Our Latest Publications

    Speech and language impairments are core features of the neurodevelopmental genetic condition Kleefstra syndrome. The speech, language and cognitive profile...
      Exposing healthy adults to extended periods of wakefulness is known to induce changes in psychomotor functioning. The effect of fatigue...
        While speech biomarkers of disease have attracted increased interest in recent years, a challenge is that features derived from signal...
          Smart devices are widely available and capable of quickly recording and uploading speech segments for health-related analysis. The switch from...
            Self-reported ratings of stuttering have great potential utility for large-scale data collection, where cost and time preclude in-depth assessment by...
              Stuttering is a speech disorder characterised by the prolongation or repetition of speech words, sounds or syllables, together with interruptions...
                Friedreich ataxia (FA) is an inherited, multisystem neurodegenerative disease that results in profound changes to speech, swallowing, balance, walking, cardiac...
                  L16HTHOUSE is a research trial testing an experimental medication for treating speech, motor, learning, and other developmental delays in children...
                    Ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) is a rare inherited condition that affects the nervous and immune systems. A-T typically impacts movement, vision...
                      Speech and language development is a complex, multifactorial process driven by the individual’s ability to process and formulate communication. These...
                        Scientists are turning to retinas as a potential screening target for early signs of Alzheimer's, an incurable neurodegenerative disease that...
                          Primary Progressive Aphasia is a type of young onset dementia that is characterised by language impairment. Measuring disease progression and...
                            Stereotypical depictions of speech in cannabis users often suggest slow, laboured output, yet objective evidence supporting this assumption is extremely...
                              Speech is a cardinal and important feature of ataxia. We have put together a comprehensive description of dysarthria in spinocerebellar...
                                The paper describes the outcomes from a clinical trial for Friedreich ataxia (the most common hereditary ataxia impacting walking, talking,...
                                  Critically ill patients, like those in intensive care units, are a highly complex and varied group. Many critically ill patients...
                                    Subtle progressive changes in speech motor function and cognition begin prior to diagnosis of Huntington's disease (HD). Scientists at University...
                                      Face to face singing therapy can improve speech in PD. Have a look at our previous work published in Neurorehabilitation...
                                        Rare genetically inherited neurodevelopmental disorders remain a huge diagnostic and therapeutic challenge in clinical medicine. Redenlab pediatric consultant Prof Angela...
                                          Atypical development of Broca’s area in a large family with inherited stuttering Stuttering (aka Stammering) is a neuro-motor disorder of...

                                            What are the evidence-based recommendations to guide early intervention in children aged 0 to 2 years who have or are at high risk of cerebral palsy?

                                              Redenlab pediatric specialist Prof Angela Morgan co-authors a new study on speech models in minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder. The collaboration with scientists from Boston and Melbourne provides preliminary evidence that subphenotypes of children with MV ASD may exist.

                                                Acoustic features that predict healthy aging are different than those previously reported for the pathologic voice. We propose a model of healthy and pathologic voice development in which voice characteristics are mediated by the inability to monitor vocal productions associated with age-related hearing loss.

                                                  Miglustat is currently the only approved disease-specific treatment shown to be effective in stabilizing neurological symptoms. Miglustat has previously been reported to halt or improve early dysphagia and cognitive symptoms. Here we examine the characteristics of dysphagia, the relationship between dysphagia and the presence of cognitive impairment, and longitudinal changes in swallowing function during miglustat treatment in adult-and-adolescent-onset NPC.

                                                    Redenlab CSO contributes to a new book chapter on the Best practices for supervised machine learning when examining biomarkers in clinical populations has been included in ‘Big Data in Psychiatry & Neurology’ published by Elsevier.

                                                      FOXP1-related disorder is characterized by a complex speech and language phenotype with prominent dysarthria, broader motor planning and programming deficits, and linguistic-based phonological errors. Diagnosis of the speech phenotype associated with FOXP1-related dysfunction will inform early targeted therapy.

                                                        Our paper on Automatic speech recognition in neurodegenerative disease was recently published in International Journal of Speech Technology. Automatic speech...

                                                          Published in the European Journal of Human Genetics we expand the linguistic phenotype associated with SETBP1 LoF syndrome (SETBP1 haploinsufficiency disorder), revealing a striking speech presentation that implicates both motor (CAS, dysarthria) and language (phonological errors) systems, with CAS (80%) being the most common diagnosis.

                                                            Hardware selection is a an important and often overlooked aspect of speech research

                                                              Objective: To determine whether specific speech, language and oromotor profiles are associated with different patterns of polymicrogyria (PMG), we assessed 52...
                                                                Highlights • Four children with heterozygous WAC pathogenic variants and epilepsy are described. • All children had global developmental impairment with language...
                                                                  Speech production relies on motor control and cognitive processing and is linked to cerebellar function. In diseases where the cerebellum...
                                                                    Objectives To systematically describe evidence on the use of instrumental swallowing assessment for residents of aged care homes. Design Scoping...
                                                                      Abstract Objectives Cognitive and other biases can influence the quality of healthcare decision making. While substantial research has explored how...
                                                                        Purpose To identify outcome measurement tools used to evaluate communication, voice and speech intelligibility in the mechanically ventilated ICU population....

                                                                          Describing the relationship between disease severity and speech metrics, through listener-based and objective acoustic analysis.

                                                                            In our new study, published in the Journal of Acoustical Society of America, we tested reliability, stability, and sensitivity to change in vowel measurements.

                                                                              To explore the characteristics and associated factors of oromotor dysfunction in minimally verbal children with cerebral palsy (CP) aged five...
                                                                                There is a lack of population‐based studies exploring the communicative behaviours of minimally verbal children with cerebral palsy (CP), with...
                                                                                  To examine the frequency, characteristics, and factors associated with speech delay and disorder in a community sample of children with...
                                                                                    Speech and swallowing deficits appear sensitive to disease progression in early-stage SCA2, with syllabic rate a viable marker. Findings provide...
                                                                                      Objective Determining the genetic basis of speech disorders provides insight into the neurobiology of human communication. Despite intensive investigation over the...
                                                                                        Despite the widespread use of nonword repetition in child neuropsychological research and clinical practice, the specific cognitive, linguistic and motor...
                                                                                          What this paper adds What is already known on this subject Speech issues are common in children with hearing loss;...
                                                                                            What this paper adds Speech and voice outcomes were similar between children born preterm and at term. Male sex, high...
                                                                                              Highlights • Nonword repetition a sensitive clinical marker for DLD and DSD. • No significant differences in nonword repetition fMRI...
                                                                                                This chapter describes the diagnostic process necessary for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of developmental disorders of speech and language...
                                                                                                  Rationale Motor neurone disease (MND) is a neurodegenerative disease presenting with progressive weakness of voluntary muscles. For any condition, person‐centred...
                                                                                                    Purpose Approximately 30% of adults over the age of 50 years present with altered vocal function. Our understanding of how...
                                                                                                      Dysphagia is common in Huntington’s disease (HD) affecting all phases of swallowing. Correlations exist between non-instrumental measures of dysphagia and...

                                                                                                        Article highlights

                                                                                                        • Dysarthria, a neuromuscular speech disorder, can be the first and most prominent manifestation of PD.

                                                                                                        • Alongside changes in speech, PD is associated with impaired morphosyntactic, lexical-semantic, and high-level language comprehension and production.

                                                                                                        • Pharmaceutical and surgical interventions for PD may improve certain modalities of speech production, but effects vary between individuals.

                                                                                                        • Longitudinal research designs are needed to evaluate the complex interplay between motor speech, language, and cognition.

                                                                                                        • Speech acoustics may serve as a valuable proxy marker of PD ‘risk’, disease progression and treatment efficacy.

                                                                                                          Highlights

                                                                                                          •Subtle but apparently genuine changes in speech occur in HD before clinical diagnosis.

                                                                                                          •Speech changes in prodromal individuals are largely characterised by timing deficits.

                                                                                                          •Limited longitudinal data restricts capacity to predict HD evolution using speech.

                                                                                                            Highlights

                                                                                                            •Measurable changes detected in swallowing function in 12 months

                                                                                                            •Decline in function observed at three anatomical sites considered important for safe swallowing

                                                                                                            •Individual anatomical sites may be precursors to widespread functional decline in swallowing

                                                                                                              Background Submucous cleft palate (SMCP) has a heterogeneous presentation and is often identified late or misdiagnosed. Diagnosis is prompted by...
                                                                                                                Clinical characteristics. Koolen-de Vries syndrome (KdVS) is characterized by developmental delay/intellectual disability, neonatal/childhood hypotonia, dysmorphisms, congenital malformations, and behavioral features. Psychomotor developmental...
                                                                                                                  Examination of rodent vocalizations in experimental conditions can yield valuable insights into how disease manifests and progresses over time. It...
                                                                                                                    Background: Communication impairment is one of the most common symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD), significantly affecting quality of life. Singing...
                                                                                                                      Autosomal-recessive cerebellar ataxias (ARCAs) comprise a heterogeneous group of rare degenerative and metabolic genetic diseases that share the hallmark of...
                                                                                                                        Purpose The purpose of this study was to expand the genetic architecture of neurodevelopmental disorders, and to characterize the clinical...
                                                                                                                          Background: Tremor is present in almost half of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The lack of understanding of its pathophysiology is...
                                                                                                                            Infants with a history of early, prolonged hospitalisation (e.g. due to preterm birth) are widely known to experience adverse neurodevelopmental...
                                                                                                                              Children born preterm are at risk of impairments in oromotor control, with implications for early feeding and speech development. In...
                                                                                                                                Abstract Objective The study aim was to determine if use of illicit amphetamines or ecstasy is associated with abnormal excitability...
                                                                                                                                  Redenlab partnered with investigators in Australia and Germany to conduct dysarthria treatment trial in ataxia published in Journal of Neurology...
                                                                                                                                    Background Speech and language deficits are frequent in males with Klinefelter syndrome (KS), yet the research base is slim and...
                                                                                                                                      Neurexin 1 gene (NRXN1) deletions are associated with several neurodevelopmental disorders. Communication difficulties have been reported, yet no study has...
                                                                                                                                        IMPORTANCE: Multiple sclerosis produces neurological impairments that are variable in duration, severity and quality. Speech is frequently impaired, resulting in...
                                                                                                                                          BACKGROUND: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) can result in a decline in behavior, language, and motor function. Mealtime disturbances are a...
                                                                                                                                            Few studies have examined growth and predictors of receptive vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder. Here we aimed to...
                                                                                                                                              PURPOSE: Language skills are critical. Children born very preterm are vulnerable to language problems, but further work is needed to...
                                                                                                                                                CASE HISTORY: A 5-year-old girl presented with a suspected palatal abnormality, first observed by her general practitioner during a routine...
                                                                                                                                                  BACKGROUND: The association between left hemisphere stroke and acute speech and language impairment is well documented in adults. However, little...
                                                                                                                                                    OBJECTIVE: Subclinical phenotypes of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL ± P) may be identified from clinically...
                                                                                                                                                      AIM: We aimed to systematically review the speech production, language, and oral function phenotype of bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria (BPP), and...
                                                                                                                                                        BACKGROUND: Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) affects a child's ability to produce sounds and syllables precisely and consistently, and to...
                                                                                                                                                          Published in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders This study used a prospective community-based sample to describe patterns and predictors...
                                                                                                                                                            Published in The Journal of Pediatrics   Objective To characterize the organization of speech- and language-related white matter tracts in...
                                                                                                                                                              The purpose of this consensus paper is to review electrophysiological abnormalities and to provide a guideline of neurophysiological assessments in...
                                                                                                                                                                Objective: To analyze the oral motor, speech, and language phenotype in 20 children and adults with Dravet syndrome (DS) associated with...
                                                                                                                                                                  Communication disorder is common in Koolen de Vries syndrome (KdVS), yet its specific symptomatology has not been examined, limiting prognostic...
                                                                                                                                                                    Speech sound disorder (SSD) is common, yet its neurobiology is poorly understood. Recent studies indicate atypical structural and functional anomalies...
                                                                                                                                                                      The SWAL-QOL questionnaire is a common tool for evaluating patients' dysphagia-specific quality of life. A validated German version is not...
                                                                                                                                                                        PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to assess Cantonese word recognition and the discrimination of Cantonese tones with manipulated...
                                                                                                                                                                          Recurrent deletions of a ~600-kb region of 16p11.2 have been associated with a highly penetrant form of childhood apraxia of...
                                                                                                                                                                            Comprehensive description of motor speech function in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) One in 8 patients presented with moderate speech...
                                                                                                                                                                              Highlights Cannabis users exhibit increased angular velocity of the knee during walking gait. Cannabis users exhibit reduced shoulder flexion during...
                                                                                                                                                                                Objectives: The ability to recognize tones is vital for speech perception in tonal languages. Cantonese has six tones, which are...
                                                                                                                                                                                  • 100% of patients with POLG-A present with dysarthria and dysphagia • POLG patients without ataxia do not present with speech or...
                                                                                                                                                                                    Localization of language deficits Click here for more details.
                                                                                                                                                                                      Does speech change in pre-manifest HD?   Click here for more details.
                                                                                                                                                                                        The model has high discriminative ability to distinguish between cases with and without AOS (c-index=0.93) and good agreement between observed...
                                                                                                                                                                                          Using acoustic analysis of speech may lead to improved diagnostic accuracy.   Click here for more details.
                                                                                                                                                                                            The relationship between dysphonia and dysarthria in FRDA suggests that reducing overall dysphonia severity via therapeutic techniques that improve phonatory...
                                                                                                                                                                                              Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is effective in reducing motor symptoms for many individuals with Parkinson's...
                                                                                                                                                                                                Measures of speech which can assist with diagnosis and classification in FTD, PPA, and progressive apraxia of speech.   Click...
                                                                                                                                                                                                  The CADN is a reliable, valid, brief, quantifiable, and easily deployed assessment of swallowing in neurodegenerative disease. It is thus...