Videofluoroscopic investigation of body position on articulatory positioning

Youkyung Bae, Jamie L. Perry, David P. Kuehn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Purpose: To quantitatively examine the effects of body position on the positioning of the epiglottis, tongue, and velum at rest and during speech. Method: Videofluoroscopic data were obtained from 12 healthy adults in the supine and upright positions at rest and during speech while the participants produced 12 VCV sequences. The effects of body position, target sounds, and adjacent sounds on structural positioning and vowel formant structure were investigated. Results: Velar retropositioning in the supine position was the most consistent pattern observed at rest. During speech, all structures, with varying degrees of adjustment, appeared to work against the gravitational pull, resulting in no significant narrowing in the oro and nasopharyngeal regions while in the supine position. Minimal differences in the formant data between the body positions were also observed. Overall, structural positioning was significantly dependent on the target and adjacent sounds regardless of body position. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that structural positioning in response to gravity varied across individuals based on the type of activities being performed. With varying degrees of positional adjustment across different structures, fairly consistent articulatory positioning in the anterior-posterior dimension was maintained in different body positions during speech.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1135-1147
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Volume57
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2014

Keywords

  • Articulators
  • Body position
  • Formants
  • Gravity
  • Velum

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Speech and Hearing

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