School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe.
Communication Sciences and Disorders Program, California State University, Chico.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2021 May 11;64(5):1539-1549. doi: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00233. Epub 2021 Apr 8.
Purpose For individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), conversational interactions can be challenging. Efforts to improve the success of these interactions have largely fallen on the individual with PD. Successful communication, however, involves contributions from both the individual with PD and their communication partner. The current study examines whether healthy communication partners naturally engage in different acoustic-prosodic behavior (speech compensations) when conversing with an individual with PD and, further, whether such behavior aids communication success. Method Measures of articulatory precision, speaking rate, and pitch variability were extracted from the speech of healthy speakers engaged in goal-directed dialogue with other healthy speakers (healthy-healthy dyads) and with individuals with PD (healthy-PD dyads). Speech compensations, operationally defined as significant differences in healthy speakers' acoustic-prosodic behavior in healthy-healthy dyads versus healthy-PD dyads, were calculated for the three speech behaviors. Finally, the relationships between speech behaviors and an objective measure of communicative efficiency were examined. Results Healthy speakers engaged in speech characterized by greater articulatory precision and slower speaking rate when conversing with individuals with PD relative to conversations with other healthy individuals. However, these adaptive speech compensations were not predictive of communicative efficiency. Conclusions Evidence that healthy speakers naturally engage in speech compensations when conversing with individuals with PD is novel, yet consistent with findings from studies with other populations in which conversation can be challenging. In the case of PD, these compensatory behaviors did not support communication outcomes. While preliminary in nature, the results raise important questions regarding the speech behavior of healthy communication partners and provide directions for future work.
目的 对于帕金森病（PD）患者，对话交流可能具有挑战性。改善这些交流的努力主要落在 PD 患者身上。然而，成功的沟通需要 PD 患者和他们的沟通伙伴共同贡献。本研究探讨了健康的沟通伙伴在与 PD 患者交谈时是否自然会表现出不同的声学韵律行为（言语补偿），以及这种行为是否有助于沟通成功。
方法 从健康说话者与其他健康说话者（健康-健康对）和 PD 患者（健康-PD 对）进行目标导向对话时的语音中提取了发音准确性、说话速度和音高可变性的测量值。将言语补偿定义为健康说话者在健康-健康对和健康-PD 对中声学韵律行为的显著差异，用于计算这三个言语行为。最后，研究了言语行为与客观沟通效率测量之间的关系。
结果 与与其他健康个体交谈相比，健康说话者在与 PD 患者交谈时表现出更高的发音准确性和更慢的说话速度。然而，这些适应性言语补偿并不能预测沟通效率。
结论 健康说话者在与 PD 患者交谈时自然会表现出言语补偿的证据是新颖的，但与其他具有挑战性对话的人群的研究结果一致。在 PD 的情况下，这些补偿行为并没有支持沟通结果。虽然结果初步表明，这些结果提出了有关健康沟通伙伴言语行为的重要问题，并为未来的工作提供了方向。
