# Speech Profiles and Cue Responsiveness After Left Hemisphere Stroke

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2024 · $445,747

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Speech production difficulties affect most of the approximately 2 million people with aphasia in
the United States. Behavioral manifestations of speech impairment are heterogeneous and
imperfectly categorized with current systems for differential diagnosis. Though customized
treatment based on different speech profiles is widely believed to improve communicative
abilities and quality of life, evidence-based practice is limited due to a poorly defined diagnostic
process and uncertainty about which speech features distinguish among the core disorder
categories (apraxia of speech, aphasia with phonemic paraphasia, unilateral upper motor
neuron dysarthria), as they are defined behaviorally. In this project, we introduce a system for
quantitative documentation and analysis of clinically relevant speech characteristics. The
purpose of Aim 1 is to develop a new assessment for documenting speech profiles and
estimating their severity. We define boundaries between normal and impaired speech
production across key dimensions and metrics and identify a psychometrically sound and
clinically feasible test for estimating severity and characterizing multidimensional speech
profiles. In Aim 2, we develop a quantitative signature for speech profiles through empirically
focused analyses. By replacing existing diagnostic checklists with empirically validated profiles,
we expect project outcomes will resolve diagnostic confusion that has persisted for decades.
The link between diagnosis and intervention is developed in Aim 3, in order to establish a
foundation for precision intervention research. The project is expected to generate sound
assessment and diagnostic procedures and remove fundamental barriers to scientific discovery
concerning speech production difficulties after stroke.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10813207
- **Project number:** 5R01DC018569-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** KATARINA L HALEY
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $445,747
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10813207

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10813207, Speech Profiles and Cue Responsiveness After Left Hemisphere Stroke (5R01DC018569-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10813207. Licensed CC0.

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