Non-verbal cues in the self-presentation of parkinsonian patients.

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are seen as cold, withdrawn, unintelligent and moody, and appear to relate poorly to the interviewer (Pentland, Pitcairn, & Gray & Riddle, 1987). The cues responsible for this are shown to be related not only to the type of limb and body movements made, but also particularly to the facial expressions. The expressions seen are not only reduced in frequency but are also qualitatively different, particularly in the smiles which are seen to be 'false' smiles. The implications of this for a treatment regime are discussed in relation to the neurology of the disease. It would seem that non-verbal training methods may not produce the required effects because of the shift in neural pathway used from that which normally controls spontaneous expressive movements (via the basal ganglia) to that used in voluntary movements.

Impressions of parkinsonian patients from their recorded voices.

The voices of patients suffering from Parkinson's disease change in various ways. This paper sets out to examine the effect of these changes on the impressions made on listeners, and to try to see what vocalic and prosodic features account for these impressions. Tape recordings from segments of interviews with 4 patients, and 4 control subjects with ischaemic heart disease, were played to 16 naive listeners. These listeners were asked to rate their impressions of these voices on 15 dimensions of personality. There were significant differences on most of the dimensions, despite the fact that there were no differences between the two groups on such scales as Beck's depression inventory and the mood adjective check list. The parkinsonian patients were seen to be cold, withdrawn and anxious, not to relate well to the interviewer and to be enjoying the interview less than the controls. These ratings are very similar to those previously reported for the same patients, using silent video recordings only. The voice recordings were analysed along various dimensions of prosody. The factors which were different between the groups included the frequency and type of pauses in speech and the range or variability of the fundamental frequency. The implications of this exploratory study for intervention are discussed.