title: Effects of a vocally fatiguing task and systemic hydration on men's voices.
abstract: Voice disorders, specifically vocal fatigue, are more commonly reported by women than by men. Previously, 4 women with normal untrained voices read loudly for 2 hours in an attempt to fatigue the voice. Vocal function deteriorated, as indicated by increases in phonation threshold pressure (PTP) and self-perceived phonatory effort. The increase in PTP was delayed or attenuated to some degree in 3 of the women when they drank ample amounts of water before the experiment. The current study examined the same vocal-loading task and water-drinking condition in 4 vocally normal men. PTP increased after the loud-reading task. Although 2 of the men appeared to benefit from increased systemic hydration (PTP increased more when they were underhydrated than well-hydrated), the other 2 men's data changed in the opposite direction. Phonatory effort correlated well with PTP; this varied across subject and pitch. Laryngeal endoscopy revealed an anterior glottal gap in two men after the loud-reading task. Amplitude of vocal fold vibration was judged to be reduced after the loud-reading task in three subjects when underhydrated and one subject when well hydrated. The high between-subject variability prohibits a conclusion that drinking water is beneficial to vocal function in men, but all subjects studied to date demonstrated detrimental vocal effects of prolonged loud talking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. Nancy.Solomon@na.amedd.army.mil
authors.forename: Nancy Pearl
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: Leslie E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Glaze
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Mersbergen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004327:Drinking Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012008:Recurrence; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D014833:Voice Quality; D014867:Water / Q000008:administration & dosage*
chemical_list: D014867:Water