Vowel articulation changes in Parkinson's disease. Pilot study.

Authors

• Nelly Penttilä Tampere University, Faculty of Social Sciences
• Tiina Ihalainen Tampere University, Faculty of Social Sciences
• Juulia Lintula Tampere University, Faculty of Social Sciences
• Sofi Niinisaari Tampere University, Faculty of Social Sciences
• Leena Rantala Tampere University, Faculty of Social Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23997/pk.126148

Keywords:

intelligibility, Parkinson's disease, vowel articulation index

Abstract

Imprecise vowel articulation is one of the first symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. Acoustic
analysis has been used to assess changes in vowel articulation. The aim of this pilot study was
to analyze vowel articulation in Finnish Parkinsonian speakers (n=35) with vowel articulation
index (VAI). VAI has shown to be the most sensitive and reliable acoustic measurement
tool for studying speech intelligibility. Based on this study, VAI separated on a group-level
speakers with Parkinson’s disease from neurologically healthy speakers (n=35). Although
the average age differed statistically significantly between neurologically healthy speakers
and speakers with Parkinson’s disease, the results can be still utilized in the future studies. In
the future, it is important to study variables that may possibly impact on VAI -values, e.g.,
age, fatigue, education, and dialect.