Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrich Eysholdt
Abt. Phoniatrie und Pädaudiologie
Klinikum der Friedrich Alexander-Universität
Bohlenplatz 21
91054 Erlangen

Phone: +49 (9131) 853 31 46
Fax: +49 (9131) 92 72

e-mail: eysholdt@phoni.med.un-erlangen.de
Homepage
http://www.rrze.uni-erlangen.de/docs/FAU/fakultaet/med/kli/kphno/phon

Heads of department
1952 – 1960 Elimar Schönhärl
1960 – 1990 Gerhard Kittel
Since 1990 Ulrich Eysholdt

Status of department
In the late 40‘s, the head of the ENT hospital, Prof. Ludwig Beck, himself being an operatively interested laryngologist, felt the necessity of an integral medical service for patients with communication disorders.
In 1952, Beck ordered his attendant Elimar Schönhärl to build up such a service at a state-of-the-art standard. Schönhärl was active in the clinical as well as in the scientific field. He developed the stroboscopy as a clinical tool for observation of vocal fold vibration, the results have been published in 1958 as a famous monography, which in many aspects is actual up to now. However, Schönhärl had to work in complete dependence of the ENT hospital. In 1960, he accepted a lifetime professorship at the university of Marburg, where he became the head of the Dept. of Phoniatrics.
His successor was Gerhard Kittel, coming from Mannheim to Erlangen. Kittel‘s activity in the professional, clinical and scientific field coincided with the so-called Contergan-affair in the early 60‘s: many congenital malformations (including deafness) resulted from Contergan- medication of pregnant women, and the children needed a holistic treatment concerning their communication disorder. Kittel succeeded to receive 12 beds for in-house treatment for his department (1963), to found a new school of logopedists (1968) and to establish Phoniatrics (the German term for communication disorders) as an subspecialty of ENT in West Germany (1980). The department grew up, got a building of its own and finally (1985) the status as an independent department within the ENT hospital. During all the time Kittel himself worked as an active ENT surgeon and a researcher, initally about cochlear hypoxia (1968), lateron about functional voice disorders (1980-90).
In 1990 Ulrich Eysholdt took over, being double graduated in Medicine and Applied Physics (Acoustics). He attracted several grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) and enlarged the staff of the department by one logopedist and three researchers (physicists), who – besides others – developed the highspeed glottography for analysis of vocal fold vibration irregularities. The department got the final independence with respect to staff, finance, building and research.

Academic staff
4 physicians (including the head), 2 engineers, 3 researchers, 4 logopedists, 3 audiologists, 7 nurses, 2 secretaries

Main topics of research
Highspeed digital imaging of the larynx
Neurocognition of the peripheral auditory pathway
Phonosurgery
Pattern recognition with respect to endoscopic picture series and acoustic speech signals
Speech rehabilitation after laryngectomy

Selected publications
T. Wittenberg, M. Moser, M. Tigges, U. Eysholdt: Recording, processing and analysis of digital highspeed-glottography sequences, Machine Vision and Applications 8: 399 - 404 (1995)

U. Hoppe, M. Moser, F. Rosanowski, U. Eysholdt: Auditory evoked potentials during speech perception, S. 133 - 136 in: B. Kollmeier (Hrsg.): Psychoacoustics, Speech and Hearing Aids, Amsterdam 1996

U. Eysholdt, M. Tigges, T. Wittenberg, U. Pröschel: Direct evaluation of high-speed recordings of vocal fold vibration, Folia Phoniatr. Logop. 48: 163 - 170 (1996)

S. Weiß, U. Hoppe, U. Eysholdt: Recognition and reconstruction of late auditory evoked potentials using wavelet analysis, S. 473 - 476 in: Proc. 3rd Symp. Time-Freq. Time-Scale Analysis, Paris 1996

M. Tigges, T. Wittenberg, F. Rosanowski, U. Eysholdt: Highspeed imaging and image processing in voice disorders, S. 209 - 216 in: H. Foth, R. Marchesini, H. Podbielska (Hrsg.): Optical and Imaging Techniques for Biomonitoring II, SPIE Washington 1996

M. Tigges, P. Mergell, H.-P. Herzel, T. Wittenberg, U. Eysholdt: Observation and Modelling of Biphonation, Acustica 83: 707 - 713 (1997)

P. Mergell, H.-P. Herzel, T. Wittenberg, M. Tigges, U. Eysholdt: Phonation onset: vocal fold modelling and high speed glottography. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 104(1): 464 – 470 (1998)

C. van As, M. Tigges, Th. Wittenberg, B.M.R. Op de Coul, F.J. Hilgers, U. Eysholdt: High speed digital imaging of neoglottic vibration after total laryngectomy,
Arch. Otolaryngol.-Head Neck Surg. 125: 891 – 897 (1999)

M. Tigges, T. Wittenberg, P. Mergell, U. Eysholdt: Imaging of vocal fold vibration by digital multi-plane kymography
Comput. Med. Imag. Graph. 23: 323 - 330 (1999)

Publication series
The department publishes essential results in a monography series of its own. Up to now appeared:

U. Hoppe: Beiträge zur Bestimmung des Hörvermögens mittels auditorisch evozierter Potentiale,
Shaker Aachen 1998, ISBN 3-8265-4040-9

F. Rosanowski: Untersuchungen zur Bedeutung sprachevozierter Hirnrindenpotentiale in der objektiven Audiometrie,
Shaker Aachen 1998, ISBN 3-8265-3866-8

P. Mergell: Nonlinear Dynamics of Phonation – High-Speed Glottography and Biomechanical Modelling of Vocal Fold Oscillations, Shaker Aachen 1998, ISBN 3-8265-4142-1

Th. Wittenberg: Wissensbasierte Bewegungsanalyse von Stimmlippenschwingungen anhand digitaler Hochgeschwindigkeitsaufnahmen
Shaker Aachen 1998, ISBN 3-8265-4143-X

M. Tigges: Die Hochgeschwindigkeitsaufnahmetechnik des Kehlkopfes
Shaker Aachen 1999, ISBN 3-8265-6794-3