The purpose of this research is to determine the size of particulates exiting the mouth and the distance they will travel during breathing, speech, and singing. For this research participants will complete a number of questionnaires about their health, breathing, and voice. They will have some breathing and voice measures taken (e.g. spirometry, frequency range). Finally, they will breathe, speak, and singing while a laser images the particles emitting from their mouth. The study will gather data about how these activities may lead to the spread of disease and help develop strategies to reduce this spread. The research will last about 2 hours.
Participants must be 18-65 years old, fluent in speaking and reading English, and free of any neurological, psychiatric, respiratory, or cardiac disease. Participants should also not have a history of a voice disorder, COVID-19 infection confirmed by a positive test, head and neck cancer, or head and neck surgery.
This study will compensate $25.00/hour up to $50.00 for completion of the study.
The research will be conducted at the University of Memphis Flow Research Center Experimental Laboratory, Engineering Sciences Building. To learn more about this research, contact Miriam van Mersbergen Ph.D. by emailing voiceemotioncognition@gmail.com.