Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to identify one or more aerodynamic or electroglottographic (EGG) measures that distinguishes between clinically relevant voicing patterns for nodule pathogenesis and regression: a presumably pathogenic pattern (pressed voice), a neutral pattern (normal voice), and two presumably therapeutic patterns (resonant voice and breathy voice). Trained sub jects with normal voices produced several tokens of each voice type on sustained vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/. For each token, maximum flow declination rate (MFDR), AC flow, and minimum flow were obtained from inverse-filtered airflow signals, and closed quotient and closing time were obtained from electroglottographic (EGG) signals. The results indicate that for /a/ and /i/ (but not for /u/), the closed quotient provided a sensitive tool for distinguishing the voice types in physiologically interpretable directions. Further, post-hoc analyses confirmed a direct relation between the closed quotient and videoscopic ratings of laryngeal adduction, which previous work links to nodule pathogenesis and regression.

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