Let’s talk about talking: modeling human phonation to aid the diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders

Yelling at a football game. Whispering a secret. Singing in a band. Talking to a friend at dinner. As humans, we use our voices as a primary means to communicate information, convey our thoughts and ideas, and express our emotions to connect with others. Verbal communication is a skill that we develop in childhood and, like one of our senses, becomes second nature. This makes it all the more devastating should our ability to speak become lost or impaired due to neurological or structural injury or defect. At a mechanistic level, human phonation involves a complex coordination of muscles to control the posturing and properties of the vocal folds (the primary sound generating source in the larynx), airflow from the lungs to drive the vocal fold motion, and acoustical waves that influence the aerodynamics and structural vibration. Understanding the mechanics of human phonation during normal and pathological speech is critical for effective treatment of voice disorders. This presentation will discuss recent efforts in our lab to elucidate the underlying physics of human phonation and pathology development, and how the developed tools in our lab can be translated to the voice clinic to aid in diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders.