Motor Speech Lab
The Motor Speech Lab is part of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Bowling Green State University. We study the effect of neurological disorders and the normal aging process on speech production. Our work primarily focuses on speech and non-speech motor learning and control in individuals with Parkinson disease. The end goal of our work is to inform the development and optimization of rehabilitation approaches for treating voice and speech impairments in Parkinson disease.
Our lab is located on the first floor of the Health and Human Services building on the Bowling Green Campus. Dr. Whitfield’s office is 251, located on the second floor. Our research team includes undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, as well as collaborators in the department, across campus, and at other institutions.
Doctoral Students
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students
Collaborators
Adam Fullenkamp, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, Department of Exercise Science at Bowling Green State University
Andrea Sheehy, M.S., CCC-SLP
Rehabilitation Director, Rehabilitation Hospital of Northwest Ohio Adjunct Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Bowling Green State University
Angela Reif, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor in the School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at University of Akron
Brent Archer, Ph. D., CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Bowling Green State University.
Brittany Perrine, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Baylor University
Christopher Dromey, Ph. D.
Professor in Communication Disorders at Brigham Young University
Daryush Mehta, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital
Ronald Scherer, Ph. D.
Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Bowling Green State University
Previous Research Assistants
Undergraduate Students
- Larisa Kalinowski
- Makinzie Viola
- Emily (Josie) Clark
- Abigail Bates
- Megan Vine
- Rachel Garlitz
- Elaina Eskins
- Cassidy Quinlan
- Heidi Brubaker
- Madison Livingston
- Shelby Schroeder
- Tarynn Clune
- Chloe Lautzenheiser
- Colleen Walsh
- Michaela Natal
- Katelyn Denisi
Graduate Students
- Emily Otten (2015-2016)
- Kari Beining (2015-2016)
- Kendra McCann (2015-2016)
- Sarah Starcher (2015-2016)
- Ashleigh Stanfield (2016-2017)
- Sadie Sneider (2016-2017)
- Kendra Koester (2017-2018)
- Jane Dreier (2017-2018)
- Makayla Morgan (2018)
- Madeline Ramsey (2018-2019)
- Katelyn Bier (2018-2019)
- Hailey Wilson (2018-2019)
We have great interest in understanding the relationship between speech and non-speech motor learning because the treatment process relies on intact learning processes. During treatment patients and clients must acquire, retain, and be able to automatically produce new skills. The basal ganglia, which is a primary region of the brain affected in individuals with Parkinson disease, is critical for motor learning. Therefore, it is important to understand how learning is affected in individuals with Parkinson disease so that speech and voice treatment can be optimized. This work examines the early and later learning stages of speech and non-speech motor sequence learning.
Because both speech and non-speech function are affected in Parkinson disease, it is important to understand the relationship between speech motor system and non-speech motor control, including limb, digit, and manual movements, as well as posture and gait. Speech tasks vary in level of complexity from nonsense syllable repetition and sentence repetition to higher level cognitive-linguistic tasks. This work examines these systems both in isolation and while speech and non-speech tasks are performed together.
Understanding the relationships between the speech acoustics, speech perception, and speech kinematics is another primary area of interest in the Motor Speech Lab. This work includes the development of acoustic measures of speech production, as well as the application of these measures to speech impairments in Parkinson disease. The primary goal of this work is to develop sensitive measures of speech production that can be extracted non-invasively and be used to track changes related to treatment.
Publications:
Whitfield, J. A., Kriegel, Z., Fullenkamp, A. M., & Mehta, D. D. (in press). Bidirectional effects of concurrent manual task performance on connected speech acoustics in individuals with Parkinson disease. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Whitfield, J. A. & Mehta, D. D. (in press). Examination of clear speech in Parkinson disease using measures of working vowel space. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Gravelin A. & Whitfield, J. A. (in press). Effects of clear speech on silent interval duration at syntactic and phonemic boundaries in speakers with Parkinson disease. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Perrine, B., Scherer, R. C., & Whitfield, J. A. (in press). Signal interpretation considerations when estimating subglottal pressure from oral air pressure. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Whitfield, J. A. (2019). Exploration of metrics for quantifying formant space in speakers with Parkinson Disease: Implications for vowel space assessment. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 4, 402-410.
Whitfield, J. A. & Gravelin, A. (2019). Characterizing the distribution of silent intervals in the connected speech of individuals with Parkinson disease. Journal of Communication Disorders, 78, 10-32, DOI:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2018.12.001
Whitfield, J. A., Dromey, C., & Palmer, P. (2018). Examining acoustic and kinematic measures of articulatory working space: Effects of speech intensity. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 1104-1117, doi: 10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0388.
Whitfield, J. A., Reif, A., & Goberman, A. M. (2017). Voicing contrast of stop consonant production in the speech of individuals with Parkinson disease ON and OFF dopaminergic medication. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 1-8, doi: 10.1080/02699206.2017.1387816. [Epub ahead of print]
Whitfield, J. A., DeLong, C., Goberman, A. M., & Blomgren, M. (2017). Fluency adaptation effect in individuals with Parkinson disease: A motor learning perspective. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1-9. doi: 10.1080/17549507.2017.1341549. (Epub ahead of print]
Whitfield, J. A., & Goberman, A. M. (2017). Articulatory-acoustic vowel space: Associations between acoustic and perceptual measures of clear speech. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19, 184-194, doi: 10.1080/17549507.2016.1193897.
Whitfield J. A. & Goberman, A. M. (2017). Speech motor sequence learning: Acquisition and retention in Parkinson disease and normal aging. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60, 1477-1492. doi: 10.1044/2016_JSLHR-S-16-0104.
Whitfield J. A. & Goberman, A. M. (2017). Speech motor sequence learning: Effect of Parkinson disease and normal aging on dual-task performance. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60, 1752-1765. doi: 10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-16-0246.
Whitfield, J. A., & Goberman, A. M. (2014). Articulatory-Acoustic Vowel Space: Application to Clear Speech in Individuals with Parkinson disease. Journal of Communication Disorders, 51, 19-28. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2014.06.005.
Recent Presentations:
Fullenkamp, A. M., Kriegel, Z., & Whitfield, J. A. (accepted). Normalized jerk as an indicator of discrete kinematic disfluency in Parkinson disease: A preliminary report. Joint meeting of the XXVII Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB2019) and the 43rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics (ASB2019).
Kriegel, Z., Holdosh, S., Fullenkamp, A. M., & Whitfield, J. A. (accepted). Concurrent Task Effects on Speech Kinematics and Fluency for an Individual with Parkinson Disease. Poster to be presented at the 2019 Boston Motor Speech Conference.
Behroozmand, R., Borrie, S., Lansford, K., Whitfield, J.A., Finan, D. (2018, Nov. 15). Towards Revolutionary Change in Clinical Practice: Emerging Research with Clinical Application. Invited oral session presented at the 2018 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA.
Gravelin, A., Vine, M., Kalinowski, L., & Whitfield, J. A. (2018, Nov. 17). Investigation of Speech Motor Sequence Learning and Chunking: An Application to Parkinson Disease. Poster presented at the 2017 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA.
Holdosh, S., Clark, J., Whitfield, J. A. (2018, Nov. 15). Articulatory-acoustic changes associated with fluency adaptation in speakers with Parkinson disease who stutter. Poster presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA.
Kriegel, Z., Fullenkamp, A. M., Natal, M., Livingston, M., & Whitfield, J. A. (2018, Nov. 15). Bidirectional effects of concurrently performed manual and diadochokinetic rate tasks: Application to Parkinson disease. Poster presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA.
Whitfield, J. A., Gravelin, A., Kriegel, Z., & Mehta, D. (2018). Duration of connected speech needed to accurately estimate the articulatory-acoustic vowel space of a reading passage. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 143(3), 1870-1870. PDF
Natal, M., Kriegel, A., & Whitfield, J. A. (2018, Mar 24). Effect of clear speech on speech rate of speakers with and without Parkinson Disease. Poster presented at the 2018 Ohio Speech, Language, and Hearing Association Convention.
Vine, M., Gravelin, A., Livingston, M., & Whitfield, J. A. (2018, Mar 24). Gains in speed and accuracy in a novel speech task. Poster presented at the 2018 Ohio Speech, Language, and Hearing Association Convention.
Walsh, M., Gravelin, A., Koester, K., & Whitfield, J. A. (2018, Mar 24). Effect of clear speech on speech rate of speakers with and without Parkinson Disease. Poster presented at the 2018 Ohio Speech, Language, and Hearing Association Convention.
Whitfield, J.A. (2018, March 23). Effects of Parkinson disease on voice, speech, and cognition. One and a half hour invited oral session presented at the 2018 Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Columbus, OH.
Gravelin, A. & Whitfield, J. A. (2018, Feb. 23). Effects of clear speech on the silent interval duration in speakers with Parkinson disease. Poster presented at the 2018 Conference on Motor Speech, Savannah, GA. PDF
Whitfield, J. A., Kriegel, Z., Natal, M., Mehta, D., Fullenkamp, A., & Gravelin, A. (2018, Feb. 24). Effects of speaking task on bidirectional dual-task interference in individuals with Parkinson disease. Poster presented at the 2018 Conference on Motor Speech, Savannah, GA. PDF
Whitfield, J.A., Mehta, D., Walsh, C. (2018, Feb. 23). Examining the effect of Parkinson disease on clear speech using utterance-level vowel space metrics. Poster presented at the 2018 Conference on Motor Speech, Savannah, GA. PDF
Whitfield, J.A. (2018, Feb 10). Motor learning in individuals with Parkinson disease: Implication for clinical practice. One hour invited oral session presented at the 2018 Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Chicago, IL.
Whitfield, J.A. (2018, Feb 10). Effects of dual-task performance on speaker with Parkinson disease: Clinical considerations. One hour invited oral session presented at the 2018 Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Chicago, IL.
Whitfield, J. & Koester, K. (2017, November 10). Description and Examination of Sentence‐level Metrics of Formant Space, Dynamics, and Stability. Oral session to be presented at the 2017 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Los Angeles, CA.
Gravelin, A. & Whitfield, J. A. (2017, July 8). Duration and frequency of stop gaps in the read speech of individuals with Parkinson disease. Presented at the 2017 International Conference on Speech Motor Control, Groningen, Netherlands. PDF
Dromey, C., Palmer, P., & Whitfield, J. A. (2017, July 7). Effects of speech intensity on acoustic and kinematic articulatory working space. Presented at the 2017 International Conference on Speech Motor Control, Groningen, Netherlands. PDF, Abstract
Whitfield, J. A., Brubaker, H., & Starcher, S. (2016, November 19). Analysis of fundamental frequency distributions in connected speech. Presented at the 2016 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Philadelphia, PA.
Whitfield, J. A., Bening, K., & Livingston, M. (2016, November 18). Assessing automatization using a dual-task paradigm: Application to speech motor automaticity in Parkinson disease. Presented at the 2016 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Philadelphia, PA. *Merits Poster Award
Gravelin, A., Whitfield, J. A., Clune, T., & Quinlan, C. (2016, November 17). Pause categorization in parkinsonian speech. Presented at the 2016 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Philadelphia, PA.
Whitfield, J. A., McCann, K., Otten, E., Koester, K., & Sneider, S. (2016, November 17). Perceptual characteristics of clear speech in Parkinson disease. Presented at the 2016 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Philadelphia, PA.
Goberman, A. M., Blomgren, M., Whitfield, J. A., Reif, A., & DeLong, C. (2016, November 17). Disfluent speech characteristics of individuals with Parkinson disease: Three perspectives. Oral presentation given at the 2016 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Philadelphia, PA.
Diekema, E. D., Scherer, R. S., Goberman, A. M., & Whitfield, J. A. (2016, March 12). Acoustic measurements of clear speech cue fade in adults with idiopathic Parkinson disease. Poster presentation given at the 2016 Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Columbus, OH.
Whitfield, J. A., Dromey, C., & Palmer, P. (2016, March 3). Articulatory-acoustic and kinematic relationships in comfortable and loud speech. Poster presented at the 2016 Motor Speech Conference, Newport Beach, CA. PDF
Whitfield, J. A. & Goberman, A. M. (2016, March 5). Speech motor sequence learning in Parkinson disease & normal aging. Oral presentation given at the 2016 Motor Speech Conference, Newport Beach, CA.
Whitfield, J. A. & Goberman, A. M. (2015, November 13). The effect of Parkinson disease and normal aging on speech motor sequence consolidation. Poster presented at 2015 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Denver, CO. *Merits Poster Award
Whitfield, J. A., Fields, N., Giachetti, S., Giardina, K., Holubeck, G., & Siesel, A. (2015, November 14). Pause distribution in parkinsonian speech. Poster presented at 2015 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention, Denver, CO. PDF
Whitfield J. A. & Goberman, A. M. (2015, May 22). The effect of Parkinson disease on voice onset time: Temporal differences in voicing contrast. Poster presented at 169th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Pittsburg, PA. PDF
Whitfield, J. A., Goberman, A. M., Simon, J., Blomgren, M., & DeLong, C. (2014, March 1). Adaptation effect in Parkinson Disease: Articulatory-acoustic and fluency characteristics. Oral presentation given at the 2014 Motor Speech Conference, Sarasota, FL.
Whitfield, J. A. & Goberman, A. M. (2014, February 27). Clear speech in individuals with Parkinson Disease: Application of a novel index of vowel articulation. Oral presentation given at the 2014 Motor Speech Conference, Sarasota, FL.
Whitfield, J. A. & Goberman, A. M. (2013, November 16). A novel index of vowel space: Application to clear speech in individuals with Parkinson Disease. Poster presented at 2013 American Speech-Language Hearing Association, Chicago, IL. PDF
We are always looking for individuals to participate in our research. Our studies include participants both with and without Parkinson Disease. If you would like more information on our research or if you are interested in volunteering as a participant in a research study, please fill out the short form below.
Current Research Studies
Speech Production Study
Recruitment Script
You are being invited to participate in a study of speech production. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding speech production in adults and individuals with Parkinson disease. Participation is voluntary, so you will receive no payment and there is no financial cost for participating. This study will be conducted by Anna C. Gravelin, M.S. CCC-SLP (gravela@bgsu.edu; motorspeechlab@bgsu.edu; 419-372-7406) in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Bowling Green State University under the advisement of Jason Whitfield, Ph.D. CCC-SLP (jawhitf@bgsu.edu).
The study will include one virtual session lasting no longer than two hours. The study will take place at a time and location that is convenient for you. During the study, you will be asked to complete both speech and non-speech tasks and fill out a series of questionnaires.
If you are interested in hearing more about this study, or are considering volunteering, please respond to the email address gravela@bgsu.edu with your contact information.
Speech Production Study
Recruitment Script
You are being invited to participate in a study of speech production. Speech and non-speech (manual movement) data will be collected to help us determine how automatic speech movements are. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding speech motor control and learning in adults and individuals with Parkinson disease. Participation is voluntary, so you will receive no payment and there is no financial cost for participating. This study will be conducted by Jason Whitfield, Ph.D., CCC-SLP (jawhitf@bgsu.edu; 419-372-8024) in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Bowling Green State University.
The study will include one session lasting no longer than two hours. The study will take place at a location that is convenient for you. During the study, you will be asked to complete both speech and non-speech tasks and fill out a series of questionnaires.
If you are interested in hearing more about this study, or are considering volunteering, please respond to the email address jawhitf@bgsu.edu with your contact information.
Updated: 09/14/2021 09:06AM