Rudolph Sock

A post-thyroidectomy voice quality study in patients suffering or not from Recurrent laryngeal paralysis

The main object of this study is voice quality after total thyroidectomy (which involves complete removal of the thyroid gland) or isthmolobectomie (which involves removal of the half, right or left, portions of the gland). This often causes degradation of voice quality permanently or temporarily. Voice quality will be studied using aerodynamic cues. From an aerodynamic point of view, oral airflow (Oaf) and maximum phonation time (TMP) were observed. Data from two groups of patients were examined: one group of patients for whom postoperative examination revealed lack of mobility of one of the vocal folds; a second group of patients in whom postoperative examination revealed no perturbation of laryngeal mobility. This is a longitudinal study in which reference values are constituted by the speakers own voice, preoperatively. Preliminary results indicate that removal of the thyroid gland modifies the patients voice even though laryngeal mobility is preserved. All parameters studied underwent changes. However, time has a positive effect on all speakers, since their productions resemble, one month after surgery, the values measured in the preoperative phase.

Resistance of bilabials /p, b/ to anticipatory labial and mandibular coarticulation from vowel types /i, a, u/

The timing of lip and jaw movements and acoustic events was studied in one subject producing the six pseudowords /pipi,papa,pupu,bibi,baba,bubu/ at two speaking rates. Lip and jaw movements were recorded optoelectrically. Acoustic durations of bilabial closures served as a temporal base for analyzing consonantal resistance to vowel coarticulation. Within each temporal base, a phase was defined as the interval between peak raising or lowering velocity of an articulator and the acoustic onset of the following vowel. The proportion of time taken by each phase in the temporal base provides a measure of anticipatory coarticulation of the vowel in the consonant. Results suggest that the rounded vowel /u/ has a higher coarticulatory influence on the labial consonant that the unrounded vowels. The voiced consonant /b/ has less resistance to coarticulation than its unvoiced cognate. Both domains investigated show comparable phasing patterns, suggesting a general strategy of coarticulation for the successive conson...

Timing of lip and jaw movements in the production of vowel types /i, a, u/ and voicing contrast /p, b/

The temporal organization of lip and jaw movements was investigated for one subject, producing six pseudowords. The words, produced at two speech rates, normal and fast, were: /pipi/, /papa/, /pupu/, /bibi/, /baba/, /bubu/. Movement data from the upper and lower lips, and the jaw were obtained via an optoelectronic tracking device, together with an audio recording. Based on articulatory and acoustic events in the velocity and audio signals, respectively, four cycles were identified in the movement of each articulator, and two cycles in the acoustic waveform. The movement cycles are: (1) maximum vocalic velocity; (2) vocalic cycle onset; (3) maximum consonantal velocity; and (4) consonantal cycle onset. Velocity cycles were determined, as the interval between successive positive or negative peaks associated with the raising or lowering gesture in the production of either a vowel or a consonant. Onset cycles were defined as the recurrence of zero‐crossings on velocity traces, reflecting the onset of a lower...