Biomedical subjects

M Swerts

Publications and source records attributed to M Swerts.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Prosodic features at discourse boundaries of different strength.

This paper presents the design and the evaluation of a method to study prosodic features of discourse structure in unrestricted spontaneous speech. Past work has indicated that one of the major difficulties that discourse prosody analysts have to overcome is finding an independent specification of hierarchical discourse structure as to avoid circularity. Previous studies have tried to solve this problem by constraining the discourse or by basing segmentations on a specific discourse theory. The current investigation first explores the possibility of experimentally determining discourse boundaries in unrestricted speech. In a next stage, it is investigated to what extent boundaries obtained in this way correlate with specific prosodic variables: the features pause, pitch range, and type of boundary tone are studied as a function of discourse structure.

Female↗

PubMed1993

The prosody of information units in spontaneous monologue.

This article describes a perceptual evaluation of the prosodic structure of a spontaneously produced monologue. It was found that the speaker studied demarcates larger-scale topical units in spoken discourse by means of intonation (use of melodic boundary markers, scaling of maxima in pitch movements, general decline in average pitch) and by the use of pauses with variable durations. In a perception test, it was examined to what extent these prosodic devices may be important to listeners. Subjects were confronted with three unintelligible (band-pass-filtered) versions of a fragment of the elicited monologue: (1) with the original prosody unchanged; (2) with constant pause duration and the original speech melody; (3) with monotonous pitch and the original pause structure. They were instructed to indicate the boundaries of the larger-scale topical units in the three versions. Subjects were able to detect correctly the major discourse boundaries in all three filtered versions in a significant number of cases. They performed best when confronted with version 1. Versions 1 and 2, in their turn, did better than version 3, which suggests that, in the performance of this speaker, intonation is a perceptually more important factor than pause for the clarification of the topical make-up of a text, though the latter dimension is certainly not negligible.

Female↗

PubMed1987

Magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis.

The relationship between cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis and brain lesions seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was studied. Three groups of 11 patients with multiple sclerosis, matched for the variables of disability, duration of illness, age and sex, were included. On the basis of neuropsychological testing, the groups were seen to differ in their level of cognitive impairment. The first group showed no cognitive impairment, the second group a moderate, and the third group a serious cognitive impairment. These differences between the groups were reflected by MRI, which revealed more abnormalities in the groups with cognitive impairment compared with the group with normal cognitive function. However, by MRI it was not possible to distinguish between the groups with moderate and that with serious cognitive impairment.

Adult↗

PubMed1984

Use of rating scales to reflect cognitive and mental functioning in multiple sclerosis.

46 patients with clinically definite multiple sclerosis were studied to compare intellectual function (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) with other clinical expressions of the disease. Estimated premorbid I.Q. was compared to actual I.Q. 35% had I.Q. decrease of 0-14 points (clinically insignificant); 56% had mild to moderate I.Q. decrease of 15-29 points and 8% had more serious I.Q. decrease of 30 or more points. Decrease in I.Q. did not correlate with any other neurological deficit.

Adult↗