Some methods for direct measurement of subglottal pressure during speech are invasive and thus cannot be used on a routine basis. The development of noninvasive techniques is thus desirable, and a simple indirect method for measuring subglottal pressure from records of oral pressure during consonants has recently been proposed and applied to studies of glottal resistance during phonation. In order to be useful, indirect measurement procedures should be validated by comparisons with direct measurements, and the present experiment was designed for such a comparison. Miniature pressure transducers were used to obtain records of pressure below and above the glottis. Results showed nonsignificant differences and a high correlation between the direct and indirect measurements. This indirect method for measuring subglottal pressure thus appears to provide valid results.

In a prospective series, the incidence of cranial nerve injuries after carotid surgery was significant but the vast majority were reversible.

Tape recordings before and after successful voice therapy from 174 subjects with non-organic voice disorders (functional dysphonia) were analysed by longtime averaged voice spectrograms (LTAS). In female as well as in male voices there was a statistically significant increase in level in the first formant region of the spectra. In the female voices there was also an increase in level in the region of the fundamental. The LTAS were compared to the results of a perceptual evaluation of the voice qualities by a small group of expert listeners. There was no significant change of the LTAS in voices with negligible amelioration after therapy. In the voices, where the change after therapy was perceptually rated to be considerable, the LTAS showed only an increase in intensity, but the general configuration of the spectral envelope remained unchanged. There was only a weakly positive correlation between the quality ratings and parameters of the spectra.

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The well established effect of word frequency on adultÕs picture naming performance is now called into question. This is particularly true for variables which are correlated with frequency, as is the case of age of word acquisition. Since the work of Carrol and White (1973) there is growing agreement among researchers to confer an important role in lexical access to this variable. Indeed, it has been shown (Hodgson & Ellis, 1998) that for normal English-speaking adults only the variables Ôage-of-acquisitionÕ and Ôname agreementÕ are independent predictors of naming success among the various variables considered. However, when brain-damaged subjects with and without degenerative pathologies are studied, word frequency and word length as well as concept familiarity all give significant effects (Hirsh & Funnell,