Morphologic Differences in the Vocal Tract Resonance Cavities of Voice Professi...

• Author(s): Sandra M. Rua Ventura ; Diamantino Rui S. Freitas ; Isabel Maria A. P. Ramos ; João Manuel R. S. Tavares
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10216/65458
• Origin: Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto
• Subject(s): Ciências Tecnológicas
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The processes that take place during singing and acting are complex. However morphological and dynamic studies of the vocal tracts during speech have been gaining greater attention, mainly due to the rapid technical advances being made with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and image analysis and processing techniques. Objectives/Hypothesis and methods: Our aim is to describe the morphological differences in the vocal tract resonance cavities among voice professionals by means of MRI, and with the three-dimensional models built up from the MRI data compare the volumes calculated for the whole vocal tract and its major resonance cavities. Study design: Prospective study. Results: The images acquired during the spoken and singing tasks, provided morphological information about the whole vocal tract cavity and also its two major resonance cavities: the oral and the pharynx cavities; differences were observed in the volumes measured during the production of some vowels. Conclusions: The morphological differences found in the singing voices indicated an increase in the oral cavity volume, resulting in an increase in the overall volumes measured. In the acting voices, both the resonance cavities of the vocal tract contributed to the differences measured.