Speech timing abnormalities are correlated with disease severity in Huntington’s disease [Conference Abstract]

Hughes, Ellie, Constantin, Valentina, Rosser, Anne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4716-4753, Rowlands, Sophie, Doheny, Emer, Lowery, Madeleine and Drew, Cheney ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4397-6252 2026. Speech timing abnormalities are correlated with disease severity in Huntington’s disease [Conference Abstract]. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 97 (Supp 2) , A98. 10.1136/jnnp-2026-ehdn.223

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Abstract

Background: Speech abnormalities are common in Huntington’s Disease (HD), with subtle changes potentially preceding clinical symptoms. HD research currently lacks objective biomarkers to assess progression and evaluate therapeutics effectively. Digital speech metrics could be used to complement current clinical measures to address these limitations. Aims: To characterise temporal speech changes in HD during passage reading (PR), and to assess the relationship between a proposed composite temporal speech index (CTSI) and disease severity measures. Methods: We recorded speech during a PR task in 22 HD (HD-ISS<2 (n=3), HD-ISS 2 (n=7), HD-ISS 3 (n=12)) and 24 age and sex-matched control participants using an omnidirectional headset microphone and sound interface. The CTS was estimated using automatically extracted features (total speech time (TST), net speech time (NST), mean burst duration (MBD), number of pauses (nP), total pause time (TPT), net burst rate (NBR)), previously shown to be altered in HD (Constantin et al., 2026). Correlations between the CTSI and components of the cUHDRS were examined. Results: TST, NST, MBD, nP (p<0.001 for all) and TPT (p<0.01) were higher in HD, while NBR (p<0.001) was lower, compared to controls. Significant correlations were observed between the CTSI and cUHDRS (r=-0.63, p<0.01), total motor score (r=0.63, p<0.01), stroop word reading test (r=0.72, p<0.001) and symbol digit modality test (r=-0.60, p<0.01). Conclusions: The results indicate that speech timing is impaired in HD compared to controls during PR. Further, speech impairment, summarised using the CTSI developed using an independent dataset, was correlated with disease severity measures.

Item Type:	Short Communication
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Medicine Schools > Biosciences Research Institutes & Centres > Centre for Trials Research (CNTRR)
Publisher:	BMJ Publishing Group
ISSN:	0022-3050
Last Modified:	27 Oct 2026 15:03
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/190467

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