Longitudinal Effects of Parkinson’s Disease on Speech Breathing During an Extemporaneous Connected Speech Task

Purpose: A critical component to the development of any type of intervention to improve speech production in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a complete understanding of the speech impairments present at each stage of the disease and how these impairments change with disease progression. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the impact of disease on speech production and speech breathing during an extemporaneous speech task in individuals with PD over the course of approximately 3.5 years. Method: Eight individuals with PD and eight age-and sex-matched control participants produced an extemporaneous connected speech task on two occasions (Time 1 and Time 2) an average of 3 years 7 months apart. Dependent variables included sound pressure level; utterance length; speech rate; lung volume initiation, termination, and excursion; and percent vital capacity per syllable. Results: From Time 1 to Time 2, individuals with PD demonstrated decreased utterance length and lung volume initiation, termination, and excursion and increased speech rate. Control participants demonstrated decreased utterance length and lung volume termination and increased lung volume excursion and percent vital capacity per syllable from Time 1 to Time 2. Conclusions: Changes in speech production and speech breathing variables experienced by individuals with PD over the course of several years are related to their disease process and not typical aging. Changes to speech breathing highlight the need to provide intervention focused on increasing efficient respiratory patterning for speech production.