%0 Journal Article
%T Smartphone Voice Calls Provide Early Biomarkers of Parkinsonism in Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder.
%A Illner V
%A Novotný M
%A Kouba T
%A Tykalová T
%A Šimek M
%A Sovka P
%A Švihlík J
%A Růžička E
%A Šonka K
%A Dušek P
%A Rusz J
%J Mov Disord
%V 0
%N 0
%D 2024 Jul 12
%M 39001636
%F 9.698
%R 10.1002/mds.29921
%X BACKGROUND: Speech dysfunction represents one of the initial motor manifestations to develop in Parkinson's disease (PD) and is measurable through smartphone.
OBJECTIVE: The aim was to develop a fully automated and noise-resistant smartphone-based system that can unobtrusively screen for prodromal parkinsonian speech disorder in subjects with isolated rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) in a real-world scenario.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study assessed regular, everyday voice call data from individuals with iRBD compared to early PD patients and healthy controls via a developed smartphone application. The participants also performed an active, regular reading of a short passage on their smartphone. Smartphone data were continuously collected for up to 3 months after the standard in-person assessments at the clinic.
RESULTS: A total of 3525 calls that led to 5990 minutes of preprocessed speech were extracted from 72 participants, comprising 21 iRBD patients, 26 PD patients, and 25 controls. With a high area under the curve of 0.85 between iRBD patients and controls, the combination of passive and active smartphone data provided a comparable or even more sensitive evaluation than laboratory examination using a high-quality microphone. The most sensitive features to induce prodromal neurodegeneration in iRBD included imprecise vowel articulation during phone calls (P = 0.03) and monopitch in reading (P = 0.05). Eighteen minutes of speech corresponding to approximately nine calls was sufficient to obtain the best sensitivity for the screening.
CONCLUSIONS: We consider the developed tool widely applicable to deep longitudinal digital phenotyping data with future applications in neuroprotective trials, deep brain stimulation optimization, neuropsychiatry, speech therapy, population screening, and beyond. © 2024 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.