Effect of Parkinson's disease on the production of structured and unstructured speaking tasks: respiratory physiologic and linguistic considerations.
OBJECTIVE
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.


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Huber
Jessica E
JE
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 1353 Heavilon Hall, Purdue University, 500 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. jhuber@purdue.edu
Darling
Meghan
M
D000368:Aged; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D001239:Inhalation / Q000502:physiology; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008037:Linguistics; D008176:Lung Volume Measurements; D008297:Male; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010991:Plethysmography; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013147:Spirometry; D014797:Vital Capacity / Q000502:physiology