Analysis of Voice and Speech Performance in Parkinson’s Disease: A Promising Tool for the Monitoring of Disease Progression and Differential Diagnosis

SUMMARY Abnormalities of voice and speech performance are common and are early features of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other hypokinetic rigid syndromes, such as progressive supranuclear palsy. The typical pattern of dysarthria in PD is characterized by reduced loudness and pitch variability, often in combination with abnormalities of voice, articulatory insufficiencies and irregularity of speech rate and rhythm. Recent preliminary investigations on the progression of dysarthria in the course of PD, and on the comparison of dysarthria between PD and progressive supranuclear palsy speakers, justify the assumption that analysis of speech may become a helpful tool for the monitoring of presumably nondopaminergic features and disease progression in PD and for the differential diagnoses of different parkinsonian syndromes.