-The phonoarticulatory diadochokinesis test has been recommended to evaluate neurological disorders. It is a speech task that consists of the ability to repeat at high speed a segment of speech. The purpose of this research is to analyze the diadochokinesia rate of adults from two distinct age groups. 23 young adults and 23 elderly people, both sexes participated in this study. Each participant produced the /pa/, / ta/, /ka/ syllables, the vowel /a/ and the /pataka/ sequence, as fast and as long as they could with habitual pitch and loudness. The speech samples were analyzed by using the voice and speech analysis software VisiPitch III/Sona-Speech, KayElemetrics. Both groups presented with reduced diadochokinesia rate as the speech production became more complex. The young adults group presented with higher diadochokinesia rate in all speech tasks while the elderly adults group had a worse intensity control.KEy wordS: speech, speech articulation tests, speech production measurement, speech acoustics. diadococinesia fonoarticulatória em jovens e idososResumo -A prova de diadococinesia fonoarticulatória tem sido recomendada para transtornos neurológicos, sendo uma tarefa de fala que consiste na habilidade de realizar rápidas repetições de segmentos de fala. o objetivo deste estudo é analisar a velocidade de diadococinesia em sujeitos adultos em dois grupos etários distintos. Participaram 23 adultos jovens e 23 idosos, de ambos os sexos. Cada indivíduo emitiu as sílabas /pa/, /ta/, /ka/, a vogal /a/ e a seqüência /pataka/, o mais rapidamente e durante o maior tempo possível, em sua freqüência e intensidade habituais. Estas emissões foram analisadas no programa computadorizado de análise de voz e fala Visi-Pitch III/Sona-Speech, da KayElemetrics. Ambos os grupos apresentaram redução da velocidade diadococinética à medida que as emissões foram mais complexas. o grupo mais jovem apresentou velocidade diadococinética maior em todas as emissões enquanto o grupo de idosos teve pior controle de intensidade.PAlAVrAS-ChAVE: fala, testes de articulação da fala, medida de produção da fala,acústica da fala. Fonoaudióloga doutora em distúrbios da Comunicação humana pela UNIFESP e diretora do Centro de Estudos da Voz.

Objective: To assess, in patients undergoing glossectomy, the influence of the palatal augmentation prosthesis on the speech intelligibility and acoustic spectrographic characteristics of the formants of oral vowels in Brazilian Portuguese, specifically the first 3 formants (F1 [/a,e,u/], F2 [/o,ó,u/], and F3 [/a,ó/]).Design: Speech evaluation with and without a palatal augmentation prosthesis using blinded randomized listener judgments.Setting: Tertiary referral center.Patients: Thirty-six patients (33 men and 3 women) aged 30 to 80 (mean [SD], 53.9 [10.5]) years underwent glossectomy (14, total glossectomy; 12, total glossectomy and partial mandibulectomy; 6, hemiglossectomy; and 4, subtotal glossectomy) with use of the augmentation prosthesis for at least 3 months before inclusion in the study.Main Outcome Measures: Spontaneous speech intel-ligibility (assessed by expert listeners using a 4-category scale) and spectrographic formants assessment.Results: We found a statistically significant improvement of spontaneous speech intelligibility and the average number of correctly identified syllables with the use of the prosthesis (P Ͻ .05). Statistically significant differences occurred for the F1 values of the vowels /a,e,u/; for F2 values, there was a significant difference of the vowels /o,ó,u/; and for F3 values, there was a significant difference of the vowels /a,ó/ (PϽ .001). Conclusions:The palatal augmentation prosthesis improved the intelligibility of spontaneous speech and syllables for patients who underwent glossectomy. It also increased the F2 and F3 values for all vowels and the F1 values for the vowels /o,ó,u/. This effect brought the values of many vowel formants closer to normal.

In spite of voice alterations in patients submitted to cordectomy by CO2 laser, functional results are acceptable, with minimal repercussion in their quality of life.

After laryngectomy for treatment of laryngeal cancer, the distal esophageal contractions have low amplitude. Our hypothesis is that proximal esophageal contractions are also impaired. We studied the proximal esophageal contractions in 20 laryngectomized patients (16 men) with a mean age of 44.2 years, 12 rehabilitated patients with esophageal speech, and 12 controls (7 men, mean age of 46.5 years). We used the manometric method with continuous perfusion. All subjects were studied in the sitting position and performed five swallows of a 5-ml bolus of water alternated with five dry swallows. The contractions were measured 2 cm below the high-pressure zone of the pharyngoesophageal transition. The results showed that the amplitude and duration of contractions were different in laryngectomized patients compared with controls. The amplitude of contractions of patients (wet swallows: 37.3+/-20.7 mmHg, mean+/-SD) was lower than that of controls (81.1+/-31.7 mmHg). The duration of contractions was also lower in laryngectomized patients (2.2+/-0.7 s) than in controls (2.6+/-0.6 s). We conclude that the proximal esophageal contraction amplitude and duration of laryngectomized patients are lower than controls, a fact suggesting that laryngectomy may affect the proximal esophageal contractions.

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Increased life expectancy raises demands for special attention for the elderly population; speech, language and hearing science deals with their communication disorders. Hearing loss is a common disorder affecting this age group. It is known that the auditory feedback system is essential to human vocalizing, as it organizes voice production. Aim: To assess and correlate the hearing system and the Fundamental Frequency (F0) of women who have variable degrees of sensorineural hearing loss. Material and Method: a crosssectional descriptive study. 30 women with a mean age of 75.95 (SD = 7,41) were included. Inclusion criteria were: symmetric sensorineural hearing loss, a high-frequency sloping configuration, and a type A tympanogram. Subjects underwent Pure Tone Audiometry, a Word Recognition Test, Tympanometry, and Voice Assessment. Results: Patients with higher degrees of hearing loss showed an increased fundamental frequency. Conclusion: In aged individuals with hearing loss, audiovocal monitoring is altered, resulting in voice parameter changes.