title: Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis of Vowels in Cleft Palate Children with or without Hypernasality.
abstract: Objectives. To clarify the difference between Lyapunov exponents (LEs) for cleft palate (CP) patients with hypernasality versus without hypernasality and to investigate the relationship between their LEs and nasalance scores (NSs). Material and Methods. Six CP patients with severe hypernasality (mean age 9.2 years) and six CP patients without hypernasality (mean age 8.0 years) were enrolled. Five Japanese vowels were recorded at 44.1 KHz, and the NSs were measured simultaneously. The mean first LE (mLE(1)) from all one-second intervals was computed. Results. The mLE(1) for /o/ in patients with hypernasality was significantly higher than that in patients without hypernasality. The correlation coefficients between the mLE(1) and NS for all vowels were not statistically different. Conclusion. The voice signal of /o/ for the patients with hypernasality was more instable than in those without hypernasality. The chaotic phenomenon was independent of nasal resonance in CP voice.
authors.affiliation: The Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Yamaguchi University, Minami-kogushi 1-1-1, Ube City, Yamaguchi 7558505, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsuaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mishima
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Tatsushi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumura
authors.forename: Norifumi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Moritani
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iida
authors.forename: Yoshiya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ueyama