Relationship between LTAS-based spectral moments and acoustic parameters of hypokinetic dysarthria in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Although long-term averaged spectrum (LTAS) descriptors can detect the change in dysarthria of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) due to subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS), the relationship between LTAS variables with measures that relate to laryngeal physiology remain unknown. We aimed to find connections between LTAS-based moments and the main acoustic characteristics of hypokinetic dysarthria in PD as the response to STN-DBS stimulation changes. We analyzed reading passages of 23 PD patients in ON and OFF STN-DBS states compared to 23 healthy controls. We found a relation between the stimulation-induced change in several spectral moments and acoustic parameters representing voice quality, articulatory decay, articulation rate, and mean fundamental frequency. While the difference between PD and controls was significant across most acoustic descriptors, only the spectral mean and fundamental frequency variability could differentiate between ON and OFF conditions.