We have applied high-resolution vocal frequent analysis to a population of singing voices. Two important elements have become apparent: (1) Confirmation that the singing formant originates in the resonators. This is observed especially on a low fundamental, and it is acquired through technical skill and experience. (2) Observation of the vibrato, which, isolated from the clinical study, regarding only its graphic presentation, could have been interpreted as 'abnormal'.
Histomorphometric data (fiber frequencies, fiber diameters, and atrophy factors) were determined in laryngeal muscles [thyroarytenoid (VOC), posterior (PCA) and lateral (LCA) cricoarytenoids, and cricothyroid (CT) muscles]. Seventy-three muscles (43,700 fibers) from normal and carcinoma-infiltrated sides of the larynges of 11 patients were analyzed. The fiber diameters showed uniform values of 24.2 +/- 9.1 microns. Type-I fibers were more frequent in the PCA and less frequent in the LCA and the CT. In the VOC, the ratio was 1:1. The unilateral fixation of a vocal fold modified the structures of the LCA and the CT. The VOC and the PCA were not affected. A hypothesis based on the phonatory function of the CT is used to explain its atrophy.
Looking for possible signs of vocal fatigue, acoustic waveform perturbation was measured in normal female subjects during sustained phonation at various fundamental frequencies (Fo). At none of the pitch levels a rise of the jitter or the shimmer was found after 25 min of vocalization. On the other hand, an effect of Fo was seen from the start: above the habitual speaking Fo of our subjects' voices there was a tendency for the jitter to be higher and for the shimmer to be lower.
The present paper deals with the problem of the temporal relations between the beginning of the glottal opening at phonation onset and the thyroid cartilage kinematics at the prominentia laryngea. Furthermore, some differences in comparison with a stationary phonation event are discussed here.
The authors used long-time averaged spectrum and three-dimensional analysis of periodicity (3D-PAN) for analyzing emotional expressions in utterances. They confirmed the movement of the skewness of formant region, that is getting smaller at anger and at joy. It can reach positive values. The skewness is higher at sadness. These findings correspond to the physiological phenomena that we can follow in the whole musculature. The 3D-PAN has not brought any new finding as far.
Research Articles| December 09 2009 The Break of the Singing Voice Subject Area: Audiology and Speech , Further Areas J. Perelló J. Perelló Facultad de Medicina, Salamanca, España Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Folia Phoniatr Logop (1993) 45 (2): 96–98. https://doi.org/10.1159/000266232 Article history Published Online: December 09 2009 Content Tools Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation J. Perelló; The Break of the Singing Voice. Folia Phoniatr Logop 1 February 1993; 45 (2): 96–98. https://doi.org/10.1159/000266232 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsFolia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica Search Advanced Search Keywords: Breaking of the voice, Singing voice, Sonography This content is only available via PDF. 1993Copyright / Drug Dosage / DisclaimerCopyright: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.Drug Dosage: The authors and the publisher have exerted every effort to ensure that drug selection and dosage set forth in this text are in accord with current recommendations and practice at the time of publication. However, in view of ongoing research, changes in government regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to drug therapy and drug reactions, the reader is urged to check the package insert for each drug for any changes in indications and dosage and for added warnings and precautions. This is particularly important when the recommended agent is a new and/or infrequently employed drug.Disclaimer: The statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publishers and the editor(s). The appearance of advertisements or/and product references in the publication is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their effectiveness, quality or safety. The publisher and the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content or advertisements. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.
The influence of changes in middle ear impedance with and without serotympanon on the measurement of evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAE) was investigated in 108 children between 3 and 12 years of age. Children with proven serotympanon never showed good EOAE. In those who only had changes in middle ear impedance without a serotympanon, the decrease in EOAE amplitude was more related to the magnitude of conductive hearing loss than to the change in impedance itself. These results are compared with those of a neonatal screening project in which some of the 532 healthy fullterm newborns showed poor emissions in the first days of life. It seems reasonable to assume that this is due to incomplete pneumatization of the middle ears of these children, especially as a control audiogram later in their lives showed normal hearing thresholds.
We studied the effect occurring in close proximity before the phonation start and give an account of the microdramas taking place upon the glottis immediately before the phonation start in a group of individuals suffering from balbuties (60 children and adolescents from 9 to 14 years of age) and an equally large control group suffering from no such speech defect. In the group of children and adolescents with balbuties only less than 4% of the cases showed undisturbed regular phonation starts, whereas in the control group it was almost as much as 90%.
Recordings were made at the beginning and end of workdays of teachers who experience vocal fatigue (n = 22) and those who do not experience fatigue (n = 17). Those who experienced fatigue were recorded on days in which they did and did not fatigue. Both groups evaluated their vocal characteristics, each time they made a recording. Subsequently, a listener panel evaluated the same characteristics from the recordings. Both groups estimated the amount and characteristics of their talking time, completed a psychological evaluation and provided medical histories. The authors interpret the data obtained as indicating that the vocal characteristics of teachers who fatigue and those who do not fatigue are similar on days the former group does not fatigue and that the two groups are similar in the amount and loudness of their talking time, at work and at home. However, teachers who fatigue tend to spend more time in activities that appear to be vocally demanding and are more likely to perceive situations as being anxiety producing. Teachers who fatigue tend to be in good health, but have had more hearing problems and allergies than their colleagues and more of their family members have had voice problems.
The differences of sensorimotor (global) and motor aphasias using electrophysiological recordings of cortical regions after different acoustic stimuli are described. For appreciation of the auditory perception ability of patients with aphasia slow auditory evoked potentials were recorded from temporal regions, after stimulation with tone, white noise, and word stimuli. For the global aphasia group (with speech comprehension lesion) normal cortical complexes were not recorded. These results could contribute to the discrimination of the two main types of aphasia (global and motor).
The article gives one of the possible explanations of the complex event which may be registered when recording the vibrations from the thyroid cartilage in ventral-dorsal direction during phonation and approximately in two octaves of the modal voice. The alternating displacement of the vibrating thyroid cartilage is caused apparently by the alternating increase and decrease in the resulting pressure force acting upon the vocal folds. For the time being the adduced hypothesis does not take into consideration specific reflex activity, in spite of the fact that it can probably be expected with lesions of the nervous system on the basis of the typically changed manifestations.
Word-initial samples of fricative [s] preceding vowels [a:], [ae:], [e:], [i:], [u:], [o:], and [y:] in Finnish words were studied with the self-organizing map. An acoustic map was first calculated from speech samples of women without speech disorders, and then the [s] samples were measured on this map. In all 10 subjects the [s] samples preceding the rounded vowels [u:] and [o:] clearly differed from the samples in front of unrounded [a:], [ae:], [e:], and [i:]. The coarticulatory phenomena observed on the map were due to changes in the composition and stability of the fricative spectrum.
Cepstral coefficients calculated out of a linear prediction have been used to discriminate two groups of 19 control children and 12 patients with velar impairment. French vowels /a/, /i/, /u/ had been studied using the cepstral coefficients. Vowels /i/ and /u/ appeared to be efficient to perform the separation on acoustic grounds. A 100% recognition score can be reached when the two vowels are considered together. Modifications of the cepstrums dealing with velar incompetence are also discussed. A way to make an automatic grading of the pathology is finally presented.
We present 18 children with velocardiofacial syndrome. A palatal or a submucous cleft was observed in 10 patients, while 8 had no cleft. Seven patients had minor anomalies in the CT scan, but their significance is unclear. These anomalies as well as structural cardiac malformations occurred more often in the non-cleft patients. Cleft palate and velopharyngeal insufficiency were not the only causes of speech problems in these children. In the velocardiofacial syndrome speech disorder should be recognized and carefully analyzed with phoniatric and neuropsychological methods.
Speech was analyzed about 1 year postoperatively in 30 patients with cleft lip and palate who were the first ones to undergo late closure of the hard palate in Gothenburg, Sweden. Fourteen had bilateral and 16 had unilateral clefts. Soft palate closure had been performed at the mean age of 8 months, and the hard palate was closed at the mean age of 8 years with a range of 7-11 years. Imitated and spontaneous speech was analyzed at an average of 15 months after palatal repair. Six percent had moderate to severe hypernasal speech and 23% had retraction of dental consonants. No glottal articulation was found. Hoarseness and deviant s articulation were frequent. For 6 of the patients the same speech analysis was also made 1-3 months postoperatively. At this time there was no change in the speech of these 6 children compared with preoperative speech. Thus, the closure of the palate did not improve the speech directly. The improvement of the speech seems to be a gradual process.
Tape recordings before and after successful voice therapy from 174 subjects with non-organic voice disorders (functional dysphonia) were analysed by long-time averaged voice spectrograms (LTAS). In female as well as in male voices there was a statistically significant increase in level in the first formant region of the spectra. In the female voices there was also an increase in level in the region of the fundamental. The LTAS were compared to the results of a perceptual evaluation of the voice qualities by a small group of expert listeners. There was no significant change of the LTAS in voices with negligible amelioration after therapy. In the voices, where the change after therapy was perceptually rated to be considerable, the LTAS showed only an increase in intensity, but the general configuration of the spectral envelope remained unchanged. There was only a weakly positive correlation between the quality ratings and parameters of the spectra.
Kinematic recordings of orofacial movements by means of electromagnetic articulography were performed in an akinetic-rigid Parkinsonian patient presenting with intermittent speech freezing in diadochokinesis tasks (rapid repetitions of the syllable /ta/). During freezing periods the patient produced a sustained /a/ instead of the required consonant-vowel sequences. The underlying articulatory trajectories were characterized by repetition rates amounting to 8-10 Hz concomitant with reduced movement amplitudes. Obviously, the undershooting of articulatory gestures failed to establish a sufficient occlusion of the vocal tract giving rise to the perceived speech freezing. In contrast, preserved diadochokinesis occurred at frequencies of 4-6 Hz. Most probably, the increased articulatory repetition rate reflects a pacing of orofacial movements by released tremor oscillations. Due to slowing of articulatory movements spastic dysarthrics can also present with missing syllabic modulation during oral diadochokinesis. The results of the articulographic recordings demonstrate the different pathophysiology of Parkinsonian freezing.
Although the usefulness of speech rehabilitation in disorders such as asphasia is now recognized, many clinicians estimate that speech treatments for dysarthrics are of limited value. The conceptual approach to dysarthrias is a physiological approach that emphasizes the component-by-component analysis of the peripheral speech mechanism. The selection and sequencing of treatment procedures follow directly from the physiological nature and severity of involvement in each component.
