Research in Oral Motor Control, Speech, Voice, and Swallowing

Orofacial Physiology and Perceptual Analysis (OPPAL) Laboratory

Principal Investigator: Nicole Etter, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

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Studying sensorimotor control for skilled oral behaviors like speech, voice, and swallowing in healthy aging and clinical populations

The OPPAL lab focuses on how somatosensation (touch sensation) is used to learn, maintain, and relearn skilled oropharyngeal activities like speech, voice, and swallowing across the adult life span. Additional work focuses on healthy aging voice and professional voice users.

Research in Aging and Dysphagia (RAD) Lab

Principal Investigator: Aarthi Madhavan, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Studying early identification of dysphagia in healthy aging and clinical populations

The RAD (Research in Aging and Dysphagia) lab is interested in improving early identification, screening, and assessment methods in dysphagia. In working towards this goal, the lab focuses on improving assessment and screening of dysphagia in community dwelling older adults.

Additionally, we study mechanisms that relate to dysphagia and change with age, to determine best methods for early identification. At the RAD lab we also work with improving assessments in clinical populations like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and are building collaborations to expand into developmental disabilities. This research involves close collaborations with other speech pathologists, clinicians and researchers in aging, food science, and nutrition. 

Speech Production Laboratory

Principal Investigator: Jimin Lee, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Studying Dysarthria, Articulatory Kinematics, Speech Acoustics, Speech Intelligibility

This lab seeks to understand why less comprehensible speech occurs by examining speech sound, tongue movement, and intelligibility. The long-term goal of the laboratory is to develop strategies to enhance speech intelligibility of individuals with dysarthria. In addition, in collaboration with Dr. Olmstead and Dr. Viswanathan, we investigate how speech production and perception change in interactive contexts between people with dysarthria and their caregivers.
 
Research in this laboratory focuses on articulatory kinematics (with an emphasis on tongue and jaw movement), speech acoustics, and speech intelligibility in speakers with and without dysarthria. The Speech Production Laboratory is equipped with a portable 3-dimensional electromagnetic articulography, or EMA (Wave system, Northern Digital Inc.). In addition, Speech Core is newly equipped with AG501 (Carstens Medizinelektronik GmbH), a type of EMA. The EMA systems allow examining tongue movement with synchronized acoustic signals in a non-invasive and safe way.