"Advanced Voice Function Assessment": Goals and activities of COST Action 2103

Abstract

The COST Action 2103 "Advanced Voice Function Assessment" is a joint initiative of speech processing teams (engineers and physicists) and the European Laryngological Research Group (ELRG) (laryngologists/phoniatricians). The Action officially started in December 2006, and is running till the end of 2010. 17 European countries are involved. A main objective is a better understanding of the relationship between biomechanical changes at the level of the vocal folds - as induced by pathology and tissue reaction to strain - and alterations of the acoustical voice signal. This needs to result in developing accurate, objective and clinically useful methods of investigation of voice quality in patients, and of strategies for preventing occupational voice disorders in professional speakers. Modelling is an essential tool in this process. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.