Perceptual Aspects of Spasmodic Dysphonia Across Different Languages

Abstract

Adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD), an action induced dystonia, results in abrupt initiation and termination of voicing. Anglophone and Francophone vocal characteristics of ADSD are reviewed. Perceptual judgements were obtained from the symposium participants with a new Laryngeal Dystonia Feature Analysis checklist on videotaped ADSD interviews from 4 French, 1 Malaysian, 1 Greek, and 2 English, Clear differences were perceived in the presence of pitch breaks in various languages. This group confirmed their absence in French (replicating Lorch & Whurr, 1999) and presence in the other language samples. Language-specific phomotactics are suggested as a source of cross-linguistic differences in ADSD.