title: Investigation of the Immediate Effects of Humming on Vocal Fold Vibration Irregularity Using Electroglottography and High-speed Laryngoscopy in Patients With Organic Voice Disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study aimed to investigate whether humming can immediately improve the regularity of vocal fold vibration on electroglottography (EGG) and laryngeal high-speed digital imaging (HSDI) in patients with organic dysphonia (OD).
  
  
  METHODS
  In a series of 49 dysphonic patients who were diagnosed to have benign mass lesions in the vocal folds and an equal number of non-dysphonic speakers, perturbation parameters were calculated on the acoustic (Ac) and EGG signals during natural and humming phonation. In addition, 11 OD patients and as many non-dysphonic speakers underwent simultaneous EGG and HSDI video recording under laryngofiberscopy while performing the two tasks. The perturbation parameters of the EGG signals as well as the glottal area waveforms (GAW), which were extracted from the HSDI movies, were calculated, and the correlations between both perturbation parameters were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Humming achieved significant improvements in the EGG perturbation parameters in both groups. More than half of the OD patients showed decreased EGG perturbation parameters to the level of those during natural phonation in the control group. With respect to the GAW analysis, moderate correlations were observed between both period and amplitude perturbation parameters (period: r = 0.63, amplitude: r = 0.41). Humming decreased both GAW perturbation parameters significantly in the OD and control subjects combined.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate that in OD patients, humming has a potential to improve voice quality by stabilizing the vocal fold oscillation, and suggest that humming can remove the functional component in the vocal disturbance instead of the mechanical effect of the mass lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan; University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carien
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vlot
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan. Electronic address: mogawa@ent.med.osaka-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Kiyohito
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hosokawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iwahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Chieri
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidenori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inohara
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D055154:Dysphonia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D004568:Electrodiagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007828:Laryngoscopy; D007830:Larynx; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010699:Phonation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014732:Vibration; D014741:Video Recording; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014833:Voice Quality; D014834:Voice Training; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Electroglottography; Glottal area waveform; High-speed digital imaging; Humming; Perturbation quotient