Effects of auditory feedback and phonetic context on stomal noise in laryngectomized speakers

Stomal noise intensity during esophageal speech was measured in 7 laryngectomized subjects during amplified monaural auditory feedback and during control conditions without feedback. A significant (5-10 dB) reduction in stomal noise was observed when auditory feedback was applied. The conditions without feedback were designed to provide additional information regarding the effects of the initial phonetic element in the esophageal speech token on stomal noise. During the control conditions, esophageal speech tokens beginning with voiceless consonants resulted in significantly more stomal noise than was present for the other speech tokens. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.