Arash Mahnan, Kinesiology PhD student, has been awarded a $3000 STARTUP Mini-Grant from MIN-CORPS for customer discovery and product development expenses for the Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) Collar device he has been developing with colleagues in the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory.

Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) is a voice disorder that leads to strained or choked speech, and is unresponsive to speech therapy. Mahnan and his colleagues have shown that voice quality in SD improves when non-invasive vibrotactile stimulation (VTS) is applied to the larynx. They have created and are testing a device that applies VTS and can be worn by SD patients during daily life. The project is supported by the U of M’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) through the Translational Grant Program, which is focused on rare disease.