Respiratory kinematics in speakers with cerebellar disease

The respiratory abilities of a group of 12 speech disordered subjects with cerebellar disease were assessed using both spirometric and kinematic techniques and compared to those of a group of 12 non-neurologically impaired controls matched for age and gender. Results of the spirometric assessment showed that although all of the cerebellar-diseased subjects had normal total lung capacities, almost half had vital capacities below normal limits. All except 1 of the cerebellar-diseased subjects exhibited irregularities in their chest wall movements while performing sustained vowel and syllable repetition tasks. Over half of the cerebellar-diseased subjects also displayed similar irregularities when reading and conversing. The same irregularities were not present in the chest wall movements exhibited by the control subjects suggesting that their presence was caused by the cerebellar disease. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of cerebellar disease on neuromuscular function.