Does body position in an MRI machine impact the perception of speech and resonance?

Abstract

Approximately 5%-40% of children born with cleft palate have velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) after primary palatoplasty (Ahmed, 2002; Mackay,1999; Sell et al., 2015) resulting in a need for secondary surgeries. Perceptual evaluations by a trained speech-language pathologist and visual instrumentation serve as the clinical tools used to support a diagnosis of VPI and subsequently determine treatment plans. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is beginning to see more clinical use as a tool for visual instrumentation and the use of dynamic MRI during speech production has begun to be requested for clinical use as well. However, before dynamic MRI can be used clinically, knowledge must be gained in understanding if speech recordings captured during dynamic MRI are at an acceptable level for clinical judgments as speech is produced in a nosier environment (from the scanner) and in the supine position that is not typical when compared to the current gold standard of perceptual evaluations by SLPs and other clinical imaging methods that are done in the upright position. Any acoustical variances in speech production that might be altered during a dynamic speech MRI in the supine position must be further investigated.