14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-14)

San Francisco, CA, USA
August 1-7, 1999

Phonetic Patterns After CO2 Laser Posterior Transverse Cordotomy for Bilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis

Stéphane Hans (1,2), Jacqueline Vaissière (2), Daniel Brasnu (1)

(1) Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Laënnec Hospital, University Paris V, France
(2) Institute of Phonetics, University Paris III, France

A combination of non invasive acoustic and aerodynamic measures were used to analyze vocal function in three patients treated by CO2 Laser posterior transverse cordotomy for bilateral vocal fold paralysis. Measures included: (i) Frequency features: fundamental frequency, standard deviation, jitter, shimmer and harmonic-to-noise ratio, (ii) Several measures on the spectra of vowel /a/: firstformant banwidths, the difference between the amplitudes of the first and second harmonics (H1-H2), the difference between the amplitude of the first harmonic and the amplitude of the first formant peak (H1-A1), the difference between the amplitudes of the first harmonic and the third formant peak was measured (H1-A3). (iii) Laryngeal aerodynamic parameters include maximum phonation time (MPT), mean air flow rate in « sustained phonation » (MFRs), phonation quotient (PQ) and mean air flow rate in "comfortable phonation" (MFRc). These measures are discussed to examine relationships among acoustic and laryngeal aerodynamic parameters, and to evaluate the degree of breathiness.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Hans, Stéphane / Vaissière, Jacqueline / Brasnu, Daniel (1999): "Phonetic patterns after CO2 laser posterior transverse cordotomy for bilateral vocal fold paralysis", In ICPhS-14, 811-814.