Production of emotions conveyed by voice in Parkinson's disease: Association between variability of fundamental frequency and gray matter volumes of regions involved in emotional prosody

OBJECTIVE

Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with impairment in producing emotions conveyed by voice which could depend on motor limitations of the vocal apparatus and/or alterations in emotional processing. This study explores the relationship between the standard deviation of fundamental frequency (F0SD) of emotional speech and the volume of specific gray matter regions.

METHOD

Fifteen PD patients and 15 healthy controls (HC) were asked to produce different emotions vocally elicited by reading short stories. For each vocal track, the F0SD was calculated as index of variability. All subjects underwent a structural magnetic resonance imaging and a voxel-based morphometry analysis. An ad hoc mask of brain regions implicated in emotional prosody was constructed to test the relationship between F0SD and the level of brain atrophy.

RESULTS

PD patients showed lower F0SD values than HC in the expression of anger. Neuroimaging results showed brain atrophy in PD patients in a widespread bilateral network, including frontal areas, left cingulate cortex, parietal areas as well as occipital cortices. In the PD group, a positive correlation was observed between F0SD values of anger and volumes of the bilateral supramarginal gyrus, left thalamus, right inferior frontal gyrus, and amygdala.

CONCLUSIONS

The lower F0SD values observed in PD patients in anger production are consistent with their lower ability to express anger effectively through voice compared to HC. Our data demonstrated the involvement of right-lateralized areas, such as the inferior frontal gyrus and amygdala, which are typically involved in emotional prosody. Disturbances in emotion processing might contribute to speech production deficits in PD, probably in addition to the motor impairment of the articulatory system. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Grounding the Restorative Effect of the Environment in Tertiary Qualities: An Integration of Embodied and Phenomenological Perspectives

This paper proposes an integration of embodied and phenomenological perspectives to understand the restorative capacity of natural environments. It emphasizes the role of embodied simulation mechanisms in evoking positive affects and cognitive functioning. Perceptual symbols play a crucial role in generating the restorative potential in environments, highlighting the significance of the encounter between the embodied individual and the environment. This study reviews Stress Reduction Theory (SRT) and Attention Restoration Theory (ART), finding commonalities in perceptual fluency and connectedness to nature. It also explores a potential model based on physiognomic perception, where the environment's pervasive qualities elicit an affective response. Restorativeness arises from a direct encounter between the environment's phenomenal structure and the embodied perceptual processes of individuals. Overall, this integrative approach sheds light on the intrinsic affective value of environmental elements and their influence on human well-being.

Driving-Related Cognitive Abilities: Evaluating Change over Time in a Sample of Older Adults Undergoing an Assessment Regarding Fitness to Drive

Advancing age can bring a decline in many driving-related cognitive abilities. For this reason, public safety concern has raised about older adults' driving performance, and many countries have adopted screening polices to assess older drivers' fitness to drive. As a result of such assessments, authorities may impose behavioral restrictions to driving. The present study examines whether driving-related cognitive abilities change over time and compares drivers either restricted or not by licensing authorities after the first assessment. The data were derived from a database provided by a service of psychodiagnostic assessment of fitness to drive. This database contained data of people referred for cognitive assessment in order to renew their driving license over the period of 2016 to 2022. The sample included 58 cognitively healthy old drivers (mean age = 82.79, SD = 6.13; 97% men) with a follow-up examination (T2) after a period ranging from one to four years (M = 1.59, SD = 0.72) since the first assessment. Cognitive assessments were conducted using the standard test battery from the Vienna Test System (VTS8; ©Schuhfried GmbH, Mödling, Austria). Decision time variability, motor time, reaction time under stress, and obtaining an overview did not show significant changes between T1 and T2, whereas selective attention and inductive reasoning significantly decreased over time in both groups. Improvements in processing speed consistent with practice effects emerged at T2. Restricted drivers (n = 41) maintained significantly worse performances than unrestricted drivers (n = 17) in the follow-up assessment. Chronological age was associated with higher reaction time under stress, while education showed a buffering role against a decrease in perceptual speed. Overall, although older drivers' driving-related cognitive abilities remain relatively stable over the short-term, the decline in some cognitive functions deserves reevaluation and monitoring.

The Effects of a Dance and Music-Based Intervention on Parkinson's Patients' Well-Being: An Interview Study

Previous research has shown the positive effects of music and dance-based interventions on the physical and psychosocial symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aims of this study were: (1) to investigate how PD patients subjectively perceive the emotional, cognitive, and social benefits of a music- and dance-based intervention; (2) to apply an innovative methodology for an interview analysis combining findings from a linguistic text with an analytic approach and conducted with the software LIWC and from the content analysis performed by human coders. Extensive, open-ended interviews were conducted with 13 patients with PD who had participated in a dance and music program. The interviews were analyzed using both human coders and the computer-based approach. The results show that emotional and social aspects are considered the most frequent perceived benefits of the dance program. The data confirm the positive impact of dance- and music-based programs on promoting participants’ emotional and social well-being. A combined approach to text analysis appears to be a promising way to achieve more in-depth insights into patients’ subjective perceptions.

Risk perception and travel satisfaction associated with the use of public transport in the time of COVID-19. The case of Turin, Italy

The present study examined the association between risk perception and travel satisfaction related to the use of public transport (PT) during COVID-19 pandemic in Turin, Italy. A total of 448 PT users took part in an online survey conducted from January to March 2021. It investigated safety and risk perception related to the use of PT, and the users' subjective experience, measured through the Satisfaction with Travel Scale (STS). These perceptions were compared for three time scenarios: before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and in the future at the end of the pandemic emergency. Results showed that COVID-19 influenced respondents risk perception both during the pandemic and in their projections about the future, especially for females. The risk of contagion from COVID-19 is perceived as higher inside a PT vehicle than in the adjacent/waiting spaces. Regarding travel satisfaction, the overall scores of the STS indicated that the pandemic has impacted reported well-being while travelling, both now and in the future. The dimension of activation shifted towards the negative pole and did not indicate a return to risk perception before the pandemic levels at the end of the crisis (especially for females). Respondents reported a significant decrease in their level of pleasure and satisfaction during the pandemic, but expect that in the future these levels will go back to the levels previously experienced. Regarding travel satisfaction, PT users aged 36 to 50 years reported the highest level of satisfaction, while younger users (18 to 35 years) reported the lowest degree of satisfaction in all three time scenarios. Overall, the results clearly pinpoint that health-related perceived risk is becoming a key determinant for PT use. Within this context, different dimensions of travel satisfaction proved to be impacted differently by the pandemic, for both current and future scenarios.