Articulatory modification induced by speaking rate change in Parkinson’s Disease.

2009 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 2531-2531
Author(s):  
Yunjung Kim ◽  
Gary Weismer
2010 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. S39-S40
Author(s):  
I. Maidan ◽  
M. Plotnik ◽  
A. Mirelman ◽  
A. Weiss ◽  
N. Giladi ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Thea Knowles ◽  
Scott G. Adams ◽  
Mandar Jog

Purpose The purpose of this study was to quantify changes in acoustic distinctiveness in two groups of talkers with Parkinson's disease as they modify across a wide range of speaking rates. Method People with Parkinson's disease with and without deep brain stimulation and older healthy controls read 24 carrier phrases at different speech rates. Target nonsense words in the carrier phrases were designed to elicit stop consonants and corner vowels. Participants spoke at seven self-selected speech rates from very slow to very fast, elicited via magnitude production. Speech rate was measured in absolute words per minute and as a proportion of each talker's habitual rate. Measures of segmental distinctiveness included a temporal consonant measure, namely, voice onset time, and a spectral vowel measure, namely, vowel articulation index. Results All talkers successfully modified their rate of speech from slow to fast. Talkers with Parkinson's disease and deep brain stimulation demonstrated greater baseline speech impairment and produced smaller proportional changes at the fast end of the continuum. Increasingly slower speaking rates were associated with increased temporal contrasts (voice onset time) but not spectral contrasts (vowel articulation). Faster speech was associated with decreased contrasts in both domains. Talkers with deep brain stimulation demonstrated more aberrant productions across all speaking rates. Conclusions Findings suggest that temporal and spectral segmental distinctiveness are asymmetrically affected by speaking rate modifications in Parkinson's disease. Talkers with deep brain stimulation warrant further investigation with regard to speech changes they make as they adjust their speaking rate.


Author(s):  
Nichola Lubold ◽  
Megan M. Willi ◽  
Stephanie A. Borrie ◽  
Tyson S. Barrett ◽  
Visar Berisha

Purpose For individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), conversational interactions can be challenging. Efforts to improve the success of these interactions have largely fallen on the individual with PD. Successful communication, however, involves contributions from both the individual with PD and their communication partner. The current study examines whether healthy communication partners naturally engage in different acoustic–prosodic behavior (speech compensations) when conversing with an individual with PD and, further, whether such behavior aids communication success. Method Measures of articulatory precision, speaking rate, and pitch variability were extracted from the speech of healthy speakers engaged in goal-directed dialogue with other healthy speakers (healthy–healthy dyads) and with individuals with PD (healthy–PD dyads). Speech compensations, operationally defined as significant differences in healthy speakers' acoustic–prosodic behavior in healthy–healthy dyads versus healthy–PD dyads, were calculated for the three speech behaviors. Finally, the relationships between speech behaviors and an objective measure of communicative efficiency were examined. Results Healthy speakers engaged in speech characterized by greater articulatory precision and slower speaking rate when conversing with individuals with PD relative to conversations with other healthy individuals. However, these adaptive speech compensations were not predictive of communicative efficiency. Conclusions Evidence that healthy speakers naturally engage in speech compensations when conversing with individuals with PD is novel, yet consistent with findings from studies with other populations in which conversation can be challenging. In the case of PD, these compensatory behaviors did not support communication outcomes. While preliminary in nature, the results raise important questions regarding the speech behavior of healthy communication partners and provide directions for future work.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Cockx ◽  
Jorik Nonnekes ◽  
Bastiaan Bloem ◽  
Richard van Wezel ◽  
Ian Cameron ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Freezing of gait (FOG) is an unpredictable gait arrest that hampers the lives of 40% of people with Parkinson’s disease. Because the symptom is heterogeneous in phenotypical presentation (it can present as trembling, shuffling, or akinesia) and manifests during various circumstances (it can be triggered by e.g. turning, passing doors, and dual-tasking), it is particularly difficult to detect with motion sensors. The freezing index (FI) is one of the most frequently used accelerometer-based methods for FOG detection. However, it might not adequately distinguish FOG from voluntary stops, certainly for the akinetic type of FOG. Interestingly, a previous study showed that heart rate signals could distinguish FOG from stopping and turning movements. This study aimed to investigate for which phenotypes and evoking circumstances the FI and heart rate might provide reliable signals for FOG detection.Methods: Sixteen people with Parkinson’s disease and daily freezing completed a gait trajectory designed to provoke FOG including turns, narrow passages, starting, and stopping, with and without a cognitive or motor dual-task. We compared the FI and heart rate of 406 FOG events to baseline levels, and to stopping and normal gait events (i.e. turns and narrow passages without FOG) using mixed-effects models. We specifically evaluated the influence of different types of FOG (trembling vs akinesia) and triggering situations (turning vs narrow passages; no dual-task vs cognitive dual-task vs motor dual-task) on both outcome measures. Results: The FI increased significantly for trembling FOG, but not for akinetic FOG. Furthermore, the index increased similarly during stopping and was therefore not significantly different from FOG. In contrast, heart rate change during FOG was for all types and during all triggering situations statistically different from stopping, but not from normal gait events. Conclusion: The FI has issues to distinguish FOG from voluntary stopping, especially of the akinetic type. In contrast, the clear distinction in heart rate change between FOG and voluntary stops, which was independent of the heterogeneous presentation of FOG, might provide a solution for this issue. Therefore, we suggest that combining a heart rate monitor with a motion sensor may be promising for future FOG detection.


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