Impact of Startling Acoustic Stimuli on Word Repetition in Individuals With Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech Following Stroke.

We show that stroke-impaired speech is susceptible to StartReact, evidenced by decreased intelligibility due to altered formants, pitch trajectories, and articulation, including increased incidence of sounds that could not be produced without SAS. Future studies should examine the impact of SAS on voluntary speech intelligibility and clinical measures of aphasia and apraxia.