World Voice Day 2026

To commemorate World Voice Day 2026, SHBT is spotlighting a faculty member and her two students. 

Dr. Kristina Simonyan leads the Dystonia and Speech Motor Control Laboratory at Mass Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, and she mentors Nyah Kshatriya and Lena C. O’Flynn, fourth and fifth-year PhD students in the Harvard Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, respectively. 

Using a variety of neuroimaging methodologies, including functiona

l MRI (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) for mapping of brain functional activity and networks, Nyah and Lena study the neural mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of laryngeal dystonia (LD) to develop new strategies for enhanced clinical management of the disorder. Laryngeal dystonia is a debilitating neurological disorders, affecting voice during speech production and leading to chronic communication and professional disability, long-lasting stress, and even suicidal ideation. There are currently no treatments available for patients with LD.

For her dissertation work, Nyah is investigating the neural and therapeutic effects of transcranial direct current stimulation, a form of non-invasive brain stimulation, in LD. By targeting disorder-specific neural abnormalities, she hypothesizes that this intervention will normalize aberrant neural activity and connectivity, thereby alleviating voice symptoms in these patients. She expects that this work will help the development of novel therapeutic tools for the long-term treatment of LD.

Lena is investigating the safety and efficacy of sodium oxybate as the first pathophysiologically relevant oral treatment for LD patients. She has demonstrated that sodium oxybate provides clinically meaningful improvement of voice symptoms and temporarily modulates abnormally increased brain activity and altered functional connectivity within the dystonic neural network.

The most remarkable part of this research is witnessing the tangible clinical impact it has on patients. At the end of the day, that’s the heart of what motivates them in their work!