On the Nature of Oral Movement Patterns in Dysarthric Patients Due to Cerebral Vascular Accidents

In order to investigate the nature of motor defects of the speech musculatures in dysar thric patients due to cerebral vascular accidents, non-verbal oral movements were studied in relation to overall intelligibility of speech, coordinative movements of speech organs and swal lowing movements. The results led us to the following conclusions. 1. The degree of individual isolated oral movements were correlated with efficacy of ar ticulatory, coordinative and swallowing movements. 2. A considerable number of the subjects, particularly the subjects whose articulation were moderately disturbed, showed unconscious accompanied movments in other parts during an intended oral movement. 3. The types of the accompanied movements were often common to different subjects. 4. In spite of the lower grade of oral movements ability, the subjects who exhibited more accompanied movements got fairly well marks in swallowing. This seemed to indicate that the accompanied movements reflected the lower motor patterns of speech organs in some way. 5. It is important to estimate the degrees of the accompanied movements and the isola ted movements for the evaluation of the ability of oral movements.