Estrategias para potenciar el aprendizaje motor en el tratamiento vocal de las enfermedades neurodegenerativas

Sensorimotor deficits have a devastating effect on the quality of life of people with neurodegenerative diseases, especially disruptions of craniofacial nerves. These disorders affect voice, speech, facial expression and deglutition. Scientific evidence indicates that targeted training of laryngeal and respiratory muscle groups may reverse or slow disease progression as well as its cranial sensorimotor deficits. However there is still a lack of specifically designed strategies to achieve motor learning and to enhance the generalization of therapeutic results; e.g. there is a need for specific treatment protocols that improve the transfer of motor abilities from the clinical setting to the patient's actual environment. The purpose of this study is primarily aimed at reviewing the principles, phases and forms of motor learning and the application of motor learning requisites to the treatment of vocal problems in neurodegenerative diseases. In the second part of the article we analyze how the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT®) method applies theories of motor learning to the treatment of voice problems in persons with Parkinson's disease. This method has been shown to improve the neurological lesion, vocal function, speech intelligibility and deglutition, with most of its effects being maintained in the short, medium and long term.