Jiri Mekyska is head of the BDALab (Brain Diseases Analysis Laboratory) at the Brno University of Technology, where he leads a multidisciplinary team of researchers (signal processing engineers, data scientists, neuroscientists, psychologists) with a special focus on the development of new digital biomarkers facilitating understanding, diagnosis and monitoring of neurodegenerative (e.g. Parkinson’s disease) and neurodevelopmental (e.g. dysgraphia) disorders.

Acoustic analysis of speech and voice disorders in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disease, which is associated with several motor and non-motor features. Up to 90 % of PD patients develop a motor speech disorder called hypokinetic dysarthria (HD). HD manifests in the field of phonation (e.g. increased instability of articulatory organs, microperturbation in pitch and amplitude), articulation (e.g. rigidity of tongue and jaw, slow alternating motion rate), prosody (e.g. monopitch, monoloudness), and respiration (e.g. airflow insufficiency). Acoustic analysis of these specific speech/voice disorders enables neurologists and speech-language therapists to effectively monitor the progress of PD as well as to diagnose it. In the frame of this talk, we will present a concept of acoustic HD analysis. Consequently, we will present some recent findings focused on the prediction of motor (freezing of gait) and non-motor (cognitive) deficits based on the acoustic analysis, we will discuss an application of acoustic HD analysis in treatment effect monitoring (based on high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation), and in PD diagnosis. Finally, we will present some future directions in terms of integration into Health 4.0 systems.

His talk takes place in Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 15:00 in E105.