Measurement of Young’s Modulus of Vocal Folds by Indentation

Indenter diameter, indentation depth, and material thickness are important parameters in the measurement of vocal fold stiffness using the indentation technique. Measurements on human larynges showed location-dependent differences in stiffness. The stiffness of the vocal folds was also found to be higher when the vocal fold structure was still attached to the laryngeal framework compared with that when the vocal fold was separated from the framework.

from the Journal of Voice

Morphological Properties of Collagen Fibers in Porcine Lamina Propria

Quantitative data on collagen morphology were obtained at nanoscale resolution. Documenting collagen morphology in healthy vocal folds is critical for understanding the physiological changes to collagen with aging and scarring and for designing biomaterials that match the native topography of lamina propria.

from the Journal of Voice

Observations of the Relationship Between Noise Exposure and Preschool Teacher Voice Usage in Day-Care Center Environments

Although the relationship between noise exposure and vocal behavior (the Lombard effect) is well established, actual vocal behavior in the workplace is still relatively unexamined. The first purpose of this study was to investigate correlations between noise level and both voice level and voice average fundamental frequency (F0) for a population of preschool teachers in their normal workplace. The second purpose was to study the vocal behavior of each teacher to investigate whether individual vocal behaviors or certain patterns could be identified. Voice and noise data were obtained for female preschool teachers (n = 13) in their workplace, using wearable measurement equipment. Correlations between noise level and voice level, and between voice level and F0, were calculated for each participant and ranged from 0.07 to 0.87 for voice level and from 0.11 to 0.78 for F0. The large spread of the correlation coefficients indicates that the teachers react individually to the noise exposure. For example, some teachers increase their voice-to-noise level ratio when the noise is reduced, whereas others do not.

from the Journal of Voice

Reliability, Stability, and Sensitivity to Change and Impairment in Acoustic Measures of Timing and Frequency

Assessment of the voice for supporting classifications of central nervous system (CNS) impairment requires a different practical, methodological, and statistical framework compared with assessment of the voice to guide decisions about change in the CNS. In experimental terms, an understanding of the stability and sensitivity to change of an assessment protocol is required to guide decisions about CNS change. Five experiments (N = 70) were conducted using a set of commonly used stimuli (eg, sustained vowel, reading, extemporaneous speech) and easily acquired measures (eg, f0–f4, percent pause). Stability of these measures was examined through their repeated application in healthy adults over brief and intermediate retest intervals (ie, 30 seconds, 2 hours, and 1 week). Those measures found to be stable were then challenged using an experimental model that reliably changes voice acoustic properties (ie, the Lombard effect). Finally, adults with an established CNS-related motor speech disorder (dysarthria) were compared with healthy controls. Of the 61 acoustic variables studied, 36 showed good stability over all three stability experiments (eg, number of pauses, total speech time, speech rate, f0–f4). Of the measures with good stability, a number of frequency measures showed a change in response to increased vocal effort resulting from the Lombard effect challenge. Furthermore, several timing measures significantly separated the control and motor speech impairment groups. Measures with high levels of stability within healthy adults, and those that show sensitivity to change and impairment may prove effective for monitoring changes in CNS functioning.

from the Journal of Voice

Risk and Protective Factors for Spasmodic Dysphonia: A Case-Control Investigation

SD is likely multifactorial in etiology, involving both genetic and environmental factors. Viral infections/exposures, along with intense voice use, may trigger the onset of SD in genetically predisposed individuals. Future studies should examine the interaction among genetic and environmental factors to determine the pathogenesis of SD.

from the Journal of Voice

Vocal Cysts: Clinical, Endoscopic, and Surgical Aspects

Vocal cysts are benign vocal fold lesions that affect children and adults, being often associated with vocal overuse, which frequently affects people who use their voices professionally. Vocal symptoms are chronic in course, often times since childhood, and the treatment of choice is surgical removal. A careful examination of the vocal folds is necessary during surgery, because other laryngeal lesions may be associated with vocal cysts.

from the Journal of Voice

How is the Children’s Implant Profile used in the Cochlear Implant Candidacy Process?

A statistical analysis of the mChIP fails to capture the complexity of the decision-making process. Most important, it appears that the team’s practice is generally to recommend implantation when there is at least a modest prospect of benefit, unless there are absolute contraindications or many areas of Great Concern.

from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology

Representation of the speech effectors in the human motor cortex: Somatotopy or overlap?

Somatotopy within the orofacial region of the human motor cortex has been a central concept in interpreting the results of neuroimaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation studies of normal and disordered speech. Yet, somatotopy has been challenged by studies showing overlap among the effectors within the homunculus. In order to address this dichotomy, we performed four voxel-based meta-analyses of 54 functional neuroimaging studies of non-speech tasks involving respiration, lip movement, tongue movement, and swallowing, respectively. While the centers of mass of the clusters supported the classic homuncular view of the motor cortex, there was significant variability in the locations of the activation-coordinates among studies, resulting in an overlapping arrangement. This “somatotopy with overlap” might reflect the intrinsic functional interconnectedness of the oral effectors for speech production.

from Brain and Language

Local hypothermia in the treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Hearing restoration in ISSHL may be improved by adding mild hypothermia and restricted activity to the conventional treatment.

from Auris Nasus Larynx

Memory development throughout the second year: Overall developmental pattern, individual differences, and developmental trajectories

The present three-wave longitudinal study analyzed the development of declarative memory in N = 92 infants (12-, 18- and 24-month-olds) using a deferred imitation task. As expected, overall memory performance improved throughout the second year. Previous research is also replicated insofar as stability of inter-individual differences was low to moderate within this age range. In addition, cluster analyses identified two developmental groups showing different growth and different stability patterns. Multivariate analyses revealed specificities in language and self-development in these two developmental groups having different developmental trajectories.

from Infant Behavior and Development

Laser arytenoidectomy in the management of bilateral vocal cord paralysis in children

Laser arytenoidectomy is effective for improving the breathing in children presenting with a bilateral vocal fold paralysis associated with obstructive arytenoid prolapse. Results are good as a first-line surgery or following laryngo-tracheal surgery. Voice outcomes are satisfactory. However, aspiration is a rare complication.

from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology

Cerebral activation associated with speech sound discrimination during the diotic listening task: An fMRI study

Comprehending conversation in a crowd requires appropriate orienting and sustainment of auditory attention to and discrimination of the target speaker. While a multitude of cognitive functions such as voice perception and language processing work in concert to subserve this ability, it is still unclear which cognitive components critically determine successful discrimination of speech sounds under constantly changing auditory conditions. To investigate this, we present a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of changes in cerebral activities associated with varying challenge levels of speech discrimination. Subjects participated in a diotic listening paradigm that presented them with two news stories read simultaneously but independently by a target speaker and a distracting speaker of incongruent or congruent sex. We found that the voice of distracter of congruent rather than incongruent sex made the listening more challenging, resulting in enhanced activities mainly in the left temporal and frontal gyri. Further, the activities at the left inferior, left anterior superior and right superior loci in the temporal gyrus were shown to be significantly correlated with accuracy of the discrimination performance. The present results suggest that the subregions of bilateral temporal gyri play a key role in the successful discrimination of speech under constantly changing auditory conditions as encountered in daily life.

from Neuroscience Research

Training verb and sentence production in agrammatic Broca’s aphasia

Treatment with ACTION resulted in better production of finite verbs. The effects generalised to spontaneous speech. Most importantly, it was shown that communication in daily life improved.

from Aphasiology

Diabetics Twice as Likely to Have Hearing Loss; HearUSA Centers to Offer Free Hearing Screening and Diabetes Video in March

All of the more than 180 HearUSA (Amex:EAR) company-owned hearing care centers will be offering free hearing-loss screenings, along with a free 80-minute “Living With Diabetes” video produced by the American Diabetes Association, to anyone with diabetes during the entire month of March.

from PRWeb.com

UT Southwestern Program Tackles Difficult Head, Neck Cancers

UT Southwestern’s Comprehensive Skull Base Program covers more than two dozen types of skull-base related conditions, including cerebrospinal fluid leak, sinus tumors, glomus tumors, meningioma, neurofibromatosis, pituitary neoplasms, sarcoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and acoustic neuroma.

from Medical News Today.com