title: Voice target time in Parkinson's disease: A preliminary report.
abstract: A target-matching paradigm was developed to assess the vocal equivalents of reaction and movement time in Parkinson's disease. Six patients with Parkinson's disease and 6 age- and gender-matched control subjects were asked to enunciate /pa/ to reach a target frequency and intensity level in response to a light stimulus. The stimulus and acoustic responses were simultaneously recorded. Measures included laryngeal reaction time, time between stimulus and phonation onset; frequency voice target time, time from phonation onset to target level of frequency; and amplitude voice target time, time from phonation onset to target level of intensity. The 2 subject groups were significantly differentiated by laryngeal reaction time (t = 299.67, df = 10, P = 0.005) and frequency voice target time (t = 148, df = 10, P = 0.014). These data suggest voice target time is a viable tool for assessing the effects of neurologic disorders on voice execution in Parkinson's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Northwestern University School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sheynin
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Hanson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007830:Larynx / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*