{"id":707492,"date":"2026-06-12T10:05:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=707492"},"modified":"2026-06-12T10:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:13:06","slug":"pharyngoceles-throat-condition-custom-neck-brace-707492","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/pharyngoceles-throat-condition-custom-neck-brace-707492\/","title":{"rendered":"An out-of-this-world design hits the high notes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Designing Assistive Devices to Hit the High Notes\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8O1utg4Sh1E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medicine, engineering, and pedagogy experts harmonize to help a French horn student overcome a rare throat condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1242,"featured_media":707592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,42472,116],"tags":[43002,18802,19382,42822,3286,42992,18632,42492,18432,30532],"class_list":["post-707492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","category-health-medicine","category-sci-tech","tag-amy-lerner","tag-department-of-computer-science","tag-department-of-electrical-and-computer-engineering","tag-department-of-sound-arts-and-engineering","tag-eastman-school-of-music","tag-glenn-schneider","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-medical-center","tag-school-of-medicine-and-dentistry","tag-zhiyao-duan"],"acf":{"external":"","hide_featured_image":true,"related":"show_related","style":[678492,645282,612322],"content_modules":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-0","title":"<h2><strong>Medicine, engineering, and pedagogy experts harmonize to help a French horn student overcome a rare throat condition.<\/strong><\/h2>","content":"From the moment he first picked up the French horn, Jacob Factor has battled through pain. The PhD student in music education at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/\">糖心传媒<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/\">Eastman School of Music<\/a> has a rare throat condition called pharyngoceles, which causes the walls of his throat to bulge with pockets of air, resulting in extreme discomfort, particularly when he needs higher internal pressure to hit high notes or play at louder volumes.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt feels like getting stabbed in the throat,\u201d says Factor, who has had the condition since birth. \u201cMy neck would be throbbing if I had a hard playing week, and I would have to put down the instrument for a day.\u201d\r\n\r\nDespite years of muddled advice from perplexed instructors, Factor continued to adapt and persevere, pursuing graduate studies at one of the world\u2019s top music schools. When he arrived at Eastman, he was able to tap into URochester\u2019s wider network of expertise and search for a way to ease the discomfort. What he found was a team of otolaryngologists, biomedical engineers, and audio engineers who designed and tested an assistive brace that has him playing stronger, at higher ranges, and more confidently than ever before.\r\n<h3><strong>Brace for impact<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nWhile studying at Eastman, Factor connected with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urmc.rochester.edu\/people\/112361130-glenn-t-schneider\">Glenn Schneider<\/a>, an otolaryngologist at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urmc.rochester.edu\/\">糖心传媒 Medicine<\/a> who specializes in treating larynx disorders, including voice disorders in singers and other professional voice users, dysphasia, and upper airway issues. Schneider helped Factor understand how his pharyngoceles were impacting his French horn playing physiologically.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_707542\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]<img class=\"wp-image-707542 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-05-22_French_horn_neck_brace_0689.jpg\" alt=\"Close up of Jacob Factor, who has the rare throat condition pharyngoceles, playing the French horn. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" \/> <strong>UNDER PRESSURE:<\/strong> The rare throat condition pharyngoceles has caused Factor extreme discomfort throughout his entire French horn-playing career. (URochester photos \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\u201cIt changes the position of the compression in the oral cavity,\u201d says Factor. \u201cYou want it to be up at the lips where the vibration actually happens\u2014that\u2019s the balance point between your body and the instrument. But the pharyngoceles make it more volatile, and then I don't get the right kinds of pressure up at the lips, which influences the tone, volume, and all kinds of executive functions.\u201d\r\n<blockquote>\u201cMy neck would be throbbing if I had a hard playing week, and I would have to put down the instrument for a day.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\nSchneider and Factor initially thought they\u2019d try physical therapy to see if strengthening the neck muscles could help.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt didn\u2019t end up helping the pharyngoceles at all,\u201d says Factor. \u201cWhich makes sense, because when you\u2019re playing, that whole part of your body should be relaxed; you\u2019re not flexing the muscles.\u201d\r\n\r\nInstead, Schneider suspected some sort of brace could help mitigate the pharyngoceles\u2019 effects. He immediately thought his colleague <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/bme\/people\/faculty\/lerner_amy\/index.html\">Amy Lerner<\/a>, a professor with URochester\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/bme\/index.html\">Department of Biomedical Engineering<\/a>, would be the perfect person to design such a brace.\r\n<h3><strong>Making space for a solution<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nLerner has a long history working at the intersection of biomechanics and design, which dates back to her time in the aerospace industry designing space suits for NASA\u2019s Space Shuttle program. While working for ILC Dover in the 1980s, she designed grooved gloves that give astronauts the dexterity and durability to handle tools and make repairs to the International Space Station. Elements of her designs remain in today\u2019s space suits.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_707552\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"434\"]<img class=\"wp-image-707552 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Amy-in-suit-434x630.jpeg\" alt=\"Smiling woman in space suit gives the thumbs-up. \" width=\"434\" height=\"630\" \/> <strong>SUITED UP:<\/strong> Lerner in a space suit during her time working on NASA\u2019s Space Shuttle program. (Photo provided by Lerner)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nLerner says other aspects of space suits inspired the brace she designed for Factor.\r\n\r\n\u201cA spacesuit is essentially a big balloon, but if you blew it up entirely, it would be a big cylinder, and you couldn\u2019t bend anything,\u201d says Lerner. \u201cSo, while working on the shuttle space suit program, we designed a restraint system in the suit that prevents the balloon from expanding in certain locations. That mirrors this challenge in a lot of ways.\u201d\r\n\r\nThrough various iterations and conversations with Factor, Lerner designed a collar that he can easily wrap around his neck and secure with hook clips and adjustable straps. The collar has rigid inserts positioned strategically to prevent his neck from bulging when he plays, similar to how a hernia belt works.\r\n\r\n\u201cI designed it to be comfortable for him, so it fits when he\u2019s breathing, walking, talking, and preparing in between breaths, but when he needs to create the pressure to play the French horn, it\u2019s restraining in the right locations,\u201d says Lerner.\r\n\r\nFactor says the brace has been a revelation, and he now plays the French horn exclusively while wearing it. And he says it clearly makes a difference in his performance.\r\n\r\n\u201cEverybody that I\u2019ve played for\u2014musicians or non-musicians\u2014has noticed a difference in the way I sound,\u201d says Factor. \u201cEven my mom notices a difference.\u201d\r\n<h3><strong>Measure for measure<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nNot satisfied with anecdotal evidence that his playing had improved, Factor wanted to quantify the difference. Lerner brought in her colleague, Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/ece\/people\/faculty\/duan_zhiyao\/index.html\">Zhiyao Duan<\/a> from the Departments of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/ece\/index.html\">Electrical and Computer Engineering<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/hajim.rochester.edu\/sae\/\">Sound Arts and Engineering<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cs.rochester.edu\/\">Computer Science<\/a>.\r\n\r\nDuan and his PhD student Baotong Tian, who produces music in his spare time, devised a series of experiments to analyze how the brace changes the audio characteristics when Factor plays the French horn. They recorded him playing the same piece with and without the brace using the same microphones in two different settings\u2014a professional recording facility in Rettner Hall and an anechoic chamber, a heavily insulated room designed to produce no echoes.\r\n<blockquote>\u201cEverybody that I\u2019ve played for\u2014musicians or non-musicians\u2014has noticed a difference in the way I sound.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n\u201cBy studying in the anechoic chamber, we can analyze the sound waves coming right from the instrument. The studio, meanwhile, has more lively acoustics similar to the places he typically performs. Both settings have pros and cons for analysis,\u201d says Duan. \u201cLooking at the frequency spectra, we can see that with the brace on, the sounds are brighter, meaning there are greater concentrations of high frequencies in the audio compared to without the brace.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_707582\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]<img class=\"wp-image-707582 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-05-22_French_horn_neck_brace_0126.jpg\" alt=\"Three researchers look at a screen of analysis while French horn player Jacob Factor plays music wearing a custom neck brace to help address pharyngoceles.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" \/> <strong>ANALYZE THIS:<\/strong> Situated in a studio within Rettner Hall, Lerner, Duan, and Tian study sound waves produced by Factor\u2019s playing. (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThey identified significant differences in the spectral energy distribution across frequencies when Factor wore the brace, confirming their hunch that he could hit the high notes better.\r\n\r\nThe team is working on documenting their results in scientific papers to share their findings with the world. As Factor finishes the last components of his PhD program, he hopes to apply the lessons he learned in his career as a music educator. \u201cI want to raise awareness for the condition with wind instrument educators at all levels. If they\u2019re aware of it, they can more appropriately adjust what they\u2019re doing with students to help them,\u201d says Factor. \u201cI received a lot of very blanket pedagogy that never helped me. \u2018Use more air\u2019 was never the answer to this problem.\u201d","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>An out-of-this-world design hits the high notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pharyngoceles, a rare throat condition, tormented horn player Jacob Factor until an interdisciplinary URochester team devised a remedy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/pharyngoceles-throat-condition-custom-neck-brace-707492\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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