An 11-year follow-up of motor speech abilities in elderly adults

An 11-year follow-up study of a group of elderly adults suggested a speed-accuracy trade-off for labial and lingual movements associated with syllable repetition tasks. Pre-post repetition data from one subject, apparently healthy in 1980 but diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1984-85, were analysed separately from the rest of the group. Rate/timing variability relationships for this subject differed significantly from 'normally ageing' peers. As perturbation measures have been shown to be relevant indicators of laryngeal behaviour, rate/timing control measures may also prove to be useful, age-sensitive indices of supralaryngeal speech motor control.