Emotional Prosody Treatment in Parkinson's

The experimental treatment is consistent with the standard treatment in that it targets impairments in pitch/stress, loudness variability and control of speech rate, the core characteristics of prosodic insufficiency in PD (Darley, Aronson \& Brown, 1969). However, the experimental treatment provides an innovative and targeted emphasis on the emotional component of the disorder. The production of emotional intonation in an utterance requires varying combinations of pitch/stress, loudness, and rate. Participants will receive clinician feedback as well as auditory and visual feedback on accuracy via the VisiPitch display.