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The TORGO database of acoustic and articulatory speech from speakers with dysarthria

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Abstract

This paper describes the acquisition of a new database of dysarthric speech in terms of aligned acoustics and articulatory data. This database currently includes data from seven individuals with speech impediments caused by cerebral palsy or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and age- and gender-matched control subjects. Each of the individuals with speech impediments are given standardized assessments of speech-motor function by a speech-language pathologist. Acoustic data is obtained by one head-mounted and one directional microphone. Articulatory data is obtained by electromagnetic articulography, which allows the measurement of the tongue and other articulators during speech, and by 3D reconstruction from binocular video sequences. The stimuli are obtained from a variety of sources including the TIMIT database, lists of identified phonetic contrasts, and assessments of speech intelligibility. This paper also includes some analysis as to how dysarthric speech differs from non-dysarthric speech according to features such as length of phonemes, and pronunciation errors.

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Notes

  1. The Cs5view real-time position display flags a coil in red if the RMS error exceeds 30 units; however, the RMS during rarely exceeded 8 units across all coils, which is suitable for minimizing position tracking errors (Kroos 2008; Yunusova et al. 2009).

  2. Two sensors, in principle, are sufficient to characterize the six degrees of freedom related to rigid-body motions (Hoole and Zierdt 2010).

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute which receives funding under the Provincial Rehabilitation Research Program from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Ontario. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry. Equipment and space have been funded with grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Innovation Trust and the Ministry of Research and Innovation. This project is also funded by Bell University Labs, the University of Toronto, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Frank Rudzicz

  2. The Speech and Stuttering Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Aravind Kumar Namasivayam

  3. Oral Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Aravind Kumar Namasivayam

  4. Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Talya Wolff

Authors
  1. Frank Rudzicz
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  2. Aravind Kumar Namasivayam
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  3. Talya Wolff
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Correspondence to Frank Rudzicz.

Appendix: Articulatory contrasts

Appendix: Articulatory contrasts

See Table 3

Table 3 Articulatory contrasts, from Kent et al. (1989)
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Rudzicz, F., Namasivayam, A.K. & Wolff, T. The TORGO database of acoustic and articulatory speech from speakers with dysarthria. Lang Resources & Evaluation 46, 523–541 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10579-011-9145-0

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