Monitoring Neurological Disease in Phonation

Abs t r ac t . It is well known that many neurological diseases leave a fingerprint in voice and speech production. The dramatic impact of these pathologies in life quality is a growing concert. Many techniques have been designed for the detection, diagnose and monitoring the neurological disease. Most of them are costly or difncult to extend to primary services. The present paper shows that some neurological diseases can be traced a the level of voice production. The detection procedure would be based on a simple voice test. The availability of advanced tools and methodologies to monitor the organic pathology of voice would facilítate the implantation of these tests. The paper hypothesizes some of the underlying mechanisms affecting the production of voice and presents a general description of the methodological foundations for the voice analysis system which can estímate correlates to the neurological disease. A case of study is presented from spasmodic dysphonia to ¡Ilústrate the possibilities of the methodology to monitor other neurological problems as well.