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. Mixed-model analyses of variance were performed to determine the effects of group, condition (presence of the concurrent working memory task), and their interaction on the acoustic measures.

Results: All measures except for VOT variability, mean pause duration, and relative offset differed between people with and without PD. Cepstral peak prominence, articulation rate, and relative offset differed as a function of condition. However, no measures indicated disparate effects of condition as a function of group.

Conclusion: Although differentially impactful on limb motor function in PD, here a concurrent working memory task was not found to be differentially disruptive to speech acoustics in PD.

Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24759648.