User:Tothje/Dysprosody Project Proposal

Dysprosody Project Proposal
Melissa Sprockel, Brianne Poynton, Jessica Toth

Dysprosody is the rarest type of neurological speech disorder which affects the rhythm, melody, intonation, timing, cadence, and intensity of speech. It does not affect their comprehension, grammar, thought process, or vocabulary, just the delivery of their speech. Basically, those who are affected by this disorder speak in a foreign accent from their native one. For example an American who experiences a head injury can start speaking in a German or Russian accent with no control over how the words come out of her mouth. As far as scientists know, it is caused by damage to various parts of the brain, however, not necessarily parts associated with language. As of now there is no cure for dysprosody as it is not fully understood yet by scientists but there are some treatments which have allowed some to reverse the effects. Speech therapy and working with an accent coach have proved affective. Other studies have shown that with time the speech can naturally correct itself.

After a brief introduction, we intend to discuss prosody in order to better explain and understand the disorder associated with it. Then we will go into more depth about what parts of the brain are damaged when patients develop dysprosody, what parts of the brain are responsible for the change in speech, symptoms including those not pertaining directly to speech, and behavior of those with dysprosody. We are planning on including how dysporsody is connected to other neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s. We are also going to talk about treatments and possible research into cures.

Our plan of writing this article is to each read our the sources that we found and get as much information as possible from them. Then, we will combine all of our findings to write each section together.