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Singing Therapy for Rehabilitating Facial Mimicry in Parkinson's Disease: A Randomised Controlled Trial
Sponsor: Toronto Metropolitan University
Summary
Parkinson's disease can reduce facial expression and change the voice, making it harder to communicate emotions. This study examined whether practising facial and vocal imitation through speech and singing could improve facial expression and emotional communication in people with Parkinson's disease. Participants were assigned by chance to one of two 13-week programs. In Singing Imitation Therapy, participants watched and listened to recordings of emotional speech and song and copied the facial and vocal expressions. In Singing Observation Therapy, participants watched and listened to the recordings without being instructed to copy them. The main hypothesis was that imitation would lead to greater improvements in facial expression and automatic facial responses to other people's emotional expressions than observation alone.
Official title: A Novel Singing Therapy to Improve Communication of Facial and Vocal Emotion
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
50 Years - 75 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
48
Start Date
2013-06-28
Completion Date
2014-10-24
Last Updated
2026-10-29
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Conditions
Interventions
Singing Imitation Therapy
Participants received approximately 20-minute, therapist-delivered home sessions once weekly for 13 weeks. Sessions used 43-45 emotional speech and song videos, with metronome-supported song presented before speech. Each video was presented twice: participants observed the first presentation and synchronously imitated the actor's facial and vocal expression during the second. After each sequence, participants identified the emotion and rated its intensity on a 1-5 scale. Therapist feedback encouraged facial and vocal expressiveness. Participants received DVDs of song-with-metronome videos for weekly home practice using the same imitation instructions; practice completion was not formally monitored.
Singing Observation Therapy
Participants received approximately 20-minute, therapist-delivered home sessions once weekly for 13 weeks, matched to the imitation intervention in structure and duration. Sessions used 43-45 emotional speech and song videos, with metronome-supported song presented before speech. Each video was presented twice. Participants watched and listened without instructed imitation, attending to the actor's facial and vocal emotion and its intensity. After each sequence, participants identified the emotion and rated its intensity on a 1-5 scale. Therapist feedback directed attention to the actor's voice or facial expression. Participants received DVDs of song-with-metronome videos for weekly home practice using the same observation instructions; practice completion was not formally monitored.
Locations (1)
SMART Lab, Toronto Metropolitan University
Toronto, Ontario, Canada