Intelligibility Assessment for Parkinson's Disease

Automatic Assessment of Intelligibility in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

The investigators aim at testing the efficacy of an app to measure sentence intelligibility in noise in speakers with Parkinson's disease and in healthy controls.

Close to 90% of people with Parkinson's disease develop voice problems during the course of the disease. These problems lead to reduced intelligibility, which entails a subsequent reduction in social participation and overall quality of life. The current study will focus on developing and pilot-testing an app to measure the intelligibility of people with PD and of healthy controls. In order to test the app's efficacy, speakers will read a set of 50 sentences that will be embedded in noise for measurement purposes. A group of listeners will also transcribe the spoken sentences to correlate their performance to that of the app. The ultimate purpose of this investigation is to improve self-monitoring and self-sufficiency in people with PD. The study is expected to last 12 months.

Speakers with PD:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Have a medical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease
• Have experienced changes in your voice (e.g., your voice has "lost its strength") and your voice is a current concern
• Have not received individual speech therapy for the past 2 years (group therapy is ok)
• Have a stable medication schedule
• Have not received DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation)
• Are a native speaker of American English

Exclusion Criteria:

• If criteria above are not met

Healthy controls:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Be a native speaker of American English
• Have no history of neurological impairment
• Have no history of speech or language problems

Exclusion Criteria:

• If criteria above are not met

Listeners:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Be a native speaker of American English
• Be between 18-55 years old
• Have no history of speech-language-hearing problems
• Pass a free hearing screening
• Have received the Covid19 vaccine

Exclusion Criteria:

• If criteria above are not met