This project is designed to develop a functional pressure transducer to be placed in the glottis of awake subjects to transduce medial forces generated during vegetative and phonatory maneuvers. The research focuses on questions of device placement, sizes shape, and complexity as well as techniques for ease of placement. Initial studies of placement use as subjects 10 young adult normal males who after topical anesthetization perform the required tasks while a single-wafer piezoelectric pressure transducer is in place along the glottis. When the ideal shape and size device is determined, the complexity of pressure grid arrays within a single device is assessed to track location and magnitude of forces developed along vocal fold length and depth during phonatory and nonvocal tasks produced by both normal and dysphonic subjects.
