Abstract
This longitudinal study examines changes to speech production and speech breathing
in older adults with Parkinson's disease (PD) and older adults without PD. Eight participants
with PD and eight age- and sex-matched older adults participated in two data collection
sessions, separated by 3.7 years on average. Speech severity and speech rate increased
for people with PD. Vital capacity decreased for both groups. Older adult control
participants displayed significant increases in lung volume initiation and excursion
and percent vital capacity expended per syllable. These changes allow older adults
to utilize higher recoil pressures to generate subglottal pressure for speech production,
potentially reducing work of breathing. Participants with PD displayed significant
decreases in lung volume initiation and termination. Thus, unlike older adults, people
with PD exert more expiratory muscle pressure during speech production, leading to
increased effort. Speech-language pathologists need to consider direct treatment of
respiratory patterns for speech to reduce effort and fatigue.
Keywords
Parkinson's disease - aging - respiratory function
