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R T Rubow

Publications and source records attributed to R T Rubow.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Reduction of hemifacial spasm and dysarthria following EMG biofeedback.

In this case study, a geriatric patient who had an 18-year history of hemifacial spasm was given EMG-biofeedback-assisted relaxation training. No formal speech therapy was provided. Our results confirmed two hypotheses: (a) The patient would learn to reduce frontalis EMG and facial spasm with and then without biofeedback, and (b) as a result, speech would be markedly improved. At both the 1-month and 15-month follow-up the patient retained the ability to relax his facial muscles with similar carry-over to speech. Possible neurophysiologic mechanisms of action mediating the feedback training are discussed.

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Vibrotactile stimulation for intersystemic reorganization in the treatment of apraxia of speech.

Intersystemic reorganization in the treatment of apraxia of speech involves pairing fragments of a speech motor program with internal cues generated by some other, more intact system. Gestural reorganization, pairing speech with limb gestures, somehow provides an organizational framework for the proper sequencing of motor speech movements. This paper briefly develops some hypotheses suggesting that afference resulting from limb movements rather than a central movement program is involved in gestural reorganization, and that vibrotactile stimulation may have advantages over visual or auditory modalities. The effectiveness of vibrotactile as compared to auditory stress cues was assessed in a multiple schedule design for 1 patient who had had a cerebrovascular accident. Results indicated that, in an imitative paradigm, vibrotactile plus auditory stress and rhythm cues were more effective than auditory cues alone improving an apraxic patient's imitative production of single words.

Afferent Pathways