$110,000 awarded to Dr. Liziane Bouvier, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Yana Yunusova’s lab at Sunnybrook Research Institute.
Thirty per cent of people with ALS have bulbar-onset ALS. This means they experience voice and speech changes at disease onset due to a loss of motor neuron function in the corticobulbar area, the area of the brain that controls the muscles of the face, head and neck. Almost all other people living with ALS will face voice and speech difficulties at some point in the disease.
Previously, with support from a 2019 ALS Canada Project Grant awarded in partnership with Orangetheory Fitness Canada, Dr. Yunusova and team showed that artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can be trained on voice recordings from ALS patients to detect bulbar abnormalities, in some cases even prior to the onset of any clinically detectable bulbar symptoms. Furthermore, these AI methods were able to accurately measure and predict the progression of speech difficulties in people living with ALS. Despite these advancements, however, the work has not yet been adapted to French speakers.
In this project, Dr. Bouvier will develop AI tools to identify bulbar and pre-bulbar ALS in French speaking patients. The study aims to pinpoint the acoustic characteristics associated with the disease and its progression, and to train and validate an AI model based on these predicted findings. This work is of high importance for French speakers in Canada, with the goal of improving standard of care and access to clinical trials.