Objective Measure of Nasal Air Emission Using Nasal Accelerometry.
This article describes the development and initial validation of an objective measure of nasal air emission (NAE) using nasal accelerometry.



Nasal acceleration and nasal airflow signals were simultaneously recorded while an expert speech language pathologist modeled NAEs at a variety of severity levels. In addition, microphone and nasal accelerometer signals were collected during the production of /pɑpɑpɑpɑ/ speech utterances by 25 children with and without cleft palate. Fourteen inexperienced raters listened to the microphone signals from the pediatric speakers and rated the samples for the severity of NAE using direct magnitude estimation. Mean listener ratings were compared to a novel quantitative measurement of NAE derived from the nasal acceleration signals.



Correlation between the nasal acceleration energy measure and the measured nasal airflow was high (r = .87). Correlation between the measure and auditory-perceptual ratings was moderate (r = .49).



The measure presented here is quantitative and noninvasive, and the required hardware is inexpensive ($150). Future studies will include speakers with a wider range of NAE severity and etiology, including cleft palate, hearing impairment, or dysarthria. Further development will also involve validation of the measure against airflow measures across subjects.
Graduate Program for Neuroscience-Computational Neuroscience, Boston University, MADepartment of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA.
Gabriel J
GJ
Cler
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, MA.
Yu-An S
YS
Lien
Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology, Voice and Swallow Clinics, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Maia N
MN
Braden
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MADepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, MA.
Talia
T
Mittelman
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA.
Kerri
K
Downing
Graduate Program for Neuroscience-Computational Neuroscience, Boston University, MADepartment of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MADepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, MADepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Boston University School of Medicine, MA.
Cara E
CE
Stepp
D061725:Accelerometry; D000388:Air; D002648:Child; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009666:Nose / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology