Ultrasound measurement of relative tongue size and its correlation with tongue mobility for healthy individuals.

Journal: JASA express letters
Published Date: Jun 1, 2025

Abstract

The size of an individual's tongue relative to the oral cavity is associated with articulation speed [Feng, Lu, Zheng, Chi, and Honda, in Proceedings of the 10th Biennial Asia Pacific Conference on Speech, Language, and Hearing (2017), pp. 17-19)] and may affect speech clarity. This study introduces an ultrasound-based method for measuring relative tongue size, termed ultrasound-based relative tongue size (uRTS), as a cost-effective alternative to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based method. Using deep learning to extract the tongue contour, uRTS was calculated from tongue and oropharyngeal cavity sizes in the midsagittal plane. Results from ten speakers showed a strong correlation between uRTS and MRI-based measurements (r = 0.87) and a negative correlation with tongue movement speed (r = -0.73), indicating uRTS is a useful index for assessing tongue size.

Authors

  • Jing Sun
    Department of Gastroenterology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
  • Tatsuya Kitamura
    Faculty of Intelligence and Informatics, Konan University, 8-9-1, Okamoto, Higashinada, Kobe, Hyogo 658-8501, Japan.
  • Yukiko Nota
    National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, 10-2 Midori-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8561, Japan.
  • Noriko Yamane
    Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-7-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8521, Japanjsun@konan-u.ac.jp, t-kitamu@konan-u.ac.jp, ynota@ninjal.ac.jp, yamanen@hiroshima-u.ac.jp, rhayashi@kobe-u.ac.jp.
  • Ryoko Hayashi
    Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, 1-2-1, Tsurukabuto, Nada, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan.

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