Affiliation:
1. Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA
2. Center for Language and Cognition Groningen, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, MA
4. Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Boston University School of Medicine, MA
Abstract
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a concurrent working memory task on acoustic measures of speech in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD).
Method:
Individuals with PD and age- and sex-matched controls performed a speaking task with and without a Stroop-like concurrent working memory task. Cepstral peak prominence, low-to-high spectral energy ratio, fundamental frequency (
f
o
) standard deviation, articulation rate, pause duration, articulatory–acoustic vowel space, relative
f
o
, mean voice onset time (VOT), and VOT variability were calculated for each condition. Mixed-model analyses of variance were performed to determine the effects of group, condition (presence of the concurrent working memory task), and their interaction on the acoustic measures.
Results:
All measures except for VOT variability, mean pause duration, and relative
f
o
offset differed between people with and without PD. Cepstral peak prominence, articulation rate, and relative
f
o
offset differed as a function of condition. However, no measures indicated disparate effects of condition as a function of group.
Conclusion:
Although differentially impactful on limb motor function in PD, here a concurrent working memory task was not found to be differentially disruptive to speech acoustics in PD.
Supplemental Material:
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24759648
Publisher
American Speech Language Hearing Association
Subject
Speech and Hearing,Linguistics and Language,Developmental and Educational Psychology,Otorhinolaryngology
Reference101 articles.
1. Prevalence and characteristics of dementia in Parkinson disease: An 8-year prospective study;Aarsland D.;JAMA Neurology,2003
2. Novel evidence associates higher plasma α-synuclein levels and cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease
3. Effects of interlocutor distance, multi-talker background noise, and a concurrent manual task on speech intensity in Parkinson's disease;Adams S. G.;Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology,2010
4. Objective Indices of Perceived Vocal Strain
5. Awan, S. (2011). Analysis of dysphonia in speech and voice (ADSV): An application guide. KayPENTAX.