Linguistic features of dysfluencies in Parkinson Disease

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine dysfluency characteristics of individuals with Parkinson Disease (PD) relative to linguistic features of grammatical class and position within word. Few studies have reported dysfluency characteristics of PD relative to these characteristics. Those that do report on these characteristics include one case study and a study of six individuals with PD. No previous research is known to have examined dysfluency related to grammatical class and position within words for a large sample of individuals with PD.

Method

Dysfluencies from 32 individuals with PD were analyzed according to position within a word and grammatical class.

Results

Participants produced significantly more dysfluencies in the initial position of words compared to medial or final positions, and a significantly higher percent dysfluency for content words versus function words.

Conclusion

Effects of linguistic features of grammatical class and position within a word on dysfluencies are present within a population with PD and are similar to the linguistic features associated with developmental stuttering. Clinical implications of the effect of linguistic features on speech dysfluencies in PD are discussed.