Investigators at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have need of instrumentation to study voice production processes, including respiration/breathing-for-speech, phonation, and articulatory force. Three major user groups include investigators in Otolaryngology, dental research, and neurology; we as well as other investigators from speech- language pathology. The instrumentation, an eight-component system of major instrumentation and accessories, will measure and record respiratory movement, pressure and flow, phonatory functions and laryngeal movement, and acoustic events of voice production. PHS-funded projects which will benefit from this instrumentation include: 1. Nasal airway and respiratory mode in cleft palate, 2. Medical treatment of subglottic edema, 3. Speech aerodynamics in regulation/control in cleft palate, and 4. Multicenter study of cyclosporine in myasthenia gravis. New directions that the above investigations will take, if funding is granted, include objectives of quantification of voice measurements in cleft palate speakers, voice disorders in ENT subjects, and myasthenia gravis subjects. Speech-language pathology users will measure voice production of subjects in pending and planned investigations of abnormal speakers and singers. UNC-CH is committed to ongoing maintenance of the instrumentation and has provided a maintenance engineer. Additionally, a five-member internal advisory committee is established for long-term management and day-to-day operation of the voice production instrumentation.
