Reception of Communicative Functions of Prosody in Hypokinetic Dysarthria due to Parkinson's Disease

Mapping adequacy of receptive prosodic abilities in speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD) is useful, because therapy of disturbed production of prosody relies on adequate reception of prosody. There is evidence for a deficit of reception of emotional prosody in PD.

The present study aims at presenting a comprehensive picture of the reception of various communicative functions of prosody in hypokinetic dysarthria due to PD.

We assessed perception (using a discrimination task) and comprehension (using an identification task) of five communicative functions of Dutch prosody (lexical stress, boundary marking, focus, sentence mode, and emotional prosody) in a group of adults with hypokinetic dysarthria due to PD (n = 22) and a gender and age matched group of unimpaired adults (n = 22). We also investigated the relationship between age and global test score, and the effect of perception and comprehension subtest sequence on the global test score.

Between groups, no significant differences in receptive prosodic abilities were found. Within both groups, the comprehension subtest was significantly more difficult than the perception subtest, and there was a significant negative correlation between age and global test score. No subtest sequence effect could be demonstrated.

Considering that the older speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria due to PD had receptive prosodic skills inferior to those of the younger speakers, notwithstanding apparently intact cognition and hearing, the findings suggest that age is a factor to be reckoned with in prosody assessment and management in this population.