Effect of parkinson's disease on the production of structured and unstructured speaking tasks: Respiratory physiologic and linguistic considerations

Jessica E. Huber, Meghan Darling

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

86 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the effects of cognitive-linguistic deficits and respiratory physiologic changes on respiratory support for speech in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) using two speech tasks: reading and extemporaneous speech. Method: Five women with PD, 9 men with PD, and 14 age- and sex-matched control participants read a passage and spoke extemporaneously on a topic of their choice at comfortable loudness. Sound pressure level, syllables per breath group, speech rate, and lung volume parameters were measured. Number of formulation errors, disfluencies, and filled pauses were counted. Results: Individuals with PD produced shorter utterances compared with control participants. The relationships between utterance length and lung volume initiation and inspiratory duration were weaker for individuals with PD than for control participants, particularly for the extemporaneous speech task. These results suggest less consistent planning for utterance length by individuals with PD in extemporaneous speech. Individuals with PD produced more formulation errors in both tasks and significantly fewer filled pauses in extemporaneous speech. Conclusion: Both respiratory physiologic and cognitive-linguistic issues affected speech production by individuals with PD. Overall, individuals with PD had difficulty planning or coordinating language formulation and respiratory support, particularly during extemporaneous speech.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)33-46
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Volume54
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Language
  • Parkinson's disease
  • Respiratory system

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Speech and Hearing

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