Technical Report of IEICE Japan, Vol. SP2006-93, pp. 49-54, 2006
Investigation of the movement in velopharyngeal closure during speech production using 4D-MRI: Examination of the relationship between the patterns of the velopharyngeal closure and the movement of the Levator Veli Palatini Muscle
J. Iwasaki, R. Kataoka, Y. Yamashita, R. Kasuga, K. Yasu, T. Arai, S. Shintani
Abstract: 4D-MRI imagings were obtained from four normal subjects (two males and two females) during speech production /impee/. Three kinds of the velopharyngeal (VP) closure patterns were observed. From the observation of the movements of soft palate, velopharyngeal port and Levator Veli Palatini (LVP) muscle during rest, /i/ and /p/ production on both mid-sagittal plane and coronal plane, it was found that the shape and the position of the levator veli palatini muscle (LVP muscle) were changed according to the motion of the soft palate. Maximum movement of the soft palate resulted in the rotation toward to the velopharyngeal port of the major axis of LVP muscle (type A movement). Medium movement of soft palate resulted in the medial translation of LVP muscle (type B movement). Two subjects having Coronal VP closure pattern showed type A movement during both vowel /i/ and consonant /p/ production. The subject who having Circular VP closure pattern showed type A movement during /p/ production and type B movement during /i/ production. The subject having Circular with Passavant’s ridge pattern showed type B movement both /i/ and /p/ production.
Keywords: cleft palate，the velopharyngeal closure, levator veli palatine muscle (LVP muscle), 4D-MRI, speech production