Speech adaptation to a self-inflicted cosmetic tongue split: perceptual and ultrasonographic analysis

In the cosmetic tongue split operation, the anterior tongue blade is split along the midline of the tongue. The goal of this case study was to obtain preliminary data on speech and tongue motility in a participant who had performed this operation on himself. The participant underwent an articulation test and a tongue motility assessment, as well as an ultrasound examination. Tongue motility was mildly reduced as a result of tissue scarring. Speech was rated to be highly intelligible and acceptable by 4 raters, although 2 raters noticed slight distortions of the sibilants /s/ and /z/. The 3-dimensional ultrasound demonstrated that the synergy of the 2 sides of the tongue was preserved and that the patient compensated for the tongue split with increased medio-lateral compression of the two sides of the tongue. It is concluded that the tongue split procedure did not significantly affect the participant's speech intelligibility and tongue motility.