Konczak lab publishes paper on new treatment for people with laryngeal dystonia

Laryngeal dystonia is a type of chronic neurological movement disorder that leads to muscle spasms affecting the muscles used for speaking. There is no cure for this disease and people with the abductor-type of dystonia have no or very limited treatment options. In the Human Sensorimotor Control's proof-of-concept study investigators sought to determine if they could benefit from applying vibration to the skin above the larynx with a specialized collar developed in the lab. Laryngeal vibro‐tactile stimulation (VTS) proved to be feasible and safe. It induced acute short-term reductions in voice symptoms in 64% of patients. The article, "Laryngeal Vibration to Treat Abductor‐Type Laryngeal Dystonia: Effectiveness and Cortical Response," appears in the journal Laryngoscope and is authored by Arash Mahnan, Jiapeng Xu, Jinseok Oh, Divya Bhaskaran, Yang Zhang, Peter J. Watson, and Jürgen Konczak.