Audio and vision-based evaluation of parkinson~s disease from discourse video

Parkinson's disease (PD) belongs to a class of neurodegenerative diseases that affect both the patient's speech and motor capabilities. To date, PD diagnosis and the determination of disease progress and treatment efficacy is based entirely on the subjective observation of a trained physician. We present the results of a pilot study of two Idiopathic PD patients who have undergone Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT). It has been observed subjectively that gestural performance of patients improve in tandem with speech improvements after LSVT. It is hypothesized that these improvements are taking place at a neurological level. Measurements of speech and gesture suggest that LSVT improves the quality of both gesticulation and speech.