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Speech timing in Parkinson's and Huntington's disease
C L Ludlow1, N P Connor, C J Bassich
1Speech Pathology Unit, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD 20205.
Brain and Language
|November 1, 1987
Summary
Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Huntington's Disease (HD) impact speech production duration control differently. While speech planning and initiation remain intact, patients exhibit distinct deficits in regulating speech timing, affecting syllable and sentence durations.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Speech-Language Pathology
- Neurology
Background:
- Basal ganglia diseases, such as Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Huntington's Disease (HD), are known to affect motor control.
- Speech production involves complex motor planning, initiation, and execution, which can be disrupted by neurological conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Huntington's Disease (HD) on speech planning, initiation, and production timing.
- To compare the speech timing characteristics of PD and HD patients with those of healthy individuals.
Main Methods:
- Speech timing tasks were administered to patients diagnosed with PD and HD, as well as to a control group of normal subjects.
- Analysis focused on speech reaction time, syllable and sentence durations at varying speech rates, and repetition rates.
Main Results:
- Speech reaction time was unaffected in both PD and HD patient groups.
- Huntington's Disease patients showed reduced changes in syllable, pause, and sentence durations across speech rates.
- Parkinson's Disease patients exhibited impaired control specifically over sentence duration, while syllable repetition rates were reduced in HD but maintained over time in both groups.
Conclusions:
- Parkinson's Disease and Huntington's Disease do not appear to impair the fundamental processes of speech planning or initiation.
- Both patient groups demonstrate difficulties in the precise control and regulation of speech event durations, with distinct patterns observed between PD and HD.