Prosody deficits in basal ganglia disorders: An acoustical analysis of linguistic intonation

Author(s): Cohen, H., Pourcher, E.

Journal/Book: Brain Cognition. 1996; 32: 525 B St, Ste 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495. Academic Press Inc Jnl-Comp Subscriptions. 215-219.

Abstract: Studies conducted with Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have shown that this basal ganglia pathology is often associated with speech motor control deficits, including prosody impairment. In this study, the role of basal ganglia in the production of linguistic intonation was investigated by comparing subjects presenting three motor syndromes PD, tardive dyskinesia (TD), and Huntington's disease (HD) to a group of control subjects. Measures of prosodic modulation were Delta F-0 values extracted from digitized intonative sentences produced under imitation and free production conditions (Auditory/Visual). Analyses revealed that clinical subjects exhibit similar profiles of prosodic deficits in the Visual condition only. These results suggest that basal ganglia play an important role in the spontaneous generation of internal models or strategies guiding movement sequences. Furthermore, it appears that some motor control impairment observed after BG dysfunction may reflect critical and generalized deficits that may also affect cognitive functions.

Note: Article Fraile V, Univ Quebec, Cognit Neurosci Lab, CP 8888, Succ Centreville, Montreal, PQ H3C 3P8, CANADA

Keyword(s): PARKINSONS-DISEASE; EXTERNAL CUES; MOVEMENT; LANGUAGE

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