Unveiling Voice and Motor Interactions in Parkinson’s

In a neuromodulation trial cohort, investigators report bidirectional links between voice acoustics and objective motor metrics in Parkinson disease—signals that could broaden sensitive monitoring options.

Instrumented kinematics remain the clinical standard for motor biomarkers, while voice measures are emerging as quantitative, reproducible signals. The analysis frames voice and motor control as tied through shared sensorimotor timing, amplitude regulation, and coordination, advancing multimodal biomarker thinking for Parkinson disease.

Higher harmonic‑to‑noise ratio (HNR) and greater smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) were associated with faster action speed, shorter movement durations, and quicker tapping and gesture metrics.

Integrating voice acoustics into motor assessments could refine in‑clinic monitoring and enable remote phenotyping. Using an integrated motion analysis suite makes it feasible to align brief vocal probes with kinematic capture in a single session.