Effects of a Concurrent Working Memory Task on Speech Acoustics in Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a concurrent working memory task on acoustic measures of speech in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Method: Individuals with PD and age- and sex-matched controls performed a speaking task with and without a Stroop-like concurrent working memory task. Cepstral peak prominence, low-to-high spectral energy ratio, fundamental frequency () standard deviation, articulation rate, pause duration, articulatory-acoustic vowel space, relative , mean voice onset time (VOT), and VOT variability were calculated for each condition.