Direct subthalamic nucleus stimulation influences speech and voice quality in Parkinson's disease patients

DBS of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) considerably ameliorates cardinal motor symptoms in PD. Reported STN-DBS effects on secondary dysarthric (speech) and dysphonic symptoms (voice), as originating from vocal tract motor dysfunctions, are however inconsistent with rather deleterious outcomes based on post-surgical assessments. To parametrically and intra-operatively investigate the effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on perceptual and acoustic speech and voice quality in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. We performed an assessment of instantaneous intra-operative speech and voice quality changes in PD patients (n = 38) elicited by direct STN stimulations with variations of central stimulation features (depth, laterality, and intensity), separately for each hemisphere. First, perceptual assessments across several raters revealed that certain speech and voice symptoms could be improved with STN-DBS, but this seems largely restricted to right STN-DBS. Second, computer-based acoustic analyses of speech and voice features revealed that both left and right STN-DBS could improve dysarthric speech symptoms, but only right STN-DBS can considerably improve dysphonic symptoms, with left STN-DBS being restricted to only affect voice intensity features. Third, several subareas according to stimulation depth and laterality could be identified in the motoric STN proper and close to the associative STN with optimal (and partly suboptimal) stimulation outcomes. Fourth, low-to-medium stimulation intensities showed the most optimal and balanced effects compared to high intensities. STN-DBS can considerably improve both speech and voice quality based on a carefully arranged stimulation regimen along central stimulation features. •Intra-operative STN stimulation with instantaneous effects on speech quality.•Right rather than left STN stimulation is superior in improving dysarthrophonic symptoms.•Perceptual and acoustics speech and voice assessments show differential effects.•Balanced and consistent positive effects with low-to-medium stimulation intensities.•STN subareas in depth and laterality directions correlate with optimal stimulation effects.