Respiratory Load Magnitude Estimation in PD

"The participant will be seated in a chair, and will be instructed to relax and breathe through a facemask. Five respiratory resistive loads (5-40 cmH2O resistive pressure) will be applied between 3-5 times during inhalation. Following each loaded breath, participants will rate the perceived difficulty of breathing in."

Participants with PD only will receive a swallowing evaluation as part of their routine clinical care. Generally, the standard clinical evaluation protocol consists of multiple swallows of thin liquid barium, pudding-thick barium, and a cracker or cookie coated with barium. Results are reviewed by the treatment speech-language pathologist, and for the purposes of this study, the researchers will review the most recently recorded swallow study and identify the worst observed penetration-aspiration (PA) score.