Effects of deep brain stimulation on the production of /p/, /t/ and /k/

What is it about?

During the production of plosives, such as /p/, /t/, and /k/, we are required make a complete closure between for instance the lips so that pressure may be built up and then released, creating the "pop" that we hear as the consonant. When this does not work correctly, the output will be an 's'- or 'th'-like sound (a fricative) and the speech will be perceived as reduced in quality. Deep brain stimulation influences the way patients are able to do these articulatory movements, and the output will be perceived as slurry because of these changes. We present a model here for how to describe the changes that occur and describe to which the effects occur when patients are treated using deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease.

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Why is it important?

Deep brain stimulation has often been argued based on what we perceive to reduce patients articulatory ability. The question is then, what changes? We provide a partial answer to that question by showing the occurrence of effects across a sample of patients under stimulation of two different anatomical targets in the deep brain.

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