Antje Mefferd, PhD CCC-SLP

My work focuses on the articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual speech characteristics of talkers with dysarthria. I study predominantly talkers with neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and multiple sclerosis. The work in my lab seeks to identify articulatory impairment patterns that are disease-specific as well as those that are shared across all diseases. Another goal is to link kinematic and perceptual characteristics to better understand the articulatory mechanisms of speech intelligibility loss and recovery. Finally, we investigate ways to improve clinical tools to assess articulatory impairment patterns in talkers with dysarthria. Collaborative projects focus on 1) motor-related factors that contribute to stuttering, 2) evaluation of ASR-based speech assessment tools for talkers with neurogenic communication disorders, and 3) the evaluation of pharmaceutical interventions for individuals with neurological disorders