title: Voice Onset Time for the Word-Initial Voiceless Consonant /t/ in Japanese Spasmodic Dysphonia-A Comparison With Normal Controls.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Voice onset time (VOT) for word-initial voiceless consonants in adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) and abductor spasmodic dysphonia (ABSD) patients were measured to determine (1) which acoustic measures differed from the controls and (2) whether acoustic measures were related to the pause or silence between the test word and the preceding word.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-eight patients with ADSD and nine patients with ABSD, as well as 20 matched normal controls read a story in which the word "taiyo" (the sun) was repeated three times, each differentiated by the position of the word in the sentence. The target of measurement was the VOT for the word-initial voiceless consonant /t/.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When the target syllable appeared in a sentence following a comma, or at the beginning of a sentence following a period, the ABSD patients' VOTs were significantly longer than those of the ADSD patients and controls. Abnormal prolongation of the VOTs was related to the pause or silence between the test word and the preceding word.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  VOTs in spasmodic dysphonia (SD) may vary according to the SD subtype or speaking conditions. VOT measurement was suggested to be a useful method for quantifying voice symptoms in SD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders, School of Psychological Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Electronic address: s.yanagi@hoku-iryo-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Saori
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yanagida
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders, School of Psychological Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nishizawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mizoguchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromitsu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hatakeyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fukuda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D055154:Dysphonia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Abductor spasmodic dysphonia; Acoustic analysis; Adductor spasmodic dysphonia; Voice onset time