Objective The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and the caudal zona incerta (cZi) pitch characteristics of con- nected speech in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Methods Sixteen patients were evaluated preoperatively and 12 months after DBS surgery. Eight pa- tients were implanted in the STN (aged 51-72 yrs; xC=63 yrs). Six received bilateral implanta- tion and two unilateral (left) implantation. Eight patients were bilaterally implanted in the cZi (aged 49-71 yrs; xC=60.8 yrs). Preoperative assessments were made after an L-Dopa challenge (approximately 1.5 times the ordinary dose). All postoperative examinations were made off and on stimulation, with a clinically optimized dose of L-dopa. Measurements of pitch range and var- iability were obtained from each utterance in a recorded read speech passage.
Results Pitch range and coefficient of variation showed an increase in patients under STN-DBS. Patients under cZi-DBS showed no significant effects of treatment on investigated pitch properties.
Conclusions STN-DBS was shown to increase pitch variation and range. The results provided no evidence of cZi-DBS having a beneficial effect on PD patients’ pitch variability.