Rapid Tracking of Soft Palate Motion During Speech Using Pencil Beam and Turbo Navigators

Andrew David Scott¹, Redha Boubertakh², Malcolm Birch¹, Marie Pinkstone³, Marc Eric Miquel¹, ²

Diagnosis of small timing errors in articulation during speech requires high temporal resolution techniques. Currently, 2D real-time MRI is too slow. We use a pencil beam and a novel turbo-spin-echo navigator to track velar motion during speech at 37 and 62 lines/s. The navigators were positioned through the velum and data was acquired with audio recording during speech. The 1D+t images created were compared to a navigator simulated from 2D real-time images and the pattern of palatal motion was similar. The additional temporal resolution of the turbo navigator will permit more precise measurement of the timing of velopharyngeal closure.