Mahalakshmi Sivasankar

Assistant Professor

Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

Ph.D. (2005) Northwestern University., CCC-SLP

oice

ABAB

Current Research Areas

•Laryngeal Hydration

•Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Vocal Fold Vibration

•Vocal Fold Defense to Environmental Perturbations

•Vocal Fatigue and Vocal Endurance

•Voice Disorders and Voice Therapy

Methodologies

In Vivo

Human Subjects•Aerodynamic measures

•Acoustic measures

In Vitro

Ovine and Porcine Vocal Fold Epithelia•Morphology

•Electrophysiology

Recent Results•Human Subjects in vivo

Superficial dehydration challenges reduce the ease of voice production.

Dehydration challenges have greater effects in individuals at increased risk for chronic voice disorders.

•Vocal Fold Epithelia in vitro

Vocal fold epithelia detect ionic and osmotic perturbations on luminal surface

Vocal fold epithelia compensate for surface perturbations

Vocal fold epithelia provide an active defensive barrier

Future Directions•In vivo

Physiological mechanisms underlying vocal fold response to surface perturbations.

Clinical screening tool to identify individuals at risk for voice disorders.

•In vitro

Regulation of vocal fold surface fluid composition using cultured vocal fold epithelia.

Contribution of extracellular matrix to vocal fold defense

Biomaterials