Respiratory responses to sudden pressure venting during stop consonant production

Twenty healthy adults, age range 20-55 years, participated in a study to as sess the responses of the upper airway to sudden, unanticipated pressure ve nting during speech production. A computer was used to open or close a valv e in a random fashion during one of two productions of the word 'hamper'. T he SAR System (Microtronics Corp., Chapel Hill, N.C., USA) was used to coll ect and monitor respiratory variables associated with speech production. Re sults indicated no significant changes in duration between vented and unven ted conditions. Although intraoral pressure was reduced under vented condit ions, the magnitude was sufficient for sound generation. Respiratory effort increased when the airway was suddenly vented, suggesting a compensatory r esponse to experimental perturbation. However, the response contrasted some what from what has been observed in patients with velopharyngeal inadequacy , indicating that the strategy used may be different. Copyright (C) 1999 S. Karger AG, Basel.