Prominence marking in parkinsonian speech and its correlation with motor performance and cognitive abilities

NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA

卷:137

Article

Thies, Tabea^1,6,7  Muecke, Doris¹  Lowit, Anja²  Kalbe, Elke^3,4,5  Steffen, Julia^6,7  Barbe, Michael T.^6,7 

[1] Univ Cologne, Fac Arts & Humanities, IfL Phonet, Herbert Lewin Str 6, D-50931 Cologne, Germany

[2] Univ Strathclyde, Sch Psychol Sci & Hlth, 40 George St, Glasgow G1 1QE, Lanark, Scotland

[3] Univ Cologne, Fac Med, Kerpener Str 62, D-50937 Cologne, Germany

[4] Univ Cologne, Univ Hosp Cologne, Dept Med Psychol Neuropsychol & Gender Studies, Kerpener Str 62, D-50937 Cologne, Germany

[5] Univ Cologne, Ctr Neuropsychol Diagnost & Intervent CeNDI, Kerpener Str 62, D-50937 Cologne, Germany

[6] Univ Cologne, Fac Med, Dept Neurol, Kerpener Str 62, D-50937 Cologne, Germany

[7] Univ Cologne, Univ Hosp Cologne, Dept Neurol, Kerpener Str 62, D-50937 Cologne, Germany

关键词: Parkinson's disease;    Prominence marking;    Acoustic parameters;    Executive functions;    Motor functions;    Dysarthria;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107306

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Objectives: Research suggests that people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD) do not only suffer from motor but also non-motor impairment. This interdisciplinary study investigated how prominence marking is influenced by problems on the motoric and cognitive level. Materials and methods: We collected speech production data from 38 native German speakers: 19 PwPD (under medication) with a mild to moderate motor impairment, 13 males and 6 females (mean 66.2 years old, SD = 7.7), and 19 healthy age- and gender-matched control participants (mean 65.4 years old, SD = 9.3). Target words were produced in an accented and unaccented condition within a speech production task. The data were analyzed for intensity, syllable duration, FO and vowel production. Furthermore, we assessed motor impairment and cognitive functions, i.e. working memory, task-switching, attention control and speed of information processing. Results: Both groups were able to mark prominence by increasing pitch, syllable duration and intensity and by adjusting their vowel production. Comparisons between PwPD and control participants revealed that the vowel space was smaller in PwPD even in mildly impaired speakers. Further, task-switching as an executive function, which was tested with the trail making test, was correlated with modulation of FO and intensity in PwPD: the worse the task-switching performance, the stronger intensity and FO were modulated (target overshoot). Moreover, motor impairment within the PwPD group was related to a decrease in the acoustic vowel space (target undershoot), which further resulted in a decrease in speech intelligibility and naturalness. This behaviour of target over- and undershoot indicates an inefficient way of prominence marking in PwPD with mildly affected speech. Conclusion: PwPD with signs of mild dysarthria did not differ from the control speakers with respect to their strategies of prominence marking. However, only the PwPD overused FO and intensity in prominent positions. Overmodulation of FO and intensity was correlated with the patient's task-switching ability and reflected abnormalities in the regulatory mechanism for expressing prosodic prominence. This is the first study to report a link between cognitive skills and speech production at the phonetic level in PwPD.

【 授权许可】

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