Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's is an idiopathic, multifactorial neurodegenerative disease that attacks neurotransmitters in the brain called dopamine. Dopamine is concentrated in a specific area of the brain called the substantia nigra. The neurotransmitter dopamine is a chemical that regulates muscle movement and emotion. Dopamine is responsible for relaying messages between the substantia nigra and other parts of the brain to control body movement. The death of these neurotransmitters affects the central nervous system. The most common symptoms are movement related, including shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty with posture. Behavioral problems may arise as the disease progresses. Due to the loss of dopamine, Parkinson's patients will often experience depression and some compulsive behavior. In advanced stages of the disease dementia will sometimes occur. The implications of the disease on the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory and phonatory systems significantly control speech.

Parkinson’s disease affects patients in various ways with the most observable being muscle weakness, tremor, and rigidity; these symptoms directly influence and reduce the function of the respiratory and phonatory systems. Articulatory, velopharyngeal, laryngeal, and respiratory muscles lose control and some function due to the loss of dopamine in the central nervous system. Facial expression in Parkinson's patients can appear emotionless or diminished. Parkinson’s disease decreases the fine movements of the tongue and jaw that are imperative to articulation. This reduced oral muscular control is also associated with hypoesthetic oropharynx function. With this loss of key sensory stimuli, patients with Parkinson’s disease...

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...lman, J., Ramig, L., Story, B., & Fox, C. (2007). Effects of intensive voice treatment (the lee silverman voice treatment [lsvt]) on vowel articulation in dysarthric individuals with idiopathic parkinson disease: acoustic and perceptual findings.Journal Of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 50(4), 899-912.

Sinclair, C., Gurey, L., Brin, M., Stewart, C., & Blitzer, A. (2013). Surgical management of airway dysfunction in parkinson's disease compared with parkinson-plus syndromes. Annal of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology, 122(5), 294-298.

Umemoto, G., Tsuboi, Y., Kitashima, A., Furuya, H., & Kikuta, T. (2010). Impaired food transportation in parkinson's disease related to lingual bradykinesia. Dysphagia, (26), 250-255.

University of Maryland Medical Center. (2011).Parkinson's disease. Retrieved from http://umm.edu/health/medical/reports/articles/parkinsons-disease