A feasibility study of monitoring tongue to palate contacts for instantaneous bio-feedback during speech by electroglottographic equipment

This publication adapts a master's thesis by this author completed in 2023 at the University of Southern Mississippi. It describes a potentially beneficial outcome of unexpected electrical signals that may not be noticed during regular electroglottography (EGG) with the electrodes on the throat. It appears that there is a measurable electrical signal from the EGG equipment when electrodes are placed over the frontal cheek (belly of zygomatic muscle), and the tongue is elevated to contact the hard palate, or the tongue is lowered to break the contact. Therefore, this phenomenon is designated as unconventional electro-glottography (UEGG, Dr. Steven Cloud, private communication, July 17, 2022). Two distinctive patterns of waveforms were obtained in this study that showed two visually different transitions: (1) when the tongue tip was raised from the oral floor to touch the hard palate, and (2) when the tongue tip detached from the hard palate to return to the oral floor. These transitional patterns were observed during silent maneuvers as well as during spoken utterances that involved touching and detaching between the hard palate and the tongue. The UEGG signal transitions and correspond-2