Changes to Breathing in People with Vocal Fatigue Disorders
Want to learn more about respiration and voice disorders?
Project is Not Currently Available
This project has reached full capacity for the current term. Please check back next semester for updates.
Project description
The aims of this study are to examine breathing and ventilation in people who depend on their voice for a living in order to develop a better understanding of the mechanisms that lead to vocal fatigue. Students assigned to this project will assist in data collection and analysis. Specifically, we will teach them to collect the respiratory data with us. Their primary job will be to add tags to the data as it comes in. They will also orthographically transcribe the speech produced by the participants and acoustically analyze pausing patterns using a special software (Praat) for that purpose. We will teach them to read spectrograms for this analysis. Finally, they may also assist with measurements of respiratory movements using a Matlab script. Tasks can be adjusted to fit with the student’s level of experience, skills, and interests.
Project outcome
- Understand what vocal fatigue is and how it might be affected by respiratory patterns.
- Learn to use acoustic software to identify phonemes and pauses (periods of silence) in running speech.
- Identify appropriate acoustic and respiratory kinematic signals as they present on our data collection software.
- Understand how speech and breathing are connected physiologically and the impact of changes to breathing patterns on speech.
Project details
| Length of commitment | Year-long |
| Start time | Spring |
| In-person, remote, or hybrid? | In-person |
| Level of collaboration | Large group collaboration (4+ students) |
| Benefits | Work Study Potential Academic Credit |
| Who is eligible | All undergraduate students |
Project mentor
Jessica Huber
Department Chair, Professor
Communicative Disorders and Sciences
Phone: (716) 829-5558
Email: jehuber@buffalo.edu
Start the project
- Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
- After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.)
Preparation activities
Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. After you’re approved to begin the project, your mentor will send the relevant materials. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.
Read articles (Nanjundeswaran et al 2024 and 2017) and discuss with Dr. Huber.
Keywords
speech, voice, speech pathology, communicative disorders and sciences