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Dysarthria (from Ancient Greek δυσ- ''dys'', "hard, difficult, bad" and ἄρθρωσις ''arthrosis'', "articulation") is a motor speech disorder resulting from neurological injury of the motor component of the motor-speech system and is characterized by poor articulation of phonemes (cf. aphasia: a disorder of the content of language). In other words, it is a condition in which problems effectively occur with the muscles that help produce speech, often making it very difficult to pronounce words. It is unrelated to any problem with understanding cognitive language. Any of the speech subsystems (respiration, phonation, resonance, prosody, and articulation) can be affected, leading to impairments in intelligibility, audibility, naturalness, and efficiency of vocal communication. Dysarthria that has progressed to or presents as a total loss of speech may be referred to as anarthria. Neurological injury due to damage in the central or peripheral nervous system may result in weakness, paralysis, or a lack of coordination of the motor-speech system, producing dysarthria.〔 These effects in turn hinder control over the tongue, throat, lips or lungs for example; swallowing problems (dysphagia) are also often present. The term dysarthria does not include speech disorders from structural abnormalities, such as cleft palate, and must not be confused with apraxia of speech, which refers to problems in the planning and programming aspect of the motor-speech system.〔 Cranial nerves that control these muscles include the trigeminal nerve's motor branch (V), the facial nerve (VII), the glossopharyngeal nerve (IX), the vagus nerve (X), and the hypoglossal nerve (XII). ==Classification== Dysarthrias are classified in multiple ways based on the presentation of symptoms. Specific dysarthrias include spastic (resulting from bilateral damage to the upper motor neuron), flaccid (resulting from bilateral or unilateral damage to the lower motor neuron), ataxic (resulting from damage to cerebellum), unilateral upper motor neuron (presenting milder symptoms than bilateral UMN damage), hyperkinetic and hypokinetic (resulting from damage to parts of the basal ganglia, such as in Huntington's disease or Parkinsonism), and the mixed dysarthrias (where symptoms of more than one type of dysarthria are present). The majority of dysarthric patients are diagnosed as having 'mixed' dysarthria, as neural damage resulting in dysarthria is rarely contained to one part of the nervous system — for example, multiple strokes, traumatic brain injury, and some kinds of degenerative illnesses (such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) usually damage many different sectors of the nervous system. Ataxic dysarthria is an acquired neurological and sensorimotor speech deficit. It is a common diagnosis among the clinical spectrum of ataxic disorders. Since regulation of skilled movements is a primary function of the cerebellum, damage to the superior cerebellum and the superior cerebellar peduncle is believed to produce this form of dysarthria in ataxic patients. Growing evidence supports the likelihood of cerebellar involvement specifically affecting speech motor programming and execution pathways, producing the characteristic features associated with ataxic dysarthria. This link to speech motor control can explain the abnormalities in articulation and prosody, which are hallmarks of this disorder. Some of the most consistent abnormalities observed in patients with ataxia dysarthria are alterations of the normal timing pattern, with prolongation of certain segments and a tendency to equalize the duration of syllables when speaking. As the severity of the dysarthria increases, the patient may also lengthen more segments as well as increase the degree of lengthening of each individual segment. Common clinical features of ataxic dysarthria include abnormalities in speech modulation, rate of speech, explosive or scanning speech, slurred speech, irregular stress patterns, and vocalic and consonantal misarticulations. Dysarthria may affect a single system; however, it is more commonly reflected in multiple motor-speech systems. The etiology, degree of neuropathy, existence of co-morbidities, and the individual's response all play a role in the effect the disorder has on the individual's quality of life. Severity ranges from occasional articulation difficulties to verbal speech that is completely unintelligible.〔 Individuals with dysarthria may experience challenges in the following: * Timing * Vocal quality * Pitch * Volume * Breath control * Speed * Strength * Steadiness * Range * Tone〔〔 Examples of specific observations include a continuous breathy voice, irregular breakdown of articulation, monopitch, distorted vowels, word flow without pauses, and hypernasality.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dysarthria」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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