TY - JOUR
T1 - The Effects of Intensive Voice Treatment in Mandarin Speakers With Parkinson’s Disease
T2 - Acoustic and Perceptual Findings
AU - Hsu, Sih Chiao
AU - Jiao, Yishan
AU - Berisha, Visar
AU - Cheng, Shih Jung
AU - Levy, Erika S.
AU - McAuliffe, Megan J.
AU - Lin, Peiyi
AU - Wu, Ruey Meei
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank sincerely the participants with Parkinson’s disease, their caregivers, and the listeners who voluntarily participated in this study. We greatly appreciate the support from the medical team at the Center for Parkinson and Movement Disorders at the National Taiwan University Hospital, and Chen-Chien Yang and his colleagues from the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department as well as the Speech Therapy Division in Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, during data collection. We also thank Robert E. Remez, Michelle S. Troche, and Ye Wang for their helpful suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - Purpose: This study investigated the effects of intensive voice treatment on subjective and objective measures of speech production in Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria. Method: Nine Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson’s disease received 4 weeks of intensive voice treatment (4 × 60 min per week). The speakers were recorded reading a passage before treatment (PRE), immediately after treatment (POST), and at 6-month follow-up (FU). Listeners (n = 15) rated relative ease of understanding (EOU) of paired speech samples on a visual analogue scale. Acoustic analyses were performed. Changes in EOU, vocal intensity, global and local fundamental frequency (fo) variation, speech rate, and acoustic vowel space area (VSA) were examined. Results: Increases were found in EOU and vocal intensity from PRE to POST and from PRE to FU, with no change found from POST to FU. Speech rate increased from PRE to POST, with limited evidence of an increase from PRE to FU and no change from POST to FU. No changes in global or local fo variation or in VSA were found. Conclusions: Intensive voice treatment shows promise for improving speech production in Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria. Vocal intensity, speech rate, and, crucially, intelligibility, may improve for up to 6 months posttreatment. In contrast, fo variation and VSA may not increase following the treatment. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19529017.
AB - Purpose: This study investigated the effects of intensive voice treatment on subjective and objective measures of speech production in Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria. Method: Nine Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson’s disease received 4 weeks of intensive voice treatment (4 × 60 min per week). The speakers were recorded reading a passage before treatment (PRE), immediately after treatment (POST), and at 6-month follow-up (FU). Listeners (n = 15) rated relative ease of understanding (EOU) of paired speech samples on a visual analogue scale. Acoustic analyses were performed. Changes in EOU, vocal intensity, global and local fundamental frequency (fo) variation, speech rate, and acoustic vowel space area (VSA) were examined. Results: Increases were found in EOU and vocal intensity from PRE to POST and from PRE to FU, with no change found from POST to FU. Speech rate increased from PRE to POST, with limited evidence of an increase from PRE to FU and no change from POST to FU. No changes in global or local fo variation or in VSA were found. Conclusions: Intensive voice treatment shows promise for improving speech production in Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria. Vocal intensity, speech rate, and, crucially, intelligibility, may improve for up to 6 months posttreatment. In contrast, fo variation and VSA may not increase following the treatment. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19529017.
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U2 - 10.1044/2022_AJSLP-21-00195
DO - 10.1044/2022_AJSLP-21-00195
M3 - Article
C2 - 35394803
AN - SCOPUS:85129959412
VL - 31
SP - 1354
EP - 1357
JO - American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
JF - American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
SN - 1058-0360
IS - 3
ER -