Although motor speech impairment is a common manifestation of Huntington's disease (HD), its description remains limited. The aim of the current study was therefore to estimate the occurrence and characteristics of speech disorder in HD and to explore the influence of antipsychotic medication on speech performance. Speech samples, including reading passage and monologue, were acquired from 40 individuals diagnosed with HD and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Objective acoustic analyses were used to evaluate key aspects of speech including vowel articulation, intensity, pitch and timing. A predictive model was constructed to detect the occurrence and most prominent patterns of speech dysfunction in HD. We revealed that 93% of HD patients manifest some degree of speech impairment. Decreased number of pauses, slower articulation rate, imprecise vowel articulation and excess intensity variations were found to be the most salient patterns of speech dysfunction in HD. We further demonstrated that antipsychotic medication may induce excessive loudness and pitch variations perceptually resembling excess patterns of word stress, and may also accentuate general problems with speech timing. Additionally, antipsychotics induced a slight improvement of vowel articulation. Specific speech alterations observed in HD patients indicate that speech production may reflect the pathophysiology of the disease as well as treatment effects, and may therefore be considered a valuable marker of functional disability in HD.

Department of Circuit Theory Faculty of Electrical Engineering Czech Technical University Prague Technická 2 160 00 Prague 6 Czech Republic

See more in PubMed

J Acoust Soc Am. 2011 Jan;129(1):350-67 PubMed

J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2004 Aug;47(4):766-83 PubMed

Folia Phoniatr Logop. 1995;47(1):15-23 PubMed

Brain Lang. 1994 Aug;47(2):182-96 PubMed

IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2012 May;59(5):1264-71 PubMed

Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2010 Nov-Dec;45(6):656-69 PubMed

Brain Lang. 1987 Nov;32(2):195-214 PubMed

J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2009 Oct;52(5):1334-52 PubMed

J Voice. 2011 Mar;25(2):208-17 PubMed

PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e32132 PubMed

J Speech Hear Res. 1995 Feb;38(1):101-9 PubMed

Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2011 Oct;11(5):474-83 PubMed

J Speech Hear Res. 1969 Jun;12(2):246-69 PubMed

J Commun Disord. 1991 Aug;24(4):287-300 PubMed

J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2010 Feb;53(1):114-25 PubMed

N Engl J Med. 1994 May 19;330(20):1401-6 PubMed

Neuropsychologia. 2012 Dec;50(14):3273-8 PubMed

Ann Neurol. 1997 May;41(5):689-92 PubMed

Mov Disord. 2007 Sep 15;22(12):1783-9 PubMed

Arch Intern Med. 1996 Mar 25;156(6):675-7 PubMed

J Acoust Soc Am. 2013 Sep;134(3):2171-81 PubMed

J Clin Psychiatry. 2003 Jun;64(6):663-7 PubMed

J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2014 Apr;121(4):399-407 PubMed

Brain Imaging Behav. 2011 Sep;5(3):171-80 PubMed

Mov Disord. 1996 Mar;11(2):136-42 PubMed

J Speech Hear Res. 1972 Mar;15(1):155-9 PubMed

Am J Psychiatry. 1982 Apr;139(4):517-8 PubMed

Mov Disord. 1996 Jul;11(4):384-8 PubMed

Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 1986 May-Jun;95(3 Pt 1):288-93 PubMed

PLoS One. 2013 Jun 10;8(6):e65881 PubMed

Mov Disord. 1999 May;14(3):398-403 PubMed

An automatic measure for speech intelligibility in dysarthrias-validation across multiple languages and neurological disorders

Hypernasality associated with basal ganglia dysfunction: evidence from Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease

Automatic Evaluation of Speech Rhythm Instability and Acceleration in Dysarthrias Associated with Basal Ganglia Dysfunction

Speech disorders reflect differing pathophysiology in Parkinson's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy and multiple system atrophy

Phonatory dysfunction as a preclinical symptom of Huntington disease