Speed of Pitch Change in People with Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Study

Objective: To examine laryngeal maximum performance through a novel pitch diadochokinetic (DDK) task in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy controls. Methods: This exploratory pilot study included a total of eight people with PD (seven male and one female) and eight healthy controls. Participants were instructed to rapidly transition or alternate between a chosen comfortable low and high pitch and were instructed to complete the task as a pitch glide. An Auditory Sawtooth Waveform Inspired Pitch Estimator-Prime model was used to first extract the pitch contour and then a customized MATLAB algorithm was used to compute and derive measures of pitch range and pitch slope. Results: Pitch range and slope were reduced in some participants with PD. Effects of age and disease duration were observed in people with PD: reductions in both pitch measures with increase in age and disease duration. Conclusions: A novel pitch DDK task may supplement the conventional laryngeal DDK task in the evaluation and treatment of motor speech and voice disorders. Individual variability analysis may provide specific diagnostic and therapeutic insights for people with PD.

Objetivo: Examinar el máximo rendimiento laríngeo a través de una novedosa tarea diadococinética de tono (DDK, por sus siglas en inglés) en personas con enfermedad de Parkinson (EP) y controles sanos. Métodos: Este estudio piloto exploratorio incluyó un total de ocho personas con EP (siete hombres y una mujer) y ocho controles sanos. Se instruyó a los participantes para que hicieran una transición rápida o alternaran entre un tono bajo y uno alto que les resultara cómodo y se les indicó que completaran la tarea como un deslizamiento de tono. Se utilizó un modelo de Estimador de Tono Inspirado en la Forma de Onda de Diente de Sierra Auditiva-Prime para extraer primero el contorno del tono y luego se utilizó un algoritmo MATLAB personalizado para calcular y derivar medidas de rango de tono y pendiente de tono. Resultados: El rango y la pendiente de tono se redujeron en algunos participantes con EP. Se observaron efectos de la edad y la duración de la enfermedad en personas con EP: reducciones en ambas medidas de tono con el aumento de la edad y la duración de la enfermedad. Conclusiones: Una nueva tarea de DDK de tono podría complementar la tarea DDK laríngea convencional en la evaluación y el tratamiento de trastornos motores del habla y de la voz. El análisis de la variabilidad individual podría proporcionar información específica de diagnóstico y terapéutica para personas con EP.

Acoustic analyses of diadochokinesis in fluent and stuttering children

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to acoustically compare the performance of children who do and do not stutter on diadochokinesis tasks in terms of syllable duration, syllable periods, and peak intensity. METHODS: In this case-control study, acoustical analyses were performed on 26 children who stutter and 20 agedmatched normally fluent children (both groups stratified into preschoolers and school-aged children) during a diadochokinesis task: the repetition of articulatory segments through a task testing the ability to alternate movements. Speech fluency was assessed using the Fluency Profile and the Stuttering Severity Instrument. RESULTS: The children who stutter and those who do not did not significantly differ in terms of the acoustic patterns they produced in the diadochokinesis tasks. Significant differences were demonstrated between age groups independent of speech fluency. Overall, the preschoolers performed poorer. These results indicate that the observed differences are related to speech-motor age development and not to stuttering itself. CONCLUSIONS: Acoustic studies demonstrate that speech segment durations are most variable, both within and between subjects, during childhood and then gradually decrease to adult levels by the age of eleven to thirteen years. One possible explanation for the results of the present study is that children who stutter presented higher coefficients of variation to exploit the motor equivalence to achieve accurate sound production (i.e., the absence of speech disruptions).

Parámetros del habla en adultos normales chilenos / Parameters of speech in normal chilean adult

El propósito de este estudio fue comparar el rendimiento en tareas de habla de adultos chilenos según edad y género, para obtener datos normativos destinados a la evaluación del habla en nuestra población. Se evaluó 90 sujetos entre 40-69 años, con un protocolo que incluye: Tiempo Máximo Fonatorio (TMF), movimientos orales mandibulares, labiales y linguales, diadococinesias orales, velocidad de lectura oral y velocidad del habla automática. Al comparar por género, los hombres rinden significativamente mejor que las mujeres en TMF, movimientos linguales, repetición de sílabas y palabras. La comparación por edad arroja diferencias en movimientos labiales, repetición de sílabas, palabras y velocidad de habla automática, con un rendimiento superior entre 50-59 años. Basado en estos hallazgos, este estudio revela que el rendimiento en tareas de habla presenta diferencias según la edad y género de los sujetos. Los valores obtenidos difieren a los reportados en estudios de habla inglesa.

The aim of this study was to compare the performance in speech tasks of Chilean adults according to age and gender in order to obtain normative data for the assessment of speech's evaluation of our population. A total of 90 subjects between 40 and 69 years old were evaluated. The test battery was comprised of measures of Maximum Phonation Duration (MPD), oral, jaw, lips and lingual movements, oral diadochokinesis, oral reading speed and automatic speech speed. Male subjects performed significantly better than female subjects in MPD, tongue movements, and repetition of syllables and words. Adults aged 50-59 years performed significantly better than the other age groups in lips movements, syllables and words repetitions, and automatic speech speed. Based on these findings this study reveals that the performance in speech tasks differs according to the age and gender of this subjects. The values obtained differ from those reported in studies of English-speaking subjects.