title: Visualisation of hypopharyngeal cavities and vocal-tract acoustic modelling.
abstract: The hypopharyngeal cavities consist of the laryngeal cavity and bilateral piriform fossa, constituting the bottom part of the vocal tract near the larynx. Visualisation of these cavities with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques reveals that during speech, the laryngeal cavity takes the form of a long-neck flask and the piriform fossa takes the form of a goblet of varying shapes: the former diminishes greatly in whispering and the latter disappears during deep inhalation. These cavities have been shown to exert significant acoustic effects at higher frequency spectra. In this study, acoustic experiments were conducted for male and female mechanical vocal tracts with the results that acoustic effects of those cavities determine the frequency spectra above 2 kHz, giving rise to peaks and zeros. An acoustic model of vowel production was proposed with three components: voice source, hypopharyngeal cavities and vocal tract proper, which provides effective means in controlling voice quality and expressing individual vocal characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Phonetics and Phonology Laboratories, UMR7018 CNRS-University of Paris III, Paris, France. khonda@sannet.ne.jp
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: Hironori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takemoto
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adachi
authors.forename: Parham
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mokhtari
authors.forename: Sayoko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takano
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nota
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Masaki
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Jianwu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dang
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007013:Hypopharynx / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000033:anatomy & histology*