Acceleration of syllable repetition in Parkinson's disease is more prominent in the left-side dominant patients.

Background: In Parkinson's disease (PD), abnormalities of speech rate have been observed in spontaneous speech, reading tasks and syllable repetition tasks. Impaired temporal speech patterns have been contributed to dysfunctional basal ganglia circuits, but little is known about a possible differential role of right and left basal ganglia concerning speech production, although neurodegeneration in PD typically follows an asymmetrical pattern. The aim of our study was to reveal a possible influence of lateralized basal ganglia dysfunction on speech timing in PD.

Instability of syllable repetition in Parkinson's disease--influence of levodopa and deep brain stimulation.

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis of a fundamental impairment of vocal pace performance in Parkinson's disease (PD) based on a syllable repetition paradigm and the influence of levodopa and deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS). Twenty-two PD patients under stable dopaminergic medication, 14 patients with STN-DBS, and 30 controls were tested. Participants had to repeat the syllable /pa/ in a steady pace.

Instability of syllable repetition as a marker of disease progression in Parkinson's disease: a longitudinal study.

Parkinsonian speakers show a tendency to articulatory acceleration and have difficulties to keep the steady pace of repeated syllables. The aim of this study was to analyse the stability of motor speech performance based upon a syllable repetition paradigm during the course of disease to find a potential marker of disease progression in Parkinson's disease (PD). 58 patients with PD and 35 controls were tested and re-tested after at least 12 months (mean: 33.

Instability of syllable repetition as a model for impaired motor processing: is Parkinson's disease a "rhythm disorder"?

Alterations of speech rate and rhythm are well-known features in parkinsonian patients suffering from hypokinetic dysarthria and are thought to be induced by complex dysfunction of planning, preparing and executing of motor speech sequences. Since speech can be subdivided down to the level of single utterances, the aim of our study was to test the hypothesis of a fundamental impairment of vocal pace performance in parkinsonian patients based on a syllable repetition paradigm. Furthermore, the overall integrity of acoustical feedback mechanisms was surveyed by testing the ability to correctly identify pace and steadiness of the presented audio examples.