Recent research has revealed that the very first symptoms of Parkinson’s disease may manifest themselves early in the way one speaks and in the tone of voice.
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The first signs of the disease of Parkinson may be different than originally thought.
Parkinson’s disease is caused by a loss of nerve cells in an area of the brain responsible for producing dopaminewhich helps coordinate body movements.
Muscle stiffness, tremors and balance problems are normally the first signs and symptoms linked to the condition, which affects more than 10 million people worldwide. But now, scientists in Lithuania have claimed that the altered language may occur even before motor symptoms.
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I study
The researchers said changes in speech often occur before the characteristic symptoms, which is why some people with early-onset Parkinson’s may speak peculiarly and differently than usual.
While no test can give a conclusive result about whether someone has Parkinson’s, spotting early signs of the disease could help patients monitor and improve their health.
Parlando della nuova researche, Rytis Maskeliūnas, data scientist at the Kaunas University of Technologyhe has declared:
Changes in speech often occur even before motor function disturbances, because impaired speech may be the first sign of the disease.
Professor Virgilijus Ulozas, involved in the same study, added that patients in the early stages of the disease may speak more calmly; this means that the person might seem more monotonous and less expressivecould even communicate in a slower and more fragmented way.
Instead, symptoms such as muscle stiffness only occur when about 80% of nerve cells have been lost.
The team in Lithuania is now working on a way to detect Parkinson’s early, potentially through a mobile app. To do so, the researchers are using artificial intelligence to study the voice samples of 61 Parkinson’s patients and 43 healthy volunteers.
Using a soundproof booth to record the speeches of both groups, an AI algorithm was used to process and analyze the differences.
With advances in technology making it easier to analyze the link between Parkinson’s and speech abnormalities, scientists are looking to expand the study to find out whether this might be the best way to diagnose the condition early.
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Source: MDPI
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