"But the face of Big Brother seemed to persist for several seconds on the screen, as though the impact that it had made on everyone's eyeballs was too vivid to wear off immediately. The little sandyhaired woman had flung herself forward over the back of the chair in front of her. With a tremulous murmur that sounded like 'My Saviour!' she extended her arms towards the screen. Then she buried her face in her hands. It was apparent that she was uttering a prayer."

Part 1. Chapter 1. 1984, by George-Orwell.

As George Orwell aptly understood, the human voice conveys much more than mere speech. Indeed, it holds valuable insights into emotions, pathologies, and even the anatomy of individuals. Parkinson's disease exemplifies one such pathology, manifesting significant alterations in speech, including tremulousness among other characteristics.

The objective of this workshop is to bring together speech professionals from diverse backgrounds to engage in discussions and advancements within the realm of automatic assessment of Parkinsonian speech. The overarching goal is to cultivate fresh insights into the interplay between speech patterns and Parkinson’s disease, with potential applications in diagnosis, evaluation, and rehabilitation, particularly during the early stages.

Participants are invited to submit an abstract of up to 1,000 words detailing their ongoing research, aimed at stimulating dialogue on various aspects of the subject and shaping future directions in the field. To facilitate understanding of the proposal, it is recommended that the abstract includes a graphical abstract (one image). Upon acceptance, authors will be requested to submit a full paper, not exceeding six pages. This format is designed to foster deeper discussions and potential collaborations among attendees. The official language of the event will be English.

Submit Your Paper

Being aware of this, the Speech Communication Group of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with Universidad Politécnica de Madrid has the pleasure of inviting the whole scientific community to the 2nd Automatic Assessment of Parkinsonian Speech Workshop (AAPS'24) to be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, the 21st-22nd of November 2024 and hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The workshop will be in a hybrid format allowing both presential and remote presentations.

Check the important dates here

The organizing committee is willing to warmly welcome you in Cambridge, MA, USA.  

Co-chairs:

Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel, Speech Communication Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Juan Ignacio Godino Llorente, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.  

Registration

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Parkinson’s disease affects the cells producing dopamine in the brain. Parkinson’s disease symptoms include muscle rigidity, tremors, and changes in the speech. After diagnosis, treatments can help relieve symptoms, but there is no cure. Thus an early diagnosis is essential and the speech is one of those biomarkers requiring more research to evaluate its potentiality for this purpose.

Despite of the amount of research in the field, there is still room for developing new knowledge, not only about the characteristics of the speech of people affected with Parkinson’s disease, but also about its correlation with the extent of the disease. Automatic systems to evaluate and assess the disease will take advantage of the new knowledge generated in the field to make more accurate and robust systems. 

AAPS'24 aims at fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and interactions among researchers in the field of the automatic assessment of parkinsonian speech, thus reaching the whole scientific community.

Invited Speakers