Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, degenerative disorder that affects 10 million people worldwide. More than 90% of individuals with PD develop hypokinetic dysarthria, a motor speech disorder that impairs vocal communication and quality of life. Despite the prevalence of vocal deficits in this population, very little is known about the pathological mechanisms underlying this aspect of disease. As such, effective treatment options are limited. Rat models have provided unique insights into the disease-specific mechanisms of vocal deficits in PD. This review summarizes recent studies investigating vocal deficits in 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), alpha-synuclein overexpression, DJ1-/-, and Pink1-/- rat models of PD. Model-specific changes to rat ultrasonic vocalization (USV), and the effects of exercise and pharmacologic interventions on USV production in these models are discussed.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, degenerative disorder that affects 10 million people worldwide [1,2]
By 8 months, vocal loudness for complex (FM) calls decreased in Pink1-/- females; similar studies in Pink1-/- males demonstrated significantly worse vocal deficits across multiple acoustic variables at the 8-month and earlier timepoints (Table 4), suggesting that there may be a sex-specific difference in vocal degradation, with female vocalization breakdown occurring at a slower rate
Rat models have contributed to our understanding of PD
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, degenerative disorder that affects 10 million people worldwide [1,2]. 50-kHz calls occur in response to activity in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system originating in the ventral tegmental area, and are produced in social, nonaggressive, positive affective states [30,31,32,33,34,35] They represent purposeful affiliative vocalizations, are highly relevant to human communication, and as such, are commonly studied and will be the focus of this review. USVs are used to study vocal sensorimotor control in models of PD The purpose of this focused review is to highlight the changes that occur to 50-kHz vocal communication in various models of PD.
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