title: The effect of intensive speech rate and intonation therapy on intelligibility in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Most studies on treatment of prosody in individuals with dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease are based on intensive treatment of loudness. The present study investigates the effect of intensive treatment of speech rate and intonation on the intelligibility of individuals with dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  A one group pretest-posttest design was used to compare intelligibility, speech rate, and intonation before and after treatment. Participants included eleven Dutch-speaking individuals with predominantly moderate dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease, who received five one-hour treatment sessions per week during three weeks. Treatment focused on lowering speech rate and magnifying the phrase final intonation contrast between statements and questions. Intelligibility was perceptually assessed using a standardized sentence intelligibility test. Speech rate was automatically assessed during the sentence intelligibility test as well as during a passage reading task and a storytelling task. Intonation was perceptually assessed using a sentence reading task and a sentence repetition task, and also acoustically analyzed in terms of maximum fundamental frequency.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After treatment, there was a significant improvement of sentence intelligibility (effect size .83), a significant increase of pause frequency during the passage reading task, a significant improvement of correct listener identification of statements and questions, and a significant increase of the maximum fundamental frequency in the final syllable of questions during both intonation tasks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that participants were more intelligible and more able to manipulate pause frequency and statement-question intonation after treatment. However, the relationship between the change in intelligibility on the one hand and the changes in speech rate and intonation on the other hand is not yet fully understood. Results are nuanced in the light of the operated research design.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The reader will be able to: (1) describe the effect of intensive speech rate and intonation treatment on intelligibility of speakers with dysarthria due to PD, (2) describe the effect of intensive speech rate treatment on rate manipulation by speakers with dysarthria due to PD, and (3) describe the effect of intensive intonation treatment on manipulation of the phrase final intonation contrast between statements and questions by speakers with dysarthria due to PD.
authors.affiliation: Antwerp University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. Electronic address: heidi.martens@edpnet.be.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Martens
authors.affiliation: Antwerp University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; Antwerp University Hospital, Rehabilitation Centre for Communication Disorders, Wilrijkstraat 10, B-2650 Edegem, Belgium; Ghent University, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Gwen.van.nuffelen@uza.be.
authors.forename: Gwen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Van Nuffelen
authors.affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of ETRO-DSSP, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: tdekens@etro.vub.ac.be.
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dekens
authors.affiliation: Antwerp University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. Electronic address: MariaE.Hernandez-Diaz@uantwerpen.be.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hernández-Díaz Huici
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies on Electronics and Information Technologies, Universidad Central Marta Abreu de Las Villas, 54830 Santa Clara, Cuba. Electronic address: akairuz@uclv.edu.cu.
authors.forename: Hector Arturo
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Kairuz Hernández-Díaz
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Miet.DeLetter@UGent.be.
authors.forename: Miet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Letter
authors.affiliation: Antwerp University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; Antwerp University Hospital, Rehabilitation Centre for Communication Disorders, Wilrijkstraat 10, B-2650 Edegem, Belgium; Ghent University, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Marc.de.bodt@uza.be.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Bodt
mesh_terms: D004401:Dysarthria / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013065:Speech Intelligibility / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement
keywords: Dysarthria; Intelligibility; Intonation; Parkinson's disease; Prosody; Speech rate; Speech therapy