Assessing dysarthria severity before and after neurosurgical procedures: A prospective longitudinal study in patients with refractory movement disorders

Brief description of study

Subjects undergoing the neurosurgical high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) procedure as part of their standard of care for Essential Tremor (ET) will perform three sessions of behavioral testing: visit 1 (before), visit 2 (six weeks post-surgery) and visit 3 (six months post-surgery). Each session comprises several tasks that assess voice and speech production. If a patient with ET decides to undergo a second (bilateral) surgery, the research team will approach them to repeat the three visits, for a total of up to six assessment visits for those undergoing both unilateral and bilateral procedures. Patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery may also participate in the three visits for each surgery, but may also perform all voice and speech production tasks in stimulation ON/OFF conditions within one session (visit 3) for both unilateral and bilateral conditions as well. Healthy control subjects will complete all voice and speech tasks within one session (visit 1).


Clinical Study Identifier: s24-00169
Principal Investigator: Adeen Flinker.
Other Investigators: Michael H. Pourfar, Heather M Kabakoff.


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