Laura Toles
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Phonotrauma, damage to the vocal folds such as nodules and polyps, is one of the most common voice disorders caused by how people use their voices. It can seriously disrupt work and daily life.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
Physiology
- Topics
phonotrauma
voice disorders
vocal fold nodules
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Identify personality traits and daily voice behaviors that come before phonotrauma, by following vocally healthy college freshman singers for three years with personality inventories, ambulatory voice monitoring and high-speed videoendoscopy.
- Determine which ambulatory voice measures, such as vocal dose and speaking loudness, and which vocal fold motion measures from high-speed videoendoscopy best predict the development of phonotrauma.
- Test how personality traits affect whether people follow voice therapy recommendations in daily life, using personality assessment and ambulatory voice monitoring before and after therapy.
More about the research
Yet it remains unclear which behaviors actually cause the damage and which are simply ways people compensate once it exists. Most past studies looked at people after they were already injured. Earlier work found that people with phonotrauma score higher on personality traits linked to social dominance and impulsivity. They also speak louder and use their voices more in daily life. In people without voice problems, these same traits were strongly linked to these vocal habits.
Why it matters
Singers, teachers and other heavy voice users at high risk of vocal fold nodules and polyps could benefit from earlier identification of who is likely to be injured. The findings could inform prevention strategies tailored to personality and voice habits. They could also guide voice therapy approaches that take personality into account, improving recovery from phonotrauma.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Rosemary Lester-Smith
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine whether simultaneous neck-skin vibration sensor and head-mounted microphone recordings can tell apart breathing, voice box and vocal tract contributions to vibrato, a voice-modulating technique, in trained singers.
Teresa Drulia
Texas Christian University, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether local translaryngeal vibration (LTLV), a gentle vibration applied over the voice box, improves outcomes when combined with flow phonation therapy in patients with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD).
Donald O Freytes
North Carolina State University, NC·Biomedical Engineering
Identify the molecules in a vocal fold lamina propria extract (VFLPx) that reduce scarring and kill microbes, using proteomic analysis, which profiles all proteins present, and targeted assays.
The school
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: 40 labs on PI Pages, $869M a year on research, 86 research doctorates a year.
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