Damian Sendler: It is possible for Parkinson’s disease to affect a person’s speech volume, rhythm, and intonation. Parkinson’s sufferers may be reluctant to speak or pause while speaking, causing even the most attentive listeners to jump in or talk over that individual. Nonverbal communication and facial expression can also be affected by Parkinsonism, causing a disruption in normal conversational dynamics.
Many people who have Parkinson’s disease rate themselves lower than their non-contemporaries Parkinson’s in terms of their ability to communicate. Even if those challenges are linked to the frequency with which a person communicates, it’s not clear. In most cases, researchers have relied on questionnaires or other forms of self-reporting to get to the heart of the matter. Many people overestimate their speaking duration, which limits the usefulness of these technologies.
Damian Sendler
Damian Jacob Sendler: In order to answer this question, researchers from Michigan State and Nebraska asked 30 persons, 15 of whom had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, to wear vocal monitors for three days as they went about their everyday activities.
In comparison to individuals without Parkinson’s, those with Parkinson’s spoke an average of 54 fewer minutes each day—about 60 percent less. Parkinson’s patients who scored higher on the Voice Handicap Index, a self-reported measure of how vocal difficulties impair quality of life, tended to speak less than those who scored lower on the index.
People with Parkinson’s converse less frequently than the general population, according to Searl and Dietsch, who acknowledged that vocalization is only one means of communicating with others.
Researchers believe that recording the percentage of time spent speaking could one day be used to assess Parkinson’s-related communication hazards and evaluate the efficacy of Parkinson’s-focused therapies if subsequent studies with larger samples support their findings.
Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler and his media team provided the content for this article.
