National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Massachusetts General Hospital
Age
18–any
Sex
ALL
Healthy volunteers
Not accepted
You may be eligible if
Native speakers of American English
Adults at least 18 years of age
A clinically established diagnosis of Parkinson's disease or essential tremor
Able to provide informed consent in the judgment of the investigator
Treated with deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (Parkinson's disease) or ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus (essential tremor)
Stable Parkinson's disease or essential tremor medication regimen for at least one month
Stable DBS program settings for at least one month
Nominal DBS system function, including normal impedances at therapeutic DBS contacts, and adequate battery life or adequate IPG charging status for therapy
For DBS sensing, implanted with Medtronic Percept PC or Percept RC implantable pulse generator
Corrected vision adequate to easily read text presented during speech motor task
You may not be if
Cognitive impairment (Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; Nesreddine et al., 2005) score \< 25) or active psychotic or behavioral symptoms that would, in the judgment of the investigator, preclude proper participation in the study
Hearing impairment that interferes with accurate perception of the speech motor learning stimulus (25dB hearing level threshold at 500, 1k, 2k, and 4kHz frequencies)
Language impairment (aphasia) or speech articulation impairment (dysarthria) that precludes performance of the speech motor learning task
Neurological disorder that interferes with speech motor learning
Inability to tolerate symptoms when DBS is off
Orthodontia or atypical oral structure (e.g., cleft palate) that interferes with speech
Pregnancy
For participants in the sub-syllabic sequence learning study (Study C.2.1), experience with the following languages: Hebrew, Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Georgian, Tepehua, Hungarian, and Pima
