The Impact of Parkinson’s Disease on Social Communication: An Exploratory Questionnaire Study

Abstract

Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) often show breakdown in the interpretation of pragmatic language meaning. However, there is no current standard of care for evaluating social communication dysfunction in PD which affects the persons with PD and their caregivers. Thus, we developed a questionnaire for individuals with PD to evaluate social communication difficulties. Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire to demonstrate a need for comprehensive management guidelines for individuals with PD regarding social communication skills. This questionnaire will highlight the areas of deficit for the individuals with PD. Methods: Fifty-one people with self-reported Parkinson’s Disease answered 28 survey questions. These questions pertained to emotional expression and perception, social communication, sarcasm/humor, and pragmatic skills. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were performed to identify which items loaded onto the desired factor and to check the internal consistency of the items. Results: Persons with PD reported changes in emotional expression and perception, social communication, sarcasm and humor, and pragmatic skills domains post PD diagnosis. No correlations were found between age/time since diagnosis and emotional expression, social communication, sarcasm, and humor.Conclusion: The current study provides evidence that persons with PD experience social communication challenges. Therefore, it is crucial to increase awareness of these deficits in PD to recognize the impact of the disease on social communication.

The human voice aligns with whole-body kinetics

“…Furthermore, our understanding of how effective communication may be compromised by pathologies should be weighed against how humans voice operates in action. It is known that people with Parkinson’s have trouble with not only expressing emotions (27), but also with speech prosody (28, 29), overall appearing monotonic in expression. Obviously whole-body postural dynamics are frustrated in Parkinson’s, which according to the current research might be part of the spectrum of attenuated vocal features.…”