About this Research Topic

Background

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease with 90% of diagnosed individuals developing a speech disorder known as hypokinetic dysarthria. Hypokinetic dysarthria usually presents early in the disease and is characterised by reduced vocal loudness, monotonous voice, reduced fundamental frequency range, imprecise consonants and vowels, breathiness and inappropriate pauses. The hypokinetic nature of dysarthria is assumed to be due to the motoric nature of PD. However, research studies are emerging that show that speech production deficits of PD may be also attributable to sensory and sensorimotor integration deficits in PD. This is linked to the mechanism involved in the production of speech that requires sensory information such as auditory, somatosensory, and even visual feedback.

Our goal is to gain a more complete understanding of the mechanisms and nature of the speech production deficits (hypokinetic dysarthria) in PD. Achieving this goal will take a multidimensional approach. Psychophysical methods are needed to establish how the speech motor system responds to alterations of auditory and somatosensory feedback, and how internal and external cues and factors modulate these feedback responses in PD. Neuroimaging and electrophysiological methods (e.g., fMRI, MEG, EEG, and auditory brainstem response recording; ABR) are necessary for detecting the neural underpinnings of sensory and sensorimotor integration in speech production in PD. In addition, based on the understanding of the mechanisms and the nature of these deficits, translational studies are needed to apply this fundamental understanding to develop new therapeutic approaches to tackle progressive speech production deficits in PD.

In this Research Topic, we aim to collect studies reporting new findings on the mechanisms and nature of speech production disorders in PD. Towards this end, we welcome submissions that report on the latest research regarding (1) the mechanism of the disorder, including psychophysical approaches to speech production studies, (2) the neural basis of the disorder, including electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies, and (3) treatment approaches based on new findings of the mechanisms and nature of the speech disorders in PD.

With this collection reporting on new studies of speech production in PD, we hope to advance our understanding of speech disorders in PD and factors involved in these deficits that could be integrated in designing new speech and language therapy approaches in PD.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, Sensorimotor integration, Speech production, Speech perception, Sensory processing

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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