Assessment of Breathing Patterns and Respiratory Muscle Recruitment During Singing and Speech in Quadriplegia

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To explore how respiratory impairment after cervical spinal cord injury affects vocal function, and to explore muscle recruitment strategies used during vocal tasks after quadriplegia. It was hypothesized that to achieve the increased respiratory support required for singing and loud speech, people with quadriplegia use different patterns of muscle recruitment and control strategies compared with control subjects without spinal cord injury. DESIGN: Matched, parallel-group design. SETTING: Large university-affiliated public hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Consenting participants with motor-complete C5-7 quadriplegia (n=6) and able-bodied age-matched controls (n=6) were assessed on p..