(Dys)Prosody in Parkinson's Disease: Effects of Medication and Disease Duration on Intonation and Prosodic Phrasing.

Sónia Frota,Isabel Guimarães,Joaquim Ferreira,Marina Vigário,Rita Cardoso,Marisa Cruz,Serge Pinto

doi:10.3390/brainsci11081100

Abstract

The phonology of prosody has received little attention in studies of motor speech disorders. The present study investigates the phonology of intonation (nuclear contours) and speech chunking (prosodic phrasing) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) as a function of medication intake and duration of the disease. Following methods of the prosodic and intonational phonology frameworks, we examined the ability of 30 PD patients to use intonation categories and prosodic phrasing structures in ways similar to 20 healthy controls to convey similar meanings. Speech data from PD patients were collected before and after a dopaminomimetic drug intake and were phonologically analyzed in relation to nuclear contours and intonational phrasing. Besides medication, disease duration and the presence of motor fluctuations were also factors included in the analyses. Overall, PD patients showed a decreased ability to use nuclear contours and prosodic phrasing. Medication improved intonation regardless of disease duration but did not help with dysprosodic phrasing. In turn, disease duration and motor fluctuations affected phrasing patterns but had no impact on intonation. Our study demonstrated that the phonology of prosody is impaired in PD, and prosodic categories and structures may be differently affected, with implications for the understanding of PD neurophysiology and therapy.

Highlights

Prosody is an essential component of language
The aim of the present study is to examine the phonology of intonation and speech chunking in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients’ speech and as a function of medication intake and duration of the disease
Following the criteria defined in Pinto et al (2016), we considered three subgroups of patients (Table 5): group 1 (G1) with a disease duration between 0 and 3 years; group 2 (G2) with a disease duration between 4 and 9 years, and group 3 (G3) with a disease duration of 10 years or more

Summary

Introduction

Prosody is manifested by the use of phonetic features (such as pitch, duration, and intensity) to express meanings in ways that are structured by the language-particular system [1,2]. Many aspects of prosody have been studied in PD patients, those related to the phonology of prosody have received little attention. It is largely unknown whether PD speakers use intonation categories and prosodic phrasing structures in ways similar to healthy speakers of the same language to convey similar meanings. The present study addresses this gap by investigating the phonology of key features of intonation and speech chunking in PD patients’ speech when compared to healthy speakers and as a function of medication intake and duration of the disease

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Conclusion