I was recently reading on another Web Forum, about the Vagus nerve and how dysfunctions can be connected with voice problems. Hmmm...it also mentions that the Vagus nerve is connected with acid reflux and arrythmia, both of which I've had problems with. Does anyone know about this Vagus nerve-voice connection? Is it at all involved with SD, or can it produce SD-like symptoms, if this nerve has any dysfunction? Thanks.
Fancynancy,In the book I have which I bought at the Pacific Voice Conference ("Discover Your Voice" by Oren Brown...a vocal expert of 60-years), the author identifies the Vagus as "the laryngeal nerve." He says it originates from the brain. Its branches and the muscles they serve(superior and inferior branches serving the TA, LCA, PCA, et al, muscles...eventually becoming the RLN nerve branch lower in the throat) are some of the areas targeted by Botox/surgical treatments for SD.
Brown is not a surgeon but a lifelong (the man is 91 years old), highly-respected expert in Voice Therapy for the singing voice. As a lay person, I would interpret what I read in his book as meaning that the Vagus is the main nerve from the brain having to do with vocal production and all of the other acronyms are the muscles of the larynx and nerves which come off the main nerve and, because they are closer to the source of vocal production, they are the ones which are treated for SD. I don't know of anyone doing Botox or surgery on the main laryngeal nerve (but, who knows what is going on out there that I don't know about).
I would think some of the drawings and explanations from this book (or something similar) would also be on the web somewhere. Hope this helps and if you need more info out of this source, write me on private e-mail and I could fax you a few pages. I thought his diagrams and explanations were quite clear.
--Lynne