Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the physiological characteristics of the Accent Method, a popular voice therapy technique. To study the effect of accentuation in the Accent Method, the increase in airflow rate (Airflow), fundamental frequency (F0) and sound pressure level (SPL) caused by accentuation were simultaneously measured by means of the Nagashima Phonatory Function Analyser PS-77H. The subjects consisted of normal and pathological groups. The group of normal subjects included two professionally trained, two trained and two untrained persons with this method. The subjects in the pathological group were 5 patients with vocal fold nodules. Three tempos, i.e., largo, andante and allegro, were employed. The results were summarized as follows :
(1) In normal group, the professionally trained and trained subjects showed significantly greater increases in F0 and SPL than untrained and pathological subjects. There was no difference in increases in Airflow among the professionally trained, trained, untrained and pathological subjects.
(2) The 5 patients in the pathological group showed significantly greater increases in F0, SPL and Airflow after voice therapy than before voice therapy.
(3) In the normal groups, correlations between Airflow and F0, and that between Airflow and SPL were greater in professionally trained subjects, trained subjects than in untrained and pathological subjects.
(4) The correlations between Airflow and F0 after voice therapy, and that between Airflow and SPL in the pathological group were greater than before voice therapy.
