Stress may put a ‘frog in your throat’

Stress might be to blame for the feeling of having a “frog in your throat,” stammering, or other voice control issues, according to a new study.

The pilot study expands on the Trait Theory of Voice Disorders, often used in understanding functional voice disorders. The researchers discovered that stress-induced brain activations could lead to voice disorders such as muscle tension dysphonia, a disorder from excessive or altered muscle tension in and around the voice box changing the sound or feel of one’s voice.

“For many, public speaking can be a stressful situation,” says Maria Dietrich, associate professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences in the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri. “We know that stress can trigger physiological changes such as muscle tension and that can impact our speech. The new findings will help researchers better understand the relationship between stress and vocal control and will allow us to pinpoint the brain activations that impact voices to identify better treatments for disorders.”

For the study, young women who were pre-screened to participate were told that they had to prepare for a five-minute impromptu speech about why they were the best candidate for a job. The speech preparation test served as a stressor while researchers asked participants to read sentences but were never prompted to give their speech. Researchers collected samples of saliva to test for cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, in intervals before the stressor until approximately 50 minutes after.

During the study, researchers asked participants a series of questions to assess their emotional state. Throughout the experiment, they took MRI scans of the participants for the researchers to see brain activations and how they impacted speech with and without stressful speech preparation.

Dietrich found that there were differences in stress-induced brain activations related to speech. Participants who exhibited higher cortisol responses also exhibited brain activity that affected the larynx region in the brain and had lower scores on aspects of extraversion.

“Our findings are consistent with theories of vocal traits related to personality,” Dietrich says. “Those who are more introverted are more likely to have stress reactions related to speaking and their brains are registering that stress, which could impact their vocal control.”

Dietrich offers the following advice for those who feel stressed about public speaking:

• Don’t worry about the audience not smiling. Just because people might not be reacting to your public address, it doesn’t mean they are judging you.
• Present with an inner smile and remember to breathe. Taking a deep breath can go a long way to calm nerves.
• Acknowledge that feeling nervous is normal.

The paper appears in Brain Imaging and Behavior.

Support for the study came from the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science Pilot Research Program. Additional researchers from the University of Kentucky contributed to the study. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

Source: University of Missouri

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