The Contributions of the Cerebellar Peduncles and the Frontal Aslant Tract in Mediating Speech Fluency.

Fluent speech production is a complex task that spans multiple processes, from conceptual framing and lexical access, through phonological encoding, to articulatory control. For the most part, imaging studies portraying the neural correlates of speech fluency tend to examine clinical populations sustaining speech impairments and focus on either lexical access or articulatory control, but not both. Here, we evaluated the contribution of the cerebellar peduncles to speech fluency by measuring the different components of the process in a sample of 45 neurotypical adults.

Stuttering in adolescence and the risk for dysglycemia in early adulthood.

Aims: To investigate the association between stuttering during adolescence and the onset of dysglycemia (prediabetes or type 2 diabetes) in early adulthood among men and women.

Materials And Methods: This cohort study included Maccabi Health Services members assessed for mandatory military service at ages 16-19 during 1990-2019 and followed until 31 December 2020. Stuttering status was recorded in the baseline medical evaluation.

Rearranging Voice Disorders: Refining the New Two-Dimensional Continuous Model.

Background: Voice and laryngeal pathologies are traditionally arranged in categories. A recent study has suggested an alternative approach, using two continuous scales, Organicity and Tonicity, which form a two-dimensional plane on which all pathologies/conditions can be arranged.

Objectives: This study was designed to examine the validity and reliability of the new continuous 2D model and to learn how it is affected by experts' background characteristics.

Voice Disorders and Personality: New Steps on an Old Path.

Objectives: This study examined the association between voice disorders and personality by comparing a heterogenic group of dysphonic patients to non-dysphonic speakers using the NEO-FFI big-five personality inventory.

Methods: A group of 100 dysphonic patients diagnosed with 24 different pathologies was compared to 149 non-dysphonic speakers. Inter-group differences on the five NEO-FFI scales were evaluated using three analysis approaches, a general comparison between the dysphonic and non-dysphonic groups and arranging pathologies using a categorical and a continuous approach.

Development and Validation of the Children's Voice Questionnaire (CVQ).

Objectives: This study developed and validated the children's voice questionnaire (CVQ), a new self-administered instrument for children, and evaluated its internal consistency and reliability.

Study Design: Observational, prospective, cross-sectional study.

Methods: The initial preparation of the CVQ was conducted in four steps.

Two-dimensional Scheme for Arranging Voice Disorders.

Importance: Prevalent schemes that have been used for arranging voice pathologies have shaped theoretical and clinical views and the conceptualization of the pathologies and of the field as a whole. However, these available schemes contain inconsistencies and categorical overlaps.

Objective: To develop and evaluate a new approach for arranging voice pathologies, using 2 continuous scales, organicity and tonicity, which were used to construct a 2-dimensional plane.

Examining the voice of Israeli transgender women: Acoustic measures, voice femininity and voice-related quality-of-life.

Background: Transgender women may experience gender-dysphoria associated with their voice and the way it is perceived. Previous studies have shown that specific acoustic measures are associated with the perception of voice-femininity and with voice-related quality-of-life, yet results are inconsistent.

Aims: This study aimed to examine the associations between specific voice measures of transgender women, voice-related quality-of-life, and the perception of voice-femininity by listeners and by the speakers themselves.

How face masks influence the sinonasal quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: To study different mask types' impact on a sinonasal quality of life.

Methods: For this observational cross-sectional study, a web-based survey was distributed via social media forums. We used the validated Hebrew version of the Sinonasal Outcome Test-22 followed by a questionnaire developed specifically for the present study, focusing on the time of the COVID-19 pandemic (Mask Sinonasal Outcome Test), and questions regarding general health issues.

Speech rate association with cerebellar white-matter diffusivity in adults with persistent developmental stuttering.

Speech rate is a basic characteristic of language production, which affects the speaker's intelligibility and communication efficiency. Various speech disorders, including persistent developmental stuttering, present altered speech rate. Specifically, adults who stutter (AWS) typically exhibit a slower speech rate compared to fluent speakers.

Hyposalivation Affecting Womens' Voice.

Objectives: Balanced hydration is crucial for optimal physiological function, whereas hypohydration may cause adverse effects. Like many other organs, the larynx is negatively affected by hypohydration, potentially affecting voice production. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine voice properties in women diagnosed with dry-mouth.

Stuttering and Incident Type 2 Diabetes: A Population-Based Study of 2.2 Million Adolescents.

Purpose: To investigate the association between stuttering in adolescence and incident type 2 diabetes in young adulthood.

Methods: This nationwide population-based study included 2 193 855 adolescents of age 16 to 20 years who were assessed for military service between 1980 and 2013. Diagnoses of stuttering in adolescence were confirmed by a speech-language pathologist.

What do these sounds tell us about the therapeutic alliance: Acoustic markers as predictors of alliance.

Predicting the trajectories of alliance formation that the patient is likely to establish with the therapist during treatment, even before their first meeting, can help prevent the potentially harmful consequences of deterioration in alliance, such as poor outcome and premature dropout. The present study aimed to examine the ability of four pretreatment acoustic markers to predict the alliance that is likely to be formed in the course of treatment: F0 span, speech rate, pause proportion and jitter. Data from 560 observations of 38 patients were collected as part of an ongoing randomized clinical trial of short-term psychotherapy for major depressive disorder.

Songbirds Must Sing: How Artistic Voice Users Perceive Their Voice in Times of COVID-19.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a critical disruption in the music and performing arts industry, and affected singers and other artists. This study was designed to examine the effect of this unique time on artistic voice users, the way they perceive their voice and their voice-related behaviors.

Methods: A total of 110 participants volunteered for the study: 57 professional artistic voice users (34 singers and 19 actors) and a control group of 53 nonprofessional voice users.

Physical and Visual Characteristics of the Neck Predicting Gender Perception.

Unlabelled: The association between neck characteristics (physical and visual) and the perception of gender is unclear. This association is critical, especially when the perception of the speakers' gender is of interest, such as in transgender patients. This study was the first to provide basic empirical data on this association among cisgender men and women.

Resilience in people who stutter: Association with covert and overt characteristics of stuttering.

Purpose: Recent literature stresses the importance of resilience, as a trait, for successful coping with life's difficulties or stressors. However, only a limited number of studies were conducted on resilience among people-who-stutter (PWS). These studies did not examine the association between resilience and the specific characteristics of stuttering.

"Spontaneous" late recovery from stuttering: Dimensions of reported techniques and causal attributions.

Purpose: (1) To survey the employed techniques and the reasons/occasions which adults who had recovered from stuttering after age 11 without previous treatment reported as causal to overcome stuttering, (2) to investigate whether the techniques and causal attributions can be reduced to coherent (inherently consistent) dimensions, and (3) whether these dimensions reflect common therapy components.

Methods: 124 recovered persons from 8 countries responded by SurveyMonkey or paper-and-pencil to rating scale questions about 49 possible techniques and 15 causal attributions.

Results: A Principal Component Analysis of 110 questionnaires identified 6 components (dimensions) for self-assisted techniques (Speech Restructuring; Relaxed/Monitored Speech; Elocution; Stage Performance; Sought Speech Demands; Reassurance; 63.

The Prevalence of Self-Reported Voice Disorders in Israel.

Objective: Data on the prevalence of voice disorders is vital in order to describe and understand the phenomenon. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of voice disorders in Israel, and perform a preliminary comparison between the two major societies in the country.

Methods: A sample of 1146 people participated in a survey on voice disorders.

The Speech Efficiency Score (SES): A time-domain measure of speech fluency.

Purpose: This study is a preliminary attempt to evaluate a new speech fluency measure, the Speech Efficiency Score (SES), in comparison with subjective stuttering severity rating scales and stuttered syllable counts (%SS).

Methods: 277 listeners (92 naïve, 39 speech-language pathology (SLP) students, 124 practicing SLPs, and 22 SLPs who specialize in stuttering) evaluated short recordings of speech on an 11-point scale. Recordings were obtained from 56 adults, of whom 20 were people who stutter, 16 were people who stutter who were using fluency-shaping techniques, and 20 were speakers who do not stutter.

Speech rate adjustment of adults during conversation.

Purpose: Speech rate convergence has been reported previously as a phenomenon in which one's speech rate is influenced by his/her partner's speech rate. This phenomenon has been demonstrated in artificial settings, and to some extent, in mother-child interactions. The purpose of this study was to explore speech rate adjustment in a quasi-natural adult-adult conversation.

[ENDOTHELIAL DYSFUNCTION: A POSITION PAPER OF THE ISRAEL HEART SOCIETY].

Prediction of cardiovascular adverse events is challenging. It became apparent that traditional coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors are the cornerstones of the European 10-year CAD risk SCRORE and the Framingham score. However, despite their importance, the prediction value of general assessment tools such as the SCORE and Framingham options in an individual subject is limited, especially in young adults and women.

White matter pathways in persistent developmental stuttering: Lessons from tractography.

Purpose: Fluent speech production relies on the coordinated processing of multiple brain regions. This highlights the role of neural pathways that connect distinct brain regions in producing fluent speech. Here, we aim to investigate the role of the white matter pathways in persistent developmental stuttering (PDS), where speech fluency is disrupted.

The relationship between the experience of stuttering and demographic characteristics of adults who stutter.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the association between adults' experience of stuttering and their age, gender and marital status, as well as to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the OASES-A.

Methods: The Hebrew version of the OASES-A was administered to 91 adults-who-stutter. The validity of the translated version was evaluated using a subset of 43 participants, who also completed three additional instruments: (a) a Perceived Stuttering Severity (PSS) self-rating scale, (b) the Situation Avoidance Behavior Checklist (SABC), (c) the Students Life Satisfaction scale (SLSS).

The Accuracy of Preoperative Rigid Stroboscopy in the Evaluation of Voice Disorders in Children.

Objectives: Stroboscopy is considered the most appropriate tool for evaluating the function of the vocal folds but may harbor significant limitations in children. Still, direct laryngoscopy (DL), under general anesthesia, is regarded the "gold standard" for establishing a diagnosis of vocal fold pathology. The aim of the study is to examine the accuracy of preoperative rigid stroboscopy in children with voice disorders.

A real-time phoneme counting algorithm and application for speech rate monitoring.

Adults who stutter can learn to control and improve their speech fluency by modifying their speaking rate. Existing speech therapy technologies can assist this practice by monitoring speaking rate and providing feedback to the patient, but cannot provide an accurate, quantitative measurement of speaking rate. Moreover, most technologies are too complex and costly to be used for home practice.