An Approach for the Cinefluorographic Study of Articulatory Movements

Abstract

Articulation consists of the quick and subtly coordinated activities between oral structures such as soft palate, tongue, cheeks, lips, and teeth. The articulatory mechanism is mainly composed of velopharyn-geal function and tongue activity. There have been many studies of the velopharyngeal mechanism (1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 22), but tongue activity, and the correlation between velopharyngeal function and tongue activity, have scarcely been investigated yet. Indeed, in the speech clinic, abnormal pat— terns of tongue movement are observed often. These patterns presumably are related to velopharyngeal incompetency of cleft palate subjects, since there are no indications that there is organic deficiency of the tongue. The present study was designed to investigate the correlation between velopharyngeal function and tongue activity by using cinefluorographic technique so that the coordinated function might be evaluated. The behavior of the velopharyngeal movement is essentially different from that of the tongue movment. Therefore, in order to analyze the correlation between the two, it is necessary to use time element as the parameter for matching phenomena. Moll (13), Powers (16), Bjork (2), Nylén (15), and Lubker (9) have used their own synchronization systems in the cinefluorographic study of articulatory movements and have demonstrated that useful and reliable data for normal and cleft palate subjects can be obtained. Fujiki and VVada (4) have also devised a synchronization system between cinefluoroscopy and phonetic sound, which uses the method of correct time for synchronizing ar— ticulatory movements. Their methodology has been used in this study. Procedure The details of the synchronization system with correct time measurement have been described in the previous report (4).