Sequential motion rate and oral reading rate: normative data for Greek and clinical implications

Area of Science:

• Speech-language pathology
• Neurology
• Biomedical acoustics

Background:

• Parkinson's disease (PD) often affects speech motor control.
• Assessing speech rate can be a valuable diagnostic tool for PD.
• Normative data is crucial for interpreting speech task performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish Greek normative data for sequential motion rate (SMR) and oral reading rate (ORR).
• To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of SMR and ORR in predicting PD within a Greek population.

Main Methods:

• Speech acoustics were used to analyze the speech rate of 65 healthy controls and 20 individuals with PD.
• Participants performed the SMR task (syllable repetition) and the ORR task (reading a passage).
• Statistical analyses included Mann-Whitney tests and logistic regression to compare groups and assess predictive accuracy.

Main Results:

• Mean SMR was 4.91 syllables/sec (SD=0.73) and mean ORR was 4.42 syllables/sec (SD=0.87) in healthy controls.
• Significant differences in SMR and ORR were found between healthy controls and individuals with PD (p < .001).
• The combined SMR and ORR tasks achieved a sensitivity of 0.88 and specificity of 0.90 for PD prediction.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully generated Greek normative data for SMR and ORR.
• Both SMR and ORR tasks are highly sensitive and specific for predicting Parkinson's disease in Greek speakers.
• These speech tasks can serve as effective screening tools for PD in this population.