The anatomy of the voice is not limited to the region of the larynx. Practically all body systems affect the voice. The larynx receives the greatest attention because it is the most sensitive and expressive component of the vocal mechanism, but anatomic interactions throughout the singer's body must be considered in making the singing voice. The physiology of voice production is exceedingly complex. The voice requires interactions among the power source, the oscillator, and the resonator. The review of functional anatomy and physiology in vocal technique would provide information on the terminology, components, and workings of the voice to permit an understanding of practical, every clinical problems and their solutions. The otolaryngologist, speech language pathologist, singing or acting teacher, singer, and actor would have benefit greatly from more extensive study of voice science.
Electric Power Supplies ; Larynx ; Physiology* ; Singing ; Voice

PURPOSE: Many studies have shown that subjects show a change of vocal fundamental frequency (F0) when phonating subjects hear their vocal pitch feedback shifted upward or downward. This study was performed to demonstrate whether vocal parameters [F0, intensity, jitter, shimmer, and noise to harmonic ratio (NHR)] in normal males respond to changes in frequency of pure tone masking. MATERIALS and METHODS: Twenty healthy male subjects participated in this study. Subjects vocalized /a/ vowel sounds while listening to a pitch- shift pure tone through headphones (upward pitch-shift in succession: 1kHz to 2kHz and 1kHz to 4kHz at 50dB or 80dB, respectively, downward pitch-shift in succession: 1kHz to 250Hz and 1kH to 500Hz at 50dB or 80dB, respectively). RESULTS: Vocal intensity, F0, was increased, whereas jitter was decreased as the pitch of pure tone was shifted upward. However, there was no correlation between shimmer and NHR with pitch-shift feedback for pure tones. Unlike vocal pitch- shift feedback in other studies, upward pitch-shift feedback of pure tones caused the vocal F0 and intensity to change in the same direction as pitch-shift. CONCLUSION: The results of this study demonstrated that auditory kinesthetic feedback is affected by pitch-shift in pure tone.
Acoustic Stimulation ; Adult ; *Feedback ; Humans ; Male ; Pitch Perception/*physiology ; Voice/*physiology

Adult ; Aged ; Aphasia, Broca ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Cues ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Speech ; physiology ; Voice

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The two most important methods for voice rehabilitation after total laryngectomy are tracheoesophageal speech and esophageal speech. The former can be obtained in several ways, for example, by the primary Amatsu tracheoesophageal (T-E) shunt operation or by the use of a low-resistance valve such as the Provox prosthesis. The purpose of this investigation was to study the anatomy and physiology of the neoglottis and to evaluate the vocal quality of tracheoesophageal speech. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 12 patients, who had undergone the Amatsu T-E shunt operation after total laryngectomy, were analyzed using the stroboscopy, laryngofiberscopy, videofluoroscopy, and computerized speech lab. RESULTS: With stroboscopy, the neoglottis was split from left to right in 3 patients and in 9 patients, the direction of opening and closure of rheeoglottis was anterior-posterior. The regular vibratory features were observed in patients with a shortened visible vibratorvsegment. The results of videofluoroscopy indicate that the location of the vibration was mostly situated between C3 and C5. The cervical esophagus closure during tracheoesophageal phonation was located at a level between C7-T2. CONCLUSION: The anatomical and morphological characteristics of the neoglottis was related to the healing process after operation. The neoglottis was considered to be formed by the thyropharyngeal muscle, and concentric contraction under subneoglottic extension was formed by the contraction of the cervical esophagus.
Acoustics* ; Esophagus ; Humans ; Laryngectomy ; Phonation ; Physiology ; Prostheses and Implants ; Rehabilitation ; Speech, Esophageal ; Stroboscopy ; Vibration ; Voice

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between laryngeal morphologic changes and voice changes in old people.

METHODSFifty four healthy people older than 60 years were studied. Laryngeal morphologic changes and vocal acoustics features were observed and analyzed. Forty six college students aged between 21-22 years were included as the young control group, and 23 of them are males and 23 females.

RESULTSSixteen cases with vocal fold atrophy (55.2%), 18 cases with glottis incompetence (62.1%), 16 cases with hypoglottic mucosal edema (55.2%), 12 cases with surpassing ventricular fold (refers to the phenomenon that the ventricular fold covers part or all of the vocal cord during phonation) (41.4%) were observed in the old male; 15 cases with edema of interarytenoid fold (60.0%), 14 cases with glottis incompetence (56.0%), 12 cases with vocal fold atrophy (48.0%), 8 cases with vocal fold edema (32.0%) were observed in the old female. Fundamental frequency (F 0) ascended in the male while declined in the female; jitter, shimmer and noise to harmonic ratio enlarged, and vocal tremor intensity index increased too. Soft phonation was noticed especially in the voices of the old male. Compared with the control group, there was statistic significance (each p value is less than 0.05 or 0.01) except for the increasing of jitter, shimmer and soft phonation index in the old female.

CONCLUSIONSSignificant changes were found in the old when the morphology of larynx and features of vocal acoustics were studied, hypoglottic edema and interarytenoid edema are common in the old.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Aging ; physiology ; Female ; Humans ; Laryngoscopy ; Larynx ; physiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Vocal Cords ; physiology ; Voice Quality ; Young Adult

Separation anxiety (SA) is a serious behavioral problem in dogs. In this study, salivary cortisol was studied to determine if the owner's odor or voice could reduce SA in dogs. Twenty-eight dogs with SA were divided into three groups: group 1 (control), group 2 (with owner's clothes during the separation period; SP) and group 3 (a recording of the owner's voice was played during SP). The dog's saliva was collected after the owner and their dog were in the experimental room for 5 min (PRE). The dog was then separated from the owner for 20 min and saliva collected four times at intervals of 5 min (SP1-4). Finally, the owner was allowed back into the room to calm the dog for 5 min, after which saliva was collected (POST). Evaluation of salivary cortisol concentrations by ELISA revealed that the ratios of SP1 concentration to PRE or POST concentrations were significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2 or 3. Additionally, the concentrations of SP1-PRE and SP1-POST among groups differed significantly. These findings indicate that the owner's odor or voice may be helpful to managing stress in dogs with SA.
Acoustic Stimulation* ; Animals ; Anxiety, Separation* ; Clothing ; Dogs* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Hydrocortisone* ; Odors ; Physiology ; Problem Behavior ; Saliva ; Voice

This work is directed at developing a virtual instrument system as an accessorial diagnostic instrument for laryngeal diseases. Programmed with LabWindows/CVI, the system combines the voice acoustic analyzing function with the glottal image measuring function. The voice acoustic analyzing system can sample, store and replay vocal signals; can extract and analyze parameters, including fundamental frequency (F0), frequency perturbation quotient (FPQ), amplitude perturbation quotient(APQ), harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), jitter frequency (JF), Shimmer; and can do 3D sound graph analysis. The glottal image analyzing system can sample and store the image observed by the laryngostroboscope; can display any phase in one cycle of the vibration of the vocal cords or a slow and continuous movement of vibrating vocal cords; can snap and save the diagnostic frame of image; and can extract the parameters of the image such as the length and area of the glottis, the length and area of the vocal cords and the diseased part.
Computer Simulation ; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation ; methods ; Glottis ; physiology ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Laryngeal Diseases ; diagnosis ; User-Computer Interface ; Voice ; physiology

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of age and gender on the parameters of voice, in order to make baseline data for the diagnosis and therapy of voice disorders. METHOD: One hundred and thirty two normal subjects were randomly selected in Shanghai, which were divided into two groups: one aged 18-40 and another aged 60-90. Each group included 33 male subjects and 33 female subjects. All subjects were assessed by VA (Tiger DRS. Inc), selected parameters including: F0, Jitter, Shimmer, NNE, CQ. RESULT: The factors of age and gender had the significant difference on voice, and there were interaction between age and gender. Sensitive parameters are F0, Jitter, NNE, CQ. CONCLUSION There are some characteristic change of voice associated with aging. There is vast difference between aging male and aging female. Furthermore, aging voice can be improved by voice training.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Sex Factors ; Speech Acoustics ; Voice Quality ; physiology ; Young Adult