SPEECH SCAN WAVEFORMS & PARKINSON’S

SPEECH SCAN WAVEFORMS & PARKINSON’S

Dr Shimon Sapir and colleagues report preliminary research has demonstrated that the FCR analysis method (Formant Centralization Ratio FCR is a measure how much speech was affected in people with Parkinson’s disease) can be used to detect dysarthric speech in people with Parkinson’s disease, and may be superior to the VSA analysis method sometimes currently used. However, the researchers say that there are other techniques to assess dysarthria which they did not test against the FCR method. Therefore, they cannot say that FCR is the overall preferred tool for assessing dysarthria without further research.

Dr Shimon Sapir and colleagues from the University of Haifa, Isreal, and colleagues at the National Center for Voice and Speech in Denver, Colorado, in the US. published their study in the medical journal, the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.

Patients with Parkinson’s disease can develop a type of speech disorder called dysarthria. This happens when the condition affects the parts of the brain that control the movements needed for speech. Dysarthria is characterised by poor articulation. It has been suggested that if measuring the severity of dysarthria is possible, it could be used to monitor deterioration or improvement of the condition due to disease progression or treatments for Parkinson’s disease.

The researchers suggest that, although their research should be considered as preliminary, FCR is a valid and highly sensitive method of measuring normal and abnormal vowel articulation. They also say that its performance is superior to that of VSA in distinguishing dysarthric speech from healthy speech.

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Written by Dr Martin Harris, Doctor and Mohel for Jewish Circumcision Clinic in London Bris Mila Brit Milah.
www.circumcisionlondon.co.uk

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Contact Dr Martin Harris