Can the Acoustic Analysis of Expressive Prosody Discriminate Schizophrenia?

Emotional states, attitudes and intentions are often conveyed by modulations in the tone of voice. Impaired recognition of emotions from a tone of voice (receptive prosody) has been described as characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia. However, the ability to express non-verbal information in speech (expressive prosody) has been understudied. This paper describes a useful technique for quantifying the degree of expressive prosody deficits in schizophrenia, using a semi-automatic method, and evaluates this method's ability to discriminate between patient and control groups. Forty-five medicated patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were matched with thirty-five healthy comparison subjects. Production of expressive prosodic speech was analyzed using variation in fundamental frequency (F0) measures on an emotionally neutral reading task. Results revealed that patients with schizophrenia exhibited significantly more pauses (p < .001), were slower (p < .001), and showed less pitch variability in speech (p < .05) and fewer variations in syllable timing (p < .001) than control subjects. These features have been associated with «flat¼ speech prosody. Signal processing algorithms applied to speech were shown to be capable of discriminating between patients and controls with an accuracy of 93.8%. These speech parameters may have a diagnostic and prognosis value and therefore could be used as a dependent measure in clinical trials.

Can the acoustic analysis of expressive prosody discriminate schizophrenia?

Emotional states, attitudes and intentions are often conveyed by modulations in the tone of voice. Impaired recognition of emotions from a tone of voice (receptive prosody) has been described as characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia. However, the ability to express non-verbal information in speech (expressive prosody) has been understudied. This paper describes a useful technique for quantifying the degree of expressive prosody deficits in schizophrenia, using a semi-automatic method, and evaluates this method’s ability to discriminate between patient and control groups. Forty-five medicated patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were matched with thirty-five healthy comparison subjects. Production of expressive prosodic speech was analyzed using variation in fundamental frequency (F0) measures on an emotionally neutral reading task. Results revealed that patients with schizophrenia exhibited significantly more pauses (p < .001), were slower (p < .001), and showed less pitch variability in speech (p < .05) and fewer variations in syllable timing (p < .001) than control subjects. These features have been associated with «flat» speech prosody. Signal processing algorithms applied to speech were shown to be capable of discriminating between patients and controls with an accuracy of 93.8%. These speech parameters may have a diagnostic and prognosis value and therefore could be used as a dependent measure in clinical trials (AU)

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Propiedades psicométricas de la versión abreviada de la Escala de Ira al Conducir (DAS) en población española: diferencias por edad, sexo e infracciones de tráfico / Psychometric properties of the brief version of the Driving Anger Scale (DAS) in Spanish language: Differences by age, gender and traffic violations

Uno de los grupos de factores asociados a los accidentes de tráfico son los factores de personalidad. En concreto, la ira en la conducción resulta uno de los potencialmente más relevantes, ya que puede motivar y elicitar conductas agresivas. Para medir este factor de personalidad, Deffenbacher, Oetting & Lynch (1994) desarrollaron la Driving Anger Scale (DAS) y una versión reducida de la misma (de tan sólo 14 ítems). Dada la amplia difusión de esta última, debido a su validez y rapidez, también ha comenzado a ser adaptada al español (Herrero-Fernández, 2011). Esta adaptación inicial no se ha realizado en población general y presenta una estructura factorial de tres dimensiones. Nuestro estudio ha llevado a cabo una ampliación de trabajos anteriores realizando una adaptación en población general, incluyendo datos sobre infracciones cometidas por los participantes y obteniendo propiedades psicométricas adecuadas de la escala, así como una nueva propuesta en cuanto a la composición del constructo «ira en la conducción». La estructura de la versión breve ha sido explicada por tres factores: «ira ante el avance impedido por otro», «ira ante infracción de otro conductor» e «ira ante ofensa directa»; nuestra propuesta añade un nuevo factor que hemos denominado «ira ante posible sanción». Su inclusión viene apoyada por razones teóricas y prácticas (AU)

The personality factors are an important group of factors associated to traffic accidents. Specifically, driving anger can be one of the more remarkable variables because it can motivate and elicit aggressive behavior. To measure this personality factor Deffenbacher, Oetting & Lynch (1994) developed the Driving Anger Scale (DAS) and its abbreviated version (with only 14 items). Because of the widely dissemination of this short version, owing to its validity and time-saving properties, it have been accomplished its adaptation into Spanish too (Herrero-Fernández, 2011). This first Spanish adaptation did not use general population and found a three-factorial structure. In the present study we have carried out an extension to general population, including data on traffic violations. Appropriate psychometric properties and a new four-factorial structure of «driving anger» have been achieved. The three factors on previous short versions of the DAS have been called «traffic obstructions», «illegal driving», and «hostile gestures», but we have find a fourth factor we have named «possibility of being fined». Its rationale is both empirically and theoretically discussed (AU)