Perioral Sensorimotor Integration in Parkinson's Disease

Although Parkinson's disease (PD) is historically seen as a hypokinetic disorder of movements, including speech, recent studies have suggested degradation of sensorimotor integration in PD. It appears that motor speech deficits may not be normally associated with mechanosensory deficits, but the association may be significant in PD. A computational model was investigated for theoretical interpretation of the results. This model was based on the Kalman principle of sensorimotor integration. Selective lesioning of the model also indicate that simultaneous degradation of sensorimotor integration and mechanosensation may be intrinsic in hypokinetic dysarthria.