Bursary competition 2009

HS10 Speech and upper limb motor control in Parkinson’s Disease: a multidisciplinary study

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a disorder associated with the degeneration of the substantia nigra in the basal ganglia. The disease may affect all aspects of motor control, from limb movement to speech and can thus greatly affect a patient’s communication, activities of daily living and quality of life. Interestingly, despite the disparate motor control systems serving speech and arm movement, research has suggested that there may be a common underlying sensorimotor deficit in PD that affects both systems, demonstrated in problems with movement initiation, slowness and target undershoot. This opens up avenues for interventions incorporating generic treatment principles (e.g. the Lee Silverman technique). In contrast, other studies indicate that non-speech deficits in PD such as tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia can be improved by treatment such as levodopa or Deep Brain Stimulation, but that speech and voice are only partially responsive to such treatment. From these apparently conflicting findings, it is clear that a better knowledge and understanding of speech and arm motor control in PD is required to inform clinical practice. This requires integrated, detailed measurement of speech and arm motor control, which hitherto has not been available.

At QMU and in collaboration with Astley Ainslie Hospital in Edinburgh, a cross-disciplinary research team comprising Speech and Language Science, Physiotherapy and Movement Science as well as Clinical Neurology, has developed an innovative array of instrumentation, including three-dimensional motion analysis (Vicon) to measure facial and upper limb movements, synchronised with electropalatography to measure tongue movements as well as acoustic techniques.

The PhD student would work as part of this team, further developing quantitative, detailed kinematic measures of speech and arm motor control in various stages of PD and applying these to the evaluation of interventions aimed at improving speech and arm motor control. It is envisaged that this work will contribute to: (a) a better knowledge and understanding of speech and arm motor control problems in PD; (b) the development of hypotheses regarding therapeutic interventions for speech and arm motor deficits in PD, and (c) the development of quantitative and more sensitive measures for the evaluation of the effects of therapeutic interventions.

For further information contact Dr Frederike van Wijck or Professor Jim Scobbie

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