non‐disordered persons have revealed changes in tempo during conversational repairs. The present study investigates fluctuations in prosodic parameters of speakers with aphasia during conversational repairs to study how changes in prosodic tempo are associated with the speak...

A speaker with hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) was studied before and after Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT®) to evaluate treatment-related changes in intelligibility of connected speech. He presented with reduced loudness and a weak, breathy voice quality (in addition to monoloudness, monopitch, short ph...

This study was designed to investigate the effects of intensive voice treatment (Lee Silverman Voice Treatment®) on formant steadiness in 10 speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria associated with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and parkinsonian syndromes. Digital acoustic analysis was used to measure the variability of formant frequencies around their...

Aging of the larynx is characterized by involutional changes which alter its biomechanical and neural properties and create a biological environment that is different from younger counterparts. Illustrative anatomical examples are presented. This natural, non-disease process appears to set conditions which may influence the effectiveness of botulin...

Aphasiology Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: P. (2008) 'Rhythmic patterns during conversational repairs in speakers with aphasia ', Aphasiology,terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article maybe used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction,...

The study investigated whether acoustic speech measures permitted effective clinical assessment of the effects of botulinum toxin treatment (BT) in an individual with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD). A 54-year-old male diagnosed with ADSD was tracked over a span of 26 months of BT treatment. Seven BT injections were administered during that tim...

A speaker with hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to idiopathic Parkin son's disease was studied before and after Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) to evaluate treatment-related changes in acoustic vowel spectra during connected speech. He presented with reduced loudness, and a weak, breathy voice quality (in addition to monoloudness, monopitch, s...

One of the most debilitating disorders is adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD), a voice disorder caused by invol- untary movements of the muscles of the larynx (voice box). For treating ADSD, botulinum toxin (BT) injections turned out to be very useful. However, the effects of BT are highly variable, so at present, there is no objective criterion of...

Spectral amplitude measures are sensitive to varying degrees of vocal fold adduction in normal speakers. This study examined the applicability of harmonic amplitude differences to adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) in comparison with normal controls. Amplitudes of the first and second harmonics (H1, H2) and of harmonics affiliated with the first,...

To evaluate expert listeners' perceptions of voice and fluency in persons with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) before and after treatment with botulinum toxin type A (Botox), as a function of initial severity of the disorder (while controlling for patients' age at injection). Simple before-and-after trial with blinded randomized listener judgme...

This study compared speech intelligibility in nondisabled speakers and speakers with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) before and after botulinum toxin (Botox) injection. Standard speech samples were obtained from 10 speakers diagnosed with severe ADSD prior to and 1 month following Botox injection, as well as from 10 age- and gender-matched heal...

This study investigated relationships between acoustical indices of spasmodic dysphonia and perceptual scaling judgments of voice attributes made by expert listeners. Audio-recordings of The Rainbow Passage were obtained from thirty one speakers with spasmodic dysphonia before and after a BOTOX injection of the vocal folds. Six temporal acoustic me...

This research sought to identify a well-defined pre-motor potential, the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), as a manifestation of cortical contribution to the pre-motor planning of volitional swallowing. EEG data were collected from 20 research participants during volitional execution of swallowing and finger movement tasks. A5 second pre-movement epoch...

Acoustic analysis of a reading passage was used to identify the abnormal phonatory events associated with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) preand postinjection of Botulinum Toxin A (Botox). Thirty-one patients (age 22 to 74 years) diagnosed with ADSD were included for study. All patients were new recipients of Botox, and the examination of their...

Over the years many studies have been conducted to document the treatment effects of Botulinum toxin type A in adductor spasmodic dysphonia. The results of these studies have led to the view that overall Botulinum toxin treatment is moderately effective. This study reviews efficacy research qualitatively and quantitatively to determine the extent t...

The purpose of the study was to compare phonatory and temporal features of spasmodic dysphonia (SD) and pseudobulbar dysarthria (PBD). Five participants with SD, five participants with PBD, and ten individuals with no disorders were audio recorded as they read the Grandfather passage and sustained production of /a/. MANOVA statistical analyses of a...

Most communicators engage in some degree of hand gesturing while speaking. The purposes of the present paper are to review in detail the nature of hand gestures (gesticulations) in normal communicative interactions and to examine their potential role as a compensatory communicative strategy in dysarthria rehabilitation. In addition, contraindicatio...

The application of neural computing to the field of communication sciences and disorders may offer clinicians insights into theoretical and clinical issues. This paper reports the application of a self-organizing neural network to the task of differential diagnosis of normal and spasmodic dysphonic speakers using only speech fluency measures. Sever...

This study examines the functional and physiologic outcomes of treatment in a group of 10 patients with chronic dysphagia subsequent to a single brainstem injury. All patients participated in a structured swallowing treatment program at a metropolitan teaching hospital. This program differs from more traditional swallowing treatment by the inclusio...

Connected speech samples from 17 women with adductor spasmodic dysphonia before and one month after unilateral botulinum toxin (BOTOX) injection of the thyroarytenoid muscle were analyzed using long?term averaged spectra (LTAS). Respiratory noises were removed prior to analysis but consonants were not. Prior LTAS research on this disorder before an...

A speech problem can be caused by different reasons, from psychological to organic. The existing diagnostic of speech pathologies relies on skilled doctors who can often diagnose by simply listening to the patient. We show that neural networks can simulate this ability and thus provide an automated (preliminary) diagnosis

A speech problem can be caused by different reasons, from psychological to organic. The existing diagnostic of speech pathologies relies on skilled doctors who can often diagnose by simply listening to the patient. We show that neural networks can simulate this ability and thus provide an automated (preliminary) diagnosis

This study examined visual analog scaling (VAS) judgments of disfluency by normal listeners in response to oral reading by speakers with spasmodic dysphonia (SD) and by nondysphonic controls, as well as the variables of frequency of occurrence of disfluencies, speaking rate, number of reading errors, and temporal acoustic measures of interword inte...

This study examined visual analog scaling (VAS) judgments of disfluency by normal listeners in response to oral reading by speakers with spasmodic dysphonia (SD) and by nondysphonic controls, as well as the variables of frequency of occurrence of disfluencies, speaking rate, number of reading errors, and temporal acoustic measures of interword inte...

Deficits in language comprehension have been observed in older individuals, particularly affecting comprehension of complex syntactic constructs such as passive sentences. Aphasic adults display a qualitatively similar pattern, with passive constructions being more difficult to comprehend than active constructs. Various types of context have been f...

The influence of verbal and nonverbal contextual factors on intelligibility was examined using sentences produced under varying conditions by a speaker with severe flaccid dysarthria. Contextual factors included (a) concurrent production of communication gestures, (b) predictiveness of message content, (c) relatedness of sentences to specific situa...

Stimuli reported by Hough et al. (1989) were employed to assess aphasic subjects' auditory comprehension of reversible passive sentences presented in isolation, and at the ends of narrative paragraphs that either strongly predicted or did not predict the specific subject—object relationships portrayed in the target sentences. Verbal stimuli were pr...

Acoustic and laryngographic measurements of Sykes's monkey (Cercopithecus albogularis) squeals showed that acoustic variation between exemplars was principally due to 4 underlying modes of modification: (Class I) variation in the transfer function produced by articulation, (Class II) variation in F0 produced by inflection, (Class III) variation in...

There were two aims of this study. The first was to compare indirect inferencing abilities by nine right hemisphere brain-damaged (RHD) adults with 18 matched normal controls. The second purpose was to determine the best condition in which to present information to the RHD individuals for the purpose of forming these inferences. Three conditions we...

The results from an off‐line procedure (scaling) were compared to those from an on‐line procedure (‘‘rate adjustment’’) for effectiveness in examining the fusion strength of partials within two, three‐tone complexes. In both procedures fusion strength was inferred by the ease in which a tone presented in isolation (captor tone), and alternately wit...

We present a rationale and step-by-step description of a previously unpublished innovative surgical technique designed to overcome velopharyngeal insufficiency. This procedure maintains the anatomic integrity and physiologic function of the velopharynx by limiting interpalatal dissection and incorporates a method for flap attachment through the vel...

The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of botulinum toxin injection on measures of depression, anxiety, and somatic complaints in patients diagnosed as having spasmodic dysphonia. Patients were asked to complete preinjection questionnaires with self-ratings of depression, state and trait anxiety, and somatic complaints. Approxim...

Whereas recent research has focused upon neuromotor aspects of spasmodic dysphonia, the disorder has historically been regarded as having a psychogenic basis. Relatively little empirical evidence, however, has been offered either to support or refute that claim. The present study examines emotional characteristics of 18 female spasmodic dysphonic s...

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...

The influence of three variables on single word comprehension in 11 aphasic subjects was assessed using a picture pointing task. The variables were: the number of pictures displayed, the relationship among the pictures and the presence of a situational context. The results indicated that, when the pictures were unrelated, increasing the number of p...

The influence of prior linguistic predictive and nonpredictive context on the comprehension of reversible passive sentences was investigated in 16 adults with aphasia. Eight subjects were classified as fluent and 8 as nonfluent. Subjects were presented with the sentences in isolation and preceded by nonpredictive and predictive contextual paragraph...

• Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) is a low-incidence voice disorder of unknown origin. A subgroup of seven patients with SD from our larger pool of 70 report vocal symptoms subsequent to head injury. This article is a case report of the neurodiagnostic findings, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, auditory brain-stem response, brain...

This case study exemplifies successful diagnosis through stroboscopic fiberoptic examination, illustrates the critical importance of a careful case history, and demonstrates potential hazards of supposedly benign environmental substances for hypersensitive individuals.

A homogeneous sample of normal adults living in a religious order in a study of age effects on reference as a cohesive device in discourse production and comprehension. Narrative and procedural discourse were examined across various levels of complexity and stimulus/response requirements. Results indicate that significant ambiguity of reference eme...

This study assessed aphasic subjects' sensitivity to the given-new structure within simple paragraphs and the extent to which narrative discourse is facilitative of syntactic processing in the absence of semantic constraints. Subjects were divided into four groups along the dimensions of comprehension level and fluency. Stimulus items consisted of...

A sample of 19 spasmodic dysphonia (SD) patients was selected from a larger population of such patients to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), auditory brain stem response (ABR) testing, speech analysis, and extensive physical examination. Six patients had abnormal spin-echo MRI findings, ranging from infarcts within the basal ganglia to demy...

Brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM) was employed to study ten patients exhibiting adductor spasmodic dysphonia. BEAM is a recent neural imaging technique which utilizes digital signal processing and color graphics capabilities to generate mappings of the scalp distribution of ongoing cortical EEG activity, as well as cortical evoked response a...

Recently, two types of spastic dysphonia, adductor and abductor, have been proposed. The literature suggests that patients may be categorized as having one form of the disorder or the other. The present study presents case history and spectrographic data on a patient who evidences vocal characteristics of both disorder types. It is suggested that s...