Pause characteristics of sentence production in Parkinson’s disease: insights from sentence complexity and length

Mollaei, F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2916-9750, Evans, H. and Pool, A. (2026) Pause characteristics of sentence production in Parkinson’s disease: insights from sentence complexity and length. PLoS ONE, 21 (4). 0330808. ISSN 1932-6203 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330808

Abstract/Summary

Purpose Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects forward flow of speech including fluency disruptions in 90% of individuals. One of the main parameters affecting flow and fluency of speech is pause behaviour. However, the precise language characteristics of pauses, including sentence complexity and length, and how they contribute to the fluency disruptions of PD are not fully understood. This study examined how sentence complexity and length affect pause behaviour in PD. Method Seventy-one participants, comprising individuals with PD (n = 32) and neurotypical controls (n = 39), read a speech passage aloud. The number and duration of pauses, categorised by location (between, within sentences), sentence complexity (simple, complex), and sentence length (short, long) were analysed. Cognitive ability, assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and motor speech deficits (i.e., dysarthria) severity, assessed using a speech perceptual ranking, were evaluated and correlated with pause characteristics. Results Individuals with PD produced significantly more pauses across all categories compared to controls. However, only between-sentence and long-sentence pauses were significantly longer in duration. Pause frequency and duration in both groups were higher in more complex and longer sentences. Significant negative correlations were found between MoCA scores and number of pauses. Significant positive correlations were observed between dysarthria severity and duration of pauses. Conclusion These findings suggest that increased cognitive-linguistic demands—indexed by sentence complexity and length—may underlie pausing behaviour and contribute to fluency disruptions in individuals with PD. The results extend previous research by highlighting the potential cognitive-linguistic basis of motor speech dysfunction in PD.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/129487
Identification Number/DOI	10.1371/journal.pone.0330808
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Neuroscience Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Clinical Language Sciences Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Language and Cognition
Publisher	Public Library of Science
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item