Date of Award

5-2023

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

School

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Committee Chair

Dr. Steven J. Cloud

Committee Chair School

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Committee Member 2

Dr. Laura Amanda Mathews

Committee Member 2 School

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Committee Member 3

Dr. Kelly N. Koch

Committee Member 3 School

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Committee Member 4

Mary T. Schaub

Committee Member 4 School

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Abstract

The author of this thesis conceived and investigated an unexpected electrical signal that may not be noticed during regular electroglottography (EGG) when electrodes are conventionally placed on the anterior surface of the throat. It appears that there is a measurable electrical signal from the EGG equipment when electrodes are placed over the frontal cheek (belly of zygomatic muscle), and the tongue is elevated to contact the hard palate, or the tongue is lowered to break the contact. Therefore, this phenomenon is designated as unconventional electroglottography (UEGG, Dr. Steven Cloud, private communication, July 17, 2022).

Two distinctive patterns of waveforms were obtained in this study that showed two visually different transitions: (1) when the tongue tip was raised from the oral floor to touch the hard palate, and (2) when the tongue tip detached from the hard palate to return to the oral floor. These transitional patterns were observed during silent maneuvers as well as during spoken utterances that involved touching and detaching between the hard palate and the tongue. The UEGG signal transitions and corresponding spectrographic transitions of spoken utterances appeared to be closely synchronized. Therefore, various applications of this basic concept, including therapeutic bio-feedback, may be possible for evaluating normal as well as abnormal lingual contacts with the hard palate during speech production through future investigations. Such applications of UEGG may be preferable to conventional electropalatography (EPG) that requires intraoral electrodes.

ORCID ID

0000-0002-9388-1972

Available for download on Tuesday, December 31, 2024

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