Acoustic analysis of prosody in Sydenham's chorea

作者：Oliveira Patricia M; Cardoso Francisco^*; Maia Debora P; Cunningham Mauro Cesar Q; Teixeira Antonio Lucio Jr; Reis Cesar

来源：Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria, 2010, 68(5): 744-748.

DOI：10.1590/S0004-282X2010000500013

• Sydenham's chorea
• chorea
• rheumatic fever
• speech
• prosody

There are few studies of language and speech in patients with Sydenham's chorea (SC). We have done an acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency (F(0)), duration and intensity of declarative and interrogative sentences made by 20 SC patients, 20 patients with rheumatic fever (RF) without chorea, and compared them with 20 healthy age-matched controls (CO). Each group included 12 females. We found that there is no difference between the RE and CO groups in all studied parameters. Patients with SC, however, presented with a speech characterized by decreased Fo range (difference between minimum and maximum F(0)), shorter duration of sentences, and higher intensity of the first syllable of sentences. The findings were not influenced by the nature of the sentences (i.e., declarative or interrogative), but for all variables they were significantly more severe in males than females. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that patients with acute SC have an impairment of modulation of F(o) and longer duration of emission of sentences, resulting in a monotone and slow speech. This pattern is similar to what has been described in other basal ganglia illnesses, such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Wilson's disease.

• 出版日期2010-10