Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Louder Speech Leads To Greater Intelligibility Improvements Than Amplification Of Habitual Speech In Parkinson Disease, Christopher Dromey

Faculty Publications

Amplification may be helpful in improving speech intelligibility for some speakers with Parkinson disease. Because the gain used in the present study was limited to the dB increase from habitual to loud speech, it is unclear how performance might increase with higher amplification levels. Increases in the signal to noise ratio in the present study only account for about one third to one half of the intelligibility improvements that accompany loud speech. Thus, loud speech differs from habitual speech in more than just its amplitude. Articulation appears to play a lesser role in these improvements, whereas source spectral changes may …