Dancing towards speech improvement: repurposing dance for speech deficits in neurodegenerative diseases

Dance or rhythmic movement-based training has demonstrated significant efficacy in addressing a range of motor and cognitive deficits associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease. Leveraging both human and non-human animal behavioral and neurobiological evidence, I hypothesize a possible untapped role of dance training in mitigating speech impairments, a complex sensorimotor behavior affected in these conditions. Here, this hypothesis is supported by an in-depth examination of speech deficits in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease, at a behavioral, physiological, and neural level. Additionally, literature on the impact of dance training on relevant speech behaviors and brain pathways in populations with neurodegenerative diseases is thoroughly reviewed. Synthesizing these findings, I propose repurposing dance as a novel treatment for speech deficits, and outline specific experiments to test this hypothesis. By comprehensively investigating the full spectrum of the effects of a motor-based training, i.e., dance, on often overlooked motor-based behaviors, such as speech, we may uncover novel therapeutic avenues of a practice that has already shown promising implications.