Abstract Details

Title Digital Speech Assessments in Huntington Disease

Topic General Neurology

Presentation(s) S43 - General Neurology 2 (2:48 PM-3:00 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 010

Background Speech changes are an early symptom of Huntington disease (HD) and may occur prior to other motor and cognitive symptoms. Traditional HD assessments utilize clinician-rated outcome measures. These can be limited by observer variability and episodic administration. Digital assessment of speech can provide a quantitative evaluation apt for frequent and remote administration.

Objective

To explore the potential of speech data as a digital measure in assessing the progression of Huntington disease (HD) and its clinical implications.

Design/Methods Recordings of 33 participants (15 HD, 7 prodromal HD, and 11 control) were collected while reading a passage speech task. Biodigit Speech was used to analyze the recording and extract speech features such as pausing, pitch, and intelligibility. The features were compared between HD, prodromal HD and controls, and also correlated with the Unified Huntington Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) subscales. Machine learning models based on random forest algorithms were employed to predict clinical status and scores from speech features.

Results Observable differences in pausing, intelligibility, and accuracy for passage reading among the HD, prodromal HD, and control groups were identified. The random forest classifier correctly predicted the three clinical status from speech tasks with an accuracy rate of 73%. Random forest regression predicted UHDRS clinical scores from speech features with explained variance between 14% and 54%.

Conclusions Speech data presents a great potential as a key digital measure in monitoring neurodegenerative progression. It can facilitate remote, regular assessments of the disease in prodromal HD and HD stages. Through the extracted speech features, random forest machine learning models adeptly predicted clinical status and disease severity. This suggests that speech measurements might be a sensitive marker for determining clinical onset and progression in upcoming clinical trials.

Authors/Disclosures
Ashkan Vaziri, PhD (Biosensics LLC) PRESENTER	Dr. Vaziri has received personal compensation for serving as an employee of Biosensics.
Adonay Nunes (Biosensics)	No disclosure on file
Meghan E. Pawlik, MS (Center for Health + Technology)	Miss Pawlik has nothing to disclose.
Ram Kinker Mishra (Biosensics)	No disclosure on file
E. Ray Dorsey, MD, MBA (University of Rochester)	Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Abbott. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Abbvie. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Acadia. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Acorda. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Biogen. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for BrainNeuroBio. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving as a Consultant for Clintrex. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Curasen Therapeutics. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Denali Therapeutics. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Eli Lilly. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving as a Consultant for Grand Rounds. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Medopad. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving as a Consultant for Michael J. Fox Foundation. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Origent Data Sciences, Inc.. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $10,000-$49,999 for serving as a Consultant for Otsuka. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Praxis. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Roche. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $10,000-$49,999 for serving as a Consultant for Sanofi. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Spark. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Sunovion Pharma. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Theravance. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Voyager Therapeutics. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving as a Consultant for Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Bial-Biotech Investments, Inc.. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for BluePrint Orphan, Inc.. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Caraway T. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for DeciBio. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Mediflix. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for NACCME/CONSULTANT 360. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Neurocrine. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving as a Consultant for Olson Research Group. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Pear Therapeutics. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Prilenia. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Springer Healthcare. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for WebMD. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Novartis. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Spark. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Sanofi. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Caraway. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Huntington Study Group. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Voyager. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Neurocrine. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Genetech/Roche. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Novartis. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Speakers Bureau for ANA. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Speakers Bureau for MCM Education. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Speakers Bureau for Physician's Education Resource, LLC. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Speakers Bureau for Texas Neurological Society. Dr. Dorsey has received personal compensation in the range of $10,000-$49,999 for serving as an Editor, Associate Editor, or Editorial Advisory Board Member for Karger. Dr. Dorsey has stock in Grand Rounds. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Biogen - WATCH-PD. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from NIH - AHPD. Dr. Dorsey has received research support from NIH - Biosensics. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Pfizer - SQUAD. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Greater Rochester Health Foundation - PDCNY. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Safra Foundation - PDCNY. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Burroughs Wellcome - Smartphones. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from NIH - CTSA. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Gary & Mary West Foundation - d.health. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from PCORI -PD Virtual Care. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from WAVE Life Sciences. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Acadia Pharmaceuticals - PDTV. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Roche Pharmaceuticals - PDTV. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Michael J. Fox Foundation - Fox Insight. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Michael J. Fox Foundation - Emerald. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from PCORI. The institution of Dr. Dorsey has received research support from Safra Foundation.
Jamie L. Adams, MD (University of Rochester Medical Center)	Dr. Adams has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for AbbVie. Dr. Adams has received personal compensation in the range of $10,000-$49,999 for serving as a Consultant for Michael J. Fox Foundation. Dr. Adams has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for BioSensics. The institution of Dr. Adams has received research support from NIH/NINDS. The institution of Dr. Adams has received research support from Biogen. The institution of Dr. Adams has received research support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation. The institution of Dr. Adams has received research support from Critical Path Institute. Dr. Adams has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a KINECT-HD Steering Committee Member with Huntington Study Group. Dr. Adams has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a ORCHESTRA-PD Steering Committee Member with Parkinson Study Group.