Intraoral air pressure discrimination under conditions of partial and complete resistance

This study assessed a sample of normal-speaking individuals' ability to dis criminate differences in their self-generated intraoral air pressures. Two conditions were employed: (1) open tube in which subjects had to sustain an expiratory breath stream to maintain the target pressure, and (2) closed t ube in which there was complete resistance to the subjects' breath stream. Analysis of variance revealed no significant difference (p > 0.05) in subje cts' ability to discriminate differences in their self-generated intraoral air pressure as a function of open or closed tube conditions. However, subj ects' discrimination scores significantly increased (p < 0.05) as the stand ard pressure was increased. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.