The little-known Parkinson's symptom heard decades before physical signs appear

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Researchers have found a link between a Parkinson's disease gene and vocal issues which could lead to earlier diagnoses, a new study reports.

One little-known symptom of Parkinson's is a soft monotonous voice.Research has suggested these vocal symptoms often appear much earlier - sometimes decades - before movement-related issues.The condition's physical symptoms, including tremors and stiffness, are perhaps the best known signs, but Parkinson's also causes vocal issues.The study was conducted by neuroscientists in the lab of Julie E Miller, assistant professor at the University of Arizona.Miller said: "We have this big gap here – we don't know how this disease impacts the brain regions for vocal production, and this is really an opportunity to intervene early and come up with better treatments."Researchers turned to the zebra finch, a songbird native to Australia, to investigate any link between vocal changes and the Parkinson's-related gene called alpha-synuclein.Birds are an ideal model for human speech and voice pathways for several reasons, said the study's lead author, César A.

Medina. Scientists explained that young finches learn their songs from older, father-like male birds, much in the same way babies learn to speak by listening to their parents.

The part of a finch's brain that deals with speech and language is also organised very similarly to the human brain.Medina said: "These similarities across behaviour, anatomy and genetics allow us to use the zebra finches as a model for human speech and voice."To see how alpha-synuclein might affect vocal production in the birds, researchers first took baseline recordings of their songs.They then introduced a copy of the gene into some birds whilst other birds were