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Acoustic properties of 980 tokens of sibilants /s, z, ƒ/ produced by 17 Canadian English-speaking female and male tongue cancer patients were studied. The patients had undergone tongue resection and tongue reconstruction with a radial forearm free flap (RFFF). The spectral moments (mean, skewness) and frication duration were analysed in connected speech samples produced before the tongue resection, and 1, 6 and 12 months after the surgery. The effects of radiation therapy (RT) and inclusion of the floor of the mouth (FOM) were also studied. Acoustic changes were observed only on alveolar sibilants /s, z/ such that speech was found to improve towards normal over the 1-year period. The reduction of acoustic distinction between /s, z/ and /ƒ/ was short term. A history of RT and involvement of the FOM had no differing effects on outcomes compared with non-RT or non-FOM. Variability between individuals was found, accentuating the speaker-specific abilities for adaptation, compensation and relearning after oral reconstruction.

The purpose of this study was to use acoustic analyses to describe speech outcomes over the course of 1 year after radial forearm free flap (RFFF) reconstruction of the tongue. Eighteen Canadian English-speaking females and males with reconstruction for oral cancer had speech samples recorded (pre-operative, and 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year post-operative). Acoustic characteristics of formants (F1, F2), fundamental frequency (F0), and duration of 699 vowel and diphthong tokens were analysed. Furthermore, the changes in size of the vowel space area were studied, as well as the effects of radiation therapy (RT) and inclusion of the floor of the mouth (FOM) in the reconstruction. RFFF reconstruction was found to affect several characteristics in males, and a minimal number of variables in females. General signs of reduced ability to articulate were not observed. RT and FOM had no differing effects compared to non-RT or non-FOM. There were individual differences between patients.

The purpose of this study was to determine the acoustic effects of lingual nerve impairment on speech. Neurophysiologic examination and thermal quantitative sensory testing (QST) were carried out to determine if the profile, type or severity of sensory nerve impairment had effects on the degree of speech changes. The study group consisted of 5 women and 5 men with lingual nerve damage following an oral and maxillofacial surgery procedure. Time interval between the examination and the nerve damage ranged from 1 month to 20 years. Formants and fundamental frequency and duration of vowel sounds were analyzed. The patients underwent sensory tests, blink reflex and thermal QST of the lingual nerve area. The lingual nerve impairment had effects on the central acoustic features of vowel sounds. A relationship was observed between warm detection threshold values and the magnitude of second formant changes in men. It is concluded that lingual nerve impairment has gender-specific effects on speech. The variability in the acoustic changes of vowel sounds between different patients indicates individual compensatory manners of speech production following lingual nerve impairment.

By measuring spectral characteristics of the sibilant /s/ this study investigated whether the reduced orosensory feedback caused by lingual nerve impairment affects the acoustics and articulation of sibilants. A further goal was to examine speakers' capability to compensate for the deviant control of the delicate movements required for the proper production of /s/ by experimentally modifying the function of the tongue in a way that reduces the necessary somatosensory information in articulation. Five healthy men with no speech, language or hearing abnormalities were enrolled. They produced the sibilant /s/ in a variety of phonetic contexts in two sessions: first in normal conditions and then with local anaesthesia of the right lingual nerve. From the speech samples, the spectral characteristics of the sibilant sound (i.e. the centre of gravity, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis) were analysed acoustically. The results showed that the reduced tactile sensation has effects on the tongue function resulting in individual and variable spectral alterations. The variation between different speakers indicates individual ability to compensate for the effects caused by the sensory dysfunction of the tongue. It seems, therefore, that the compensatory mechanisms for speech production are highly speaker-dependent.

The effects of orthognathic surgery on the phonetic quality of speech were studied by analyzing the main acoustic features of vowel sounds.Five men with dentofacial deformities undergoing surgical operation for correction of malocclusion were enrolled in the study. The speech material consisted of 8 vowels in sentence context. Every utterance was repeated 10 times in 3 different sessions: before the operation, 6 weeks after the operation, and 30 weeks after the operation. The acoustic features (F1, F2, F0, duration) of vowels were measured and analyzed.At the group level, no significant acoustic changes were found between the 3 different sessions in any parameter measured (all F values1). The results show that the operation had individual and variable effects on vowel quality, ranging from slightly affected to completely unaffected. The 2 lowest vocal-tract resonances changed in frequency for 2 of the subjects, and 1 subject had short-term changes returning to the presurgical level. Significant changes of F0 were observed for 1 subject, and 3 of the subjects had short-term changes. No significant changes were found for duration. One subject had no significant changes in any parameter measured.No long-lasting perceptually significant changes were identified in vowel production in patients undergoing a variety of orthognathic procedures. The facial skeleton (consisting of palate, maxilla, mandible, dentition, nasal cavity, etc) imposes direct limits on the morphology of the resonating vocal tract cavities, and is therefore of immediate relevance to both speech articulation and acoustics.

Objective The effects of the genioglossal muscle advancement on phonetic quality of speech were studied analyzing the acoustic features of vowel sounds. Study design and setting The study group consisted of 5 men suffering from partial upper airway obstruction during sleep. To prevent tongue base collapse, genioglossal muscle advancement was made with chin osteotomy without hyoid myotomy and suspension. The speech material consisted of 8 vowels produced in sentence context repeated 10 times before the operation, and 10 days and 6 weeks after the operation. The acoustic features of vowels were analyzed. Results The operation had no significant effects on vowel quality. Only for 2 of the subjects the pitches changed systematically due to the operation. Conclusion According to the acoustic analysis, genioglossal muscle advancement with chin osteotomy has no effects on vowel production. Some short-term changes were observed, but these changes were highly individual. Significance The operation seems to have no potential to change vowel production.

The effects of lingual nerve impairment on the phonetic quality of diphthongs were studied by analyzing changes in their main acoustic features when anesthetic was injected into the lingual nerve to partly block the normal neural feedback mechanisms in speech.The speech material consisted of 8 diphthongs in word context produced by 7 male speakers. Every utterance was repeated 10 times using normal speech rate and intonation with and without the anesthesia (Ultracain D-Suprarenin, 0.8 mL; Aventis Pharma Deutscland GmpH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany). In addition, 1 male speaker with permanent nerve impairment was studied. The acoustic features (F1, F2, F0, and duration) were analyzed using Computerized Speech Laboratory (CSL 4300B; Kay Elemetrics, Lincoln Park, NJ).At the group level, no general significant acoustic changes were found between the 2 conditions. The changes were highly individual and variable across the subjects. Significant changes were observed for all the subjects, most prominently for the subject with permanent nerve impairment.According to the results, lingual nerve impairment has effects on the production of diphthongs. A comparison between monophthongs and diphthongs showed that the alterations are more significant for the diphthongs than for other vowels indicating the more demanding, complicated, and complex manner of articulation of diphthongs.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of the lingual nerve impairment on phonetic quality of speech by analyzing the main acoustic features of vowel sounds when the normal lingual nerve function was partly distorted by local anesthesia. Patients and Methods: The study group consisted of 7 men, whose right side lingual nerve was anesthetized with 0.8 mL of Ultracain D-Suprarenin (Aventis Pharma Deutschland GmpH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany). The speech material analyzed consisted of 8 vowels produced in sentence context by speakers. Every utterance was repeated 10 times with and without local anesthesia. After recording, the speech samples were analyzed with a computerized speech laboratory. In addition, the vowels of 1 man with permanent nerve impairment were studied. Results: The results show that the deprived function of the tongue after lingual nerve impairment had various effects on vowel quality for every subject. The main acoustic determinants of different vowels, the lowest vocal tract resonances, changed in frequency. In addition, the total duration of vowels changed and the vowels had different fundamental frequencies. However, these effects were extremely individual and variable. Conclusions: According to the results of acoustic analysis, the distortion of lingual nerve function has effects on vowel production. Some of these changes were so extensive that they also could be perceptually detectable. Lingual nerve impairment seems to have potential to change speech production. © 2002 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons J Oral Maxillofac Surg 60:647-652, 2002

Acoustic characteristics of sibilant sounds produced by 17 Canadian English‐speaking female (6 patients) and male (11 patients) tongue cancer patients were studied. The patients had undergone a tongue resection of the anterior 2/3 of the tongue, and tongue reconstruction with a radial forearm free flap (RFFF). The acoustic data included measurements of the spectral moments (mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) of sibilants /s, z/ analyzed from speech samples (stimulus sentences and Zoo Passage) which were recorded before the tongue resection, and 1 month, 6 months, and 12 months after the resection with RFFF reconstruction. Primarily, the tongue reconstruction with RFFF was found to result in temporary changes on the spectral characteristics such that speech output was found to approach the pre‐operative speech quality over the 1‐year period. In addition, RFFF reconstruction of the tongue was found to have some gender‐specific effects in the acoustic characteristicsanalyzed. However, there was variability between patients, indicating individual compensatory and adaptive mechanisms for the altered sensorimotor function of the tongue following tongue reconstruction with RFFF. [The protocol for this study has been approved by the Health Research Ethics Board (HREB) of the University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB, Canada).]

Effects of reduced orosensory feedback on the production of fricative sounds were studied by measuring spectral characteristics of medioalveolar /s/. Five Finnish male speakers produced sibilant /s/ embedded in 8 different word contexts under normal condition and under reduced condition, in which the tactile information from the tongue was reduced by blocking the lingual nerve on the right side by local anesthesia. Parameters of Long Time Average (LTA) spectrum (i.e., center of gravity, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) were measured by Praat software for every speaker. In comparison between the two conditions, center of gravity, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis changed for every speaker. However, the changes were variable and individual. The results of acoustic analysis show that reduced tactile sensation have effects on tongue function producing spectral alterations for sibilant /s/. The inter‐individual variation between different talkers suggests that there are no general compensat...