Despite the challenges discussed, application of sEMG to speech and swallowing has potential as a clinical and research tool when used correctly and is specifically suited to noninvasive clinical studies using between-condition or between-group comparisons for which detection of specific isolated muscle activities is not necessary.

Altered offset and onset RFF in patients with hyperfunction-related voice disorders can be interpreted as a by-product of heightened levels of laryngeal muscle tension. Measurement of RFF during voice offset and onset has potential for use as a simple, noninvasive measure of vocal hyperfunction.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine if the relative fundamental frequency (RFF) surrounding a voiceless consonant in patients with hyperfunctionally related voice disorders would normalize after a successful course of voice therapy. Method Pre- and post-therapy measurements of RFF were compared in 16 subjects undergoing voice therapy for voice disorders associated with vocal hyperfunction. Results A two-way ANOVA showed a statistically significant effect of both cycle of vibration near the consonant and therapy phase (PRE vs. POST), with p < .001. A post hoc paired Student’s t-test showed that post-therapy RFF measurements were significantly higher (more normal; p < .0001) than pre-therapy measurements. Conclusions Prior to therapy, participants exhibited lowered RFF values, similar to those found previously. After successful completion of voice therapy, RFF values increased toward patterns seen previously in individuals with healthy normal voice. The goal of voice therapy in these patients was to reduce laryngeal muscle tension; therefore the increase of RFF towards more typical values may be indicative of decreased baseline laryngeal muscle tension resulting from therapy. Results are discussed further in terms of necessary research to incorporate RFF as a clinical measure of vocal hyperfunction.

Most prosthetic hand users are limited to visual feedback of movement performance. To characterize the benefit of vibrotactile feedback for a task that lacks haptic feedback, a virtual environment was used to experimentally manipulate visual, task-relevant haptic, and remote vibrotactile feedback on simple object manipulation for unimpaired subjects. The combination of visual and remote vibrotactile feedback was compared to visual feedback alone, and to simultaneous visual and direct haptic feedback to represent ideal performance. Visual and vibrotactile feedback resulted in improvement of most performance variables including difficulty ratings relative to visual feedback alone. However addition of sensory cues to visual feedback increased trial times and the increase was steeper for vibrotactile than for haptic feedback. Specifically, during vibrotactile feedback the velocity did not change, but the duration of execution increased due to improved performance, resulting in increased trial times. This result suggests future exploration of performance improvement and execution speed for augmented sensory feedback.