The mechanism of nasopharyngeal closure was studied in 6 cleft palate patients with nasopharyngeal insufficiency by measuring pressure of the soft palate, posterior wall and bilateral walls with the technique described in the previous report.
1) The pressure of the soft p alate changed from low to high with much variation in each individual, while the posterior wall pressure was low with much deviation. There was remarkable variation with the pressure of the lateral walls, indicating characteristic movement of the lateral walls in various phonations.
2) Significant difference was found between inward movements of the lateral walls in three patients and two of them didn't show synchronized patterns in the pressure change of the lateral walls during phonating of vowels and consonants.
3) There was no comm on relationship of pressures for 5 vowels, between voiced and voiceless sounds, and for the influence of vowels to consonants.
4) There was a tendency that th e pressure for consonants was higher than that of vowels and that it was lowest in the nasal sounds. A tendency that the pressure of plosive consonants, fricative consonants, vowels and nasal consonants decrease in this order demonstrated clearly in the lateral walls.
5) The pressure of hard blowing was higher than that of soft blowing and the pre ssure of water swallowing was higher than that of saliva swallowing.
6) Nasopharyngeal closure mechanism of swallowing which required high pressure could be distinguished clearly from other functions, but blowing and phonation were not distinguishable.
7) The starting point of pressure wave occured 325 msec before and maximum point of pressure wave was observed 92 msec after the beginning of voice on average.
8) The start and the maximum points of pressure wave o f plosive consonants occured earlier than the other sounds, and in plosive consonants, they were observed earlier in voiceless sounds than in voiced sounds.
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