브로카 실어증 환자의 자음변별과 조음 특성

Characteristics of Consonant Discrimination and Articulation in Patients with Broca’s Aphasia

Purpose: Generally, Broca s aphasia, also known as motor aphasia is characterized by non-fluent speech and poor articulation. The current study compared consonant discrimination, phonetic representation and voice onset time (VOT) between patients with Broca s aphasia and normal people to investigate speech motor control and articulatory characteristics in patients with Broca s aphasia. Methods: Twenty patients with Broca s aphasia and age and gender matched twenty normal speakers participated in the present study. Naming task in Korean Western Aphasia Battery-Revised, repetition task, and nonsyllabic phoneme discrimination tasks were used to explore phonetic representation ability and auditory phoneme discrimination in patients with Broca s aphasia. In addition, a total of nine-vowelconsonant- vowel syllable stimuli [3 (phonation type) x 3 (place of articulation)] were used to test VOT. The consonant discrimination and production test were analyzed by manner of articulation (stop, fricative, affricate), place of articulation (bilabial, alveolar, palatal, velar), and phonatory type (lenis, fortis, aspirated). Results: For consonant discrimination, no significant difference between normal and Broca’s aphasia group was found. Significant articulatory breakdown, however, was observed in Broca s aphasia compared to normal control in nonsyllable repetition task as well as naming task in all place and manner of articulation and phonatory type. This study demonstrated significant differences between normal and Broca s aphasia groups in VOT according to phonatory type, indicating significant longer VOT in fortis than that of control whereas no significant difference in VOT regarding place of articulation between two groups. Conclusion: Although consonant discrimination ability was preserved, individuals with Broca s aphasia demonstrated poor speech motor control and articulation performance.