Speech Characteristics of Patients with Parkinson’s Disease: II. Physiological Support for Speech

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Abstract
Seventeen ambulatory males with Parkinson''s disease, with a median age of 56 years, 10 months, were matched in age with 17 normally speaking male controls. No individual was included in either group who showed evidence of cardiac, respiratory, laryngeal, or auditory impairment. Vocal intensity, vocal pitch, sustained phonation were measured and recorded. Parkinsonian patients, as a group, were unable to produce "quiet" phonation at sound pressure levels as low as those achieved by the control normals. The majority of the patients also showed reduced ability to produce "loud" phonation. Reductions in maximum pitch range were typical. The ability to sustain phonation was impaired.

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