Table 2.
Changes in intelligibility (% of words understood) and perceptual speech characteristics (as per Darley, Aronson & Brown, 1975) in 54 consecutive PD patients following one year of bilateral STN-DBS (mean ± SD).
| Baseline off-medication | Baseline on-medication | one year off-medication/on-stimulation | one year on-medication/on-stimulation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speech intelligibility | 98% (4.3) | 97% (7.7) | 83.9% (28) | 84.3% (26.6) |
| dB max reading | 69.3 (6.9) | 73.4 (7) | 74.8 (6) | 76.2 (6.5) |
| Rate (words per minute) | 149.3 (26.8) | 147 (26) | 150.2 (36.3) | 140.5 (37.9) |
| Total | ||||
| perceptual score (/42) | 32.4 (4.6) | 32.5 (5.2) | 27.3 (8.8) | 26.5 (8.9) |
| articulation (/7) | 5.9 (0.8) | 5.6 (1.3) | 4.4 (1.9) | 4.4 (1.9) |
| respiration (/7) | 5 (1) | 4.9 (1.1) | 4.1 (1.6) | 3.9 (1.7) |
| resonance (/7) | 5.6 (1) | 5.6 (0.8) | 4.9 (1.6) | 4.9 (1.3) |
| phonation (/7) | 4.8 (1) | 5.1 (1) | 4.4 (1.5) | 4.1 (1.6) |
| prosody (/7) | 4.9 (1.5) | 5.3 (1.4) | 4.1 (1.8) | 4.1 (2) |
|
| ||||
| Rate control (/7) | 6 (0.9) | 5.8 (1.3) | 5.2 (1.6) | 4.9 (1.7) |