Correlation Analysis Of Freezing Of Gait And Speech Disorders In Parkinson’S Disease

Abstract

This paper deals with the analysis of a relationship between freezing of gait (FOG) and hypokinetic dysarthria (HD) in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Experimental dataset consisted of 74 PD patients. We used freezing of gait questionnaire (FOG-Q) to characterize FOG in PD. The speech features that quantifies phonation, articulation and prosody was computed from the reading task composed of interrogative, imperative and indicative sentences. Using Spearman’s and Pearson’s correlation coefficients, we showed that reduced mobility of the articulatory organs in HD is significantly correlated with FOG in PD.