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Arts and Sciences

Research

Role of Altered Auditory Feedback and Principles of Motor Learning in Improving Speech Intelligibility in People with Parkinson's Disease

(PI: Kaipa, Ph.D.)

The overarching goal of this study to is to develop an evidence-based treatment protocol for speech rate deficit in people with Parkinson’s disease. Accelerated speech is a common speech deficit in individuals diagnosed with hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to Parkinson’s disease. The current study seeks to address this gap by administering a popular rate control approach, delayed auditory feedback within the context of motor learning guided approach. It is hypothesized that people with hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to Parkinson’s disease will not only demonstrate a slower rate speech rate and increased speech intelligibility after receiving this treatment, but also retain this behavior on a long-term basis. This hypothesis will be tested by: (1) comparing participants’ speech rate at baseline and post-treatment using appropriate acoustic measures, (2) comparing the speech intelligibility before and after administration of the rate control treatment, and (3) comparing the outcomes at 1-month post-treatment to baseline to evaluate long-term retention of the behavior.

 

This study is a phase I clinical trial and will employ a pre-test/post-test research design to evaluate the effectiveness of the rate control treatment in people with hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to Parkinson’s disease. The treatment will be administered for six consecutive days. The participants’ acoustic as well as speech intelligibility measures will be analyzed at baseline, immediately at the end of treatment session on day 6, as well as one-month after the termination of the treatment to assess for long-term retention.


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