# Laryngeal and vocal tract strategies to reduce vocal fold contact pressure

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2024 · $631,492

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 Voice therapy remains the primary treatment option for phonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction, one of the
most frequently occurring conditions to affect the voice. Voice therapy aims to modify hyperfunctional vocal
behavior through vocal techniques or exercises, often with a focus on vibratory sensations in certain parts of
the airway. It is generally believed that these techniques and exercises induce adjustments in the larynx and
vocal tract that increase vocal efficiency and lower vocal fold contact pressure, an important contributing factor
to vocal fold injury. However, such understanding is largely based on theoretical and numerical simulations,
and there have been few experimental data supporting these hypotheses. Additionally, although voice therapy
likely leads to multiple simultaneous laryngeal and vocal tract adjustments, information about the specific
adjustments and their impact on vocal fold contact pressure is often vague. Currently, voice therapy outcomes
are often evaluated based on patient-reported and other secondary measures. To date, no objective measures
have been identified that would allow clinicians to reliably monitor and predict the progress of voice therapy
with greater accuracy than is currently available. The goals of the proposed research are to (1) experimentally
validate findings and hypotheses from previous numerical simulations on favorable laryngeal and vocal tract
configurations that consistently reduce vocal fold contact pressures in excised human larynx experiments; and
(2) investigate the effectiveness of voice therapy methods in reducing vocal fold contact pressures and in
eliciting the hypothesized laryngeal and vocal tract configurations to do so, and the ability of these maneuvers
to predict voice therapy outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10771007
- **Project number:** 5R01DC020240-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** ZHAOYAN ZHANG
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $631,492
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-02-01 → 2028-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10771007

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10771007, Laryngeal and vocal tract strategies to reduce vocal fold contact pressure (5R01DC020240-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10771007. Licensed CC0.

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