Variable Speech Cueing Effects in Talkers With Parkinson's Disease

This study sought to determine the variable effect of three cueing strategies (i.e., loud, clear, or slow speech) on speech intelligibility and perceived speech severity in talkers with dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD). The study also aimed to identify perceptual speech features associated with responses to these speech cues.

Eighty-four naive listeners rated speech samples of 52 talkers with PD. Each talker's samples consisted of two sentences produced in habitual, loud, clear, and slow speech. Listeners rated intelligibility and speech severity as perceptual outcome measures using separate visual analog scales. The relative change in intelligibility and speech severity ratings from habitual speech to each speech cue was calculated. Based on the threshold of a meaningful change, talkers were grouped into "positive responders" and "nonpositive responders" for each outcome measure and each speech cue. Finally, a profile of perceptual speech features and severity ratings of the articulatory and phonatory subsystem impairment was established for each talker based on their habitual speech to identify potential predictors of the cueing response patterns.

For both outcome measures, intelligibility and speech severity, loud speech elicited the most positive responses followed by clear speech and slow speech. Subsystem impairment severity differed between positive responders and non-positive responders. For each cueing strategy, the presence of specific perceptual speech features indicated a likelihood of a positive response.

Findings provide an important stepping stone for future research that seeks to advance personalized treatment of dysarthria in talkers with PD.