Heaton: Senior Scientist in the Laryngeal Surgery Engineering Laboratory
Overview
James T. Heaton, PhD, is an Associate Neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a research scientist affiliated with the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation (also known as the MGH Voice Center). He is also an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and an Adjunct Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the MGB University of Health Professions.
Dr. Heaton’s research focuses on the neural and biomechanical foundations of voice, speech, swallowing, and facial movement. Working with interdisciplinary teams of surgeons, speech-language pathologists, engineers, neuroscientists, and industry partners, he develops and evaluates restorative technologies for patients whose communication or airway-protective functions have been impaired by disease, injury, or surgery.
A major emphasis of his work is the development of neural prosthetic systems for voice restoration. His research has included electromyographically controlled electrolarynx technology, silent-speech recognition using neck and face muscle signals, and implantable closed-loop stimulation systems designed to restore vocal fold closure in patients with vocal fold paralysis. These systems seek to detect intended movement from physiologic signals and use that information to trigger precisely timed neuromuscular stimulation for more natural voice production, cough, swallowing safety, and airway protection.
Dr. Heaton has also contributed to research on facial reanimation, including systems that detect facial movement and use electrical stimulation to restore dynamic movement in patients with facial nerve dysfunction. His broader translational research program spans laryngeal pacing, vocal fold biomechanics, neck surface and intramuscular laryngeal electromyography, speech-related muscle control, dysphagia neuroprosthetics, and animal models of nerve injury and recovery.
His work has been supported by the NIH/NIDCD, DARPA, the Voice Health Institute, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and small-business translational research programs. He is an inventor on technologies related to prosthetic voice control, intraoperative vocal fold assessment, facial movement detection and stimulation, and closed-loop laryngeal functional electrical stimulation. He has authored or co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications and serves as a reviewer for several international grant agencies.
In addition to his research, Dr. Heaton has maintained a long-standing commitment to education and mentorship. Since 1998, he has taught graduate-level coursework in neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, anatomy and physiology, speech science, and voice disorders at Harvard-affiliated and Boston-area programs. He has mentored doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows, residents, and speech-language pathology trainees, many of whom have gone on to outstanding academic, clinical, and translational research careers.