The Lombard Reflex: Historical Perspective

There is little agreement concerning the method of introducing the noise in administering the Lombard Voice Reflex test. The clinical use of the test has been based on an incomplete description by Weiss. Lombard's original work published one year later, provides the complete description of test procedures as he derived them. Lombard described procedures for noting vocal intensity increase and especially provided specific procedures for presenting the noise to the patient. The adoption of Lombard's clinical procedures can eliminate the division of opinion which presently exists and provide a starting point for investigating work to standardize the Lombard Voice Reflex.