Researchers find altered speech may be the first sign of Parkinson's disease

Lithuanian researcher from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Rytis Maskeliunas, together with colleagues from the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU), tried to identify early symptoms of Parkinson's disease using voice data. Parkinson's disease is usually associated with loss of motor function – hand tremors, muscle stiffness, or balance problems. According to Maskeliunas, a researcher at KTU's Department of Multimedia Engineering, as motor activity decreases, so does the function of the vocal cords, diaphragm, and lungs: "Changes in speech often occur even earlier than motor function disorders, which is why the altered speech might be the first sign of the disease." According to Professor Virgilijus Ulozas, at the Department of Ear, Nose, and Throat at the LSMU Faculty of Medicine, patients with early-stage of Parkinson's disease, might speak in a quieter manner, which can also be monotonous, less expressive, slower, and more fragmented, and this is very difficult to notice by ear. As the disease progresses, hoarseness, stuttering, slurred pronunciation of words, and loss of pauses between words can become more apparent.