Faculty
Health Sciences
Supervisor Name
Dr. Scott Adams
Keywords
Levodopa, Parkinson's disease, Speech intensity, Speech rate
Description
Reduced speech intensity (hypophonia) and abnormal speech rate (both fast and slow) are common speech symptoms in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (IWPD). Dopamine replacement medication, levodopa, is the standard treatment for PD; however previous studies of its effects on speech intensity and rate have been inconsistent. It is suggested that this may be related to inconsistencies in the severity of these speech symptoms in previous PD groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of levodopa medication on speech intensity and speech rate and to explore the potential association between levodopa responsiveness and the severity of these speech symptoms in PD.
54 IWPDs were asked to perform several speech tasks (prolonged vowel, rapid syllable repetition, and sentence reading) during OFF- and ON-medication conditions. For the OFF-medication condition, IWPDs withheld their regular levodopa dosage for at least 12 hours. IWPDs were then evaluated in the ON-medication condition one hour after the administration of a controlled 300mg dose of levodopa. 11 individuals without PD and of comparable age participated as controls in the study. The average speech intensity and speech time/rate were examined and analysed in Praat and SPSS from recorded speech samples. In this group of IWPDs, levodopa had a significant effect on speech intensity but not on speech rate. The results appeared to be influenced by a variation in severity as a relationship was observed between medication-related changes in speech intensity/rate and the OFF-medication severity.
Acknowledgements
I want to acknowledge my supervisor, Dr. Scott Adams, for his mentorship, guidance, and continued support throughout this internship.
I would also like to acknowledge the Western Undergraduate Summer Research Internship program and its collaborators (Western Research, Western Libraries, and Student Experience) for this amazing opportunity.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Document Type
Poster
Effects of Levodopa on Speech Intensity and Rate in Parkinson's Disease
Reduced speech intensity (hypophonia) and abnormal speech rate (both fast and slow) are common speech symptoms in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (IWPD). Dopamine replacement medication, levodopa, is the standard treatment for PD; however previous studies of its effects on speech intensity and rate have been inconsistent. It is suggested that this may be related to inconsistencies in the severity of these speech symptoms in previous PD groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of levodopa medication on speech intensity and speech rate and to explore the potential association between levodopa responsiveness and the severity of these speech symptoms in PD.
54 IWPDs were asked to perform several speech tasks (prolonged vowel, rapid syllable repetition, and sentence reading) during OFF- and ON-medication conditions. For the OFF-medication condition, IWPDs withheld their regular levodopa dosage for at least 12 hours. IWPDs were then evaluated in the ON-medication condition one hour after the administration of a controlled 300mg dose of levodopa. 11 individuals without PD and of comparable age participated as controls in the study. The average speech intensity and speech time/rate were examined and analysed in Praat and SPSS from recorded speech samples. In this group of IWPDs, levodopa had a significant effect on speech intensity but not on speech rate. The results appeared to be influenced by a variation in severity as a relationship was observed between medication-related changes in speech intensity/rate and the OFF-medication severity.