Enhancement of reaching performance via self-speech in people with Parkinson's disease.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of self-speech as an internal cue on reaching performance in people with Parkinson's disease.


METHODS
Eight people with Parkinson's disease were voluntarily recruited from the upstate New York community.


METHODS
This study was a repeated measure analysis of reaching performance under four randomized counterbalanced vocalization (speech) conditions that include a no vocalization control condition. The study was conducted in a university-based motion analysis laboratory. Participants performed a simple sequential daily reaching performance of reaching for a bottle, grasping and placing it on a simulated cabinet. Under counterbalanced randomized conditions, before each performance, participants either self-vocalized the word 'yaah' (self-cue), listened to the word 'yaah' vocalized by the experimenter (external cue), imagined vocalizing the word 'yaah', or just simply performed the task without any vocalization (control - no vocalization).


METHODS
The following dependent kinematic measures were extracted from the movement: total movement time, total movement unit, peak velocities and durations of reaching and placing segments.


RESULTS
People with Parkinson's disease took significantly shorter time under self-vocalization conditions (2390.00 (326.63) ms) compared with the other three conditions including control - no vocalization conditions (no_voc, 3015.66 (340.83) ms; ext_voc, 2853.12 (376.44) ms; imaginary-voc, 3000.37 (320.54) ms). Under self-vocalization conditions the movements were also significantly smoother as evidenced by significantly lower numbers of movement units (3.43 (0.41)) compared with the other three conditions (no_voc, 4.47 (0.57); ext_voc, 4.16 (0.51); imaginary-voc, 4.16 (0.55)).


CONCLUSIONS
Self-vocalization of a positive reinforcing word enabled people with Parkinson's disease to perform a daily upper extremity task faster and more smoothly.
Maitra
K K
KK
Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Health Science and Human Service, The University of Toledo Health Science Campus, Toledo, Ohio 43614-5803, USA. kmaitra@meduohio.edu
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001132:Arm; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012057:Reinforcement, Verbal; D013060:Speech