Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
The researchers will examine functional neural correlates that differentiate between laryngeal dystonia and voice tremor and contribute to disorder-specific pathophysiology using a cross-disciplinary approach of multimodal brain imaging.
Laryngeal dysphonia (LD) and Voice Tremor (VT) are neurological voice disorders that impair speech production. The characteristic feature of LD (i.e., occurring during speaking but not laughing or crying) and the lack of physical laryngeal abnormalities suggests that LD is likely a disorder affecting the task-specific control of phonation by the central nervous system (CNS). Similarly, VT is often observed without any clear peripheral laryngeal etiology, also suggesting a central origin but distinct from that affected in LD. The overall goal of this project is to characterize the common and di…
Inclusion criteria: 1. Males and females of diverse racial and ethnic background; 2. Age 18-80 years; 3. Native English speakers; 4. Right-handed; 5. Normal cognitive status; 6. Patients will have laryngeal dystonia or voice tremor; 7. Healthy controls will be healthy individuals without neurological, psychiatric or otolaryngological problems. Exclusion criteria: 1. Subjects who are incapable of giving informed consent; 2. Pregnant or breastfeeding women until a time when they are no longer pregnant or breastfeeding. All women of childbearing potential will have a urine pregnancy test perfo…
Brain images will be conducted with function MRI, magnetoencephalography (MEG), and electroencephalography (EEG) to identify disorder-specific neural markers
Laryngeal sensory block with bupivacaine will be used to modulate sensory feedback from vocal fold mucosa and examine the impact of sensory feedback on abnormal neural activity in LD and VT
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