Some prosodic characteristics of parkinsonian French speech: Effects of bilateral stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus

The main goal of the present study was to examine the impact of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and bilateral STN stimulation on prosodic aspects of speech. This was accomplished by comparing temporal variables and F0 in the speech produced by ten patients in the “Off” and “On” conditions and ten healthy controls. Several tendencies emerged. Concerning temporal variables, there was no significant impact on articulation rate, pause ratio and pause time in the stim-off group. Furthermore, there was a strong congruence between pause pattern and syntactic structure which suggests that the syntactic function of prosody is preserved in PD speech. In contrast, the analysis of F0 revealed significant differences between controls and stim-off patients. Concerning bilateral STN stimulation, there were no group differences with respect to temporal variables and F0 values; however, closer examination of the data revealed individual differences in articulation rate, F0 mean, ranges and maxima.

► We examine the impact of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and bilateral STN stimulation on French prosody.
► We compare temporal variables and F0 in ten patients in stim-off and-on conditions and ten controls.
► PD does not impact significantly temporal variables, contrary to F0 values in the stim-off group.
► Stimulation has no significant effect on the prosodic variables of the stim-on group.