laryngeal synergy

8/11/2019 Laryngeal Synergy

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2/6

A

4

4

0

eond-

cricothyroid

40

4:.4.tfr. *. lM*..),-a

lateral

I0V

4 W O W - .- .. I L 4 , J

.U u r

vocalis

00V

audio

.

ii

CLEARING

LOTTAL PLOSIVE

MAGINARY [h]

THROAT

0

econd

cricothyroid

L.

wpnw4gsrd 1.

lateral

GOAV

L

vocalis

44V

_

'

_

il

rI ri

.

Vowel {o]

udio

Subject C

SPIRATE ATTACK

OFT ATTACK

FIG. I.

VARIOUS ATTACKS, FEMALE

Voics. TOP LINE SHOWS FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY (F0)

WHICH THE EAR PERCEIVES AS PITCH. A, IS ON THE TREBLE STAFF. NEXT THREE LINES ARE

EMG OF CIUCOTHYROID, LATERAL CRICO ARYTENOID, AND VOCALIS MUSCLES. BOTrOM LINE

(AUDIO) IS THE MICROPHONE SIGNAL. IT SHOWS THE INTENSITY, WHICH IS PERCFIVED AS

LOUDNESS. NOTE RESEMBLANCE OF GLOTTAL PLOSIVE TO CLEARING THROAT.

uate the energy potentials, especially

when the microphonic effect is greater

than the static. The higher voices are

more susceptible to this defect, and

both Subject C and Subject R had a

good deal of it. In the case of the latter

almost the entire vocalis record was

unreadable.

In spite of these hazards, a great deal

of data was accumulated, which will be

reported in this and the next two arti-

cles. In addition to the intrinsic muscles

mentioned, five extrinsic muscles were

also investigated: the digastric, thyro-

hyoid, sternohyoid, palatopharyngeus,

and levator veil palatini. The behavior

of these muscles will be reported in the

final article of the series.

At first glance the EMG data seem

to be the same for all the muscles, es-

pecially the intrinsic muscles. Anyone

hoping to find clearly that one muscle

does something specific (for example,

produces chest voice) and another mus-

cle does something else (like produc-

ing falsetto) will be disappointed. The

physiology of the larynx is not that

simple. When one muscle works, most

of the others do also. As analysis of the

data progresses, the logical concepts of

physiology based upon the location of

the muscles are confirmed, and in sub-

tle ways muscular independence can be

traced, particularly with reference to

registration. But it would give a wrong

impression to present these findings

first.

Laryngeal synergy in the attack

EMG of the glottal plosive show all

the muscles contracting somewhat ex-

cessively before the attack, and drop-

ping off to the effort needed for that

particular tone as it is being sustained.

The muscles in every case show activity

before the actual sound is heard. Some-

times the amount of time between the

first sign of energy in a muscle and the

beginning of the tone is longer than

that of other muscles. This is often the

case with the cricothyroids, which

stretch the cords, and set up the appro-

priate tension for the desired pitch

before the tone is attacked. The differ-

ence in time between the onset of en-

ergy potentials in the EMG and the on-

set of sound in the audio recording is

expressed as: At. The symbol s is

used in mathematics to stand for some

significant difference, and t stands

for time. The word latency is also

used for this.

When a subject is asked to use

marked glottal plosives, his at may be

rather long, because he is selfconscious

about it. However, it was found, espe-

cially when attacks were made in rapid

succession, that the latency period was

no greater for the glottal plosive than

for other attacks. Four different attacks

were performed repeatedly by each

subject, over 250 in all.

The glottal plosive (often called the

glottal stroke ) and the aspirate at-

tacks need not be defined again. The

soft attack is one in which the tone

does not reach full power until a few

tenths of a second after its onset. All

four subjects in this study prefer the

imaginary [hi, which is like an aspi-

rate, except that the amount of time

and breath wasted is so little that no

aspirate is heard. A pneumotacho-

graphic study of the imaginary [h]

appeared in The NATS Bulletin in

1964 (Vennard and Isshiki). EMG of

different attacks are shown in Figs. 1

and 2.

aryngeal synergy in the vowels

The difference between the vowels

is not seen as clearly in the intrinsic,

musculature as it is in the extrinsic.

That is to say, vowel pronunciation is

more a function of the resonators than

it is of the vibrator. Isshiki noted in

1959 that if a subject intends to sine

the vowels [i] [u]

[a]

all at the same

loudness, he will actually produce an

[al with much greater intensity than

the others, because he will produce the

same subglottal pressure for all three

vowels, and the greater mouth opening

for [a] will

allow more sound to emerge.

If, however, the subject will watch a

sound level meter and bring all the

vowels to the same intensity, it will re-

quire greater pressure for the vowels [i]

and

[u.

(The ear interprets intensity

as loudness, though in this ease the

difference between the vowels is prob-

ably not perceived as being as great

as the intensity differential actually is.)

This was confirmed in the present

study, in which Subject V sang 75

sustained tones with changes of vowel

(see Fig. 3). Subglottal pressure is

changed by differences in muscular re-

[ lease turn the page.]

OCTOBER 1970

71


3/6

F

o

3

----.-.--.---.---.--

0 3

cricothyroid

________

0second

lateral

15 1V

-,_._ 4o

1 - ]

vocalis

4 001 j V

-_

audio

- -

tz._.__

COUGH

LOTTAL PLOSIVE

IMAGINARY-h]

3

second

I 5O pV

ii

l 5 O jV

- - ------

OIiV

F

cricothyroid

lateral

vo cat is

sistance to the breath flow. When effort

was the same for all three vowels, [a]

was much more ample. When the sub-

ject kept all the vowels at the same

level, the EMG of all three muscles

were greater for [i] and

[u].

With these

trained singers the larynx did not ap-

pear to behave differently for different

vowels unless the singer took pains to

keep them all at the same volume.

However, with abnormal production

some differences between vowels did

o c c u r .

Laryngeal s

nergy

in changes

of

pitch and intensity

Hundreds of scales on different

vowels and with varieties of registra-

tion and of production technics were

performed. They

will

be reported in

detail in future articles. Subject V sang

octave leaps, ascending and descend-

ing, with and without portarnento. Each

vocalise was done six times. It is well

known that the cricothyroids stretch

the vocal cords for higher pitches, and

so the change in cricothyroid activity

was no surprise. However, the lateral

and vocalis made the same change.

(See Fig. 4.)

The upper line of the graph shows

and it shows changes in volume. It is

similarly correlated with energy in the

three muscles.

Lary

ngeal synergy in the vibrato

It is apparent in all the EMG that

the vibrato, as heard in the pitch and

intensity of the tone, is following a vi-

brato in the muscles themselves at an

interval of about 0.05 second. The only

muscle which does not show a vibrato

is the interarytenoid (see Fig.

5 .

This

muscle adducts the vocal folds, and

holds them together during phonation.

Other muscles fluctuate, and some-

times even become inactive during pho-

nation, but if this happened in the in-

terarytenoid the glottis would open and

phonation would cease. The interary-

tenoid increases activity with the other

muscles for greater phonatory efforts

(either in loudness or in altitude of

pitch) but it never falls below the

minimum needed to keep the vocal

cords together. Vibrato was found at

least part of the time in all the other

muscles studied, including the extrin-

s ic .

Each subject was asked to sing sus-

tained tones with normal vibrato, slow

marcato, rapid marcato, and chuckling.

Three more or less distinct rates were

discovered, as shown in Table I. In-

cidentally, none of the subjects had a

vibrato rate of

6-7.75 per second, such

as Seashore found in the singers of

Caruso s day.

The normal rate of the vibrato in-

fluences the tempo at which voluntary

marcato can be performed. Examples

of staccato, slow marcato, fast mar-

cato, and chuckling are shown in Fig.

6. The slow marcato has three vibrati

pitch, or fundamental frequency (ab-

breviated 17

). When the descending

skip was made without portamento all

three muscles showed a sudden de-

crease in exertion, and in 0.1 second

the pitch had dropped an octave. When

there was a portamento the muscles

diminished their effort more gradually,

especially the vocalis, and it took more

like 0.4 second for the pitch to drop

all the way. The lower line of the graph

is the record made by the microphone,

a u d io

Vowel [o] ASPIRATE ATTACK

OFT ATTACK

ubject V

FIG. 2:

V A RIOU S

ATTACKS

MALE

Voicn.

NOTE RESEMBLANCE OF (;IOTrAL PLOSIVF. TO

COUGHI NG.

C

F .

_--

C 4

_-_------.-----

3

-

sec_ _

cricothyroid

I50pV

I

lateral

I 5 p V

-

-* 4

e

vocalis

% NSSSNdH

a u di o

- -

- -

Vowel [a]

O

PORTAMENTO

ORTAMENTO

Subject

FIG. 3:

CHANGES OF PITCH

W I T H A N D W I T H O U T P O R T A M E N T O . T H E R E R E A L LY I S A PO R T A -

ME NTO IN BOTH CASE S, BUT ONE IS SO BRIE F AN D AT SUCH A L OW VOL UME AS SE E N IN TH E AU-

DI O GRAPH) T H AT I T IS NOT PERC EI VED.

1 8

HE NATS BULLETIN


4/6

F. C4

second

cricothyroid

5 V

lateral

W

*Wt1N **j

vocalis

audio

u a

iJ

owels

J J L

[i]

I

U I

ubject V

FIG. 4: Caias O F

V O W E L ,

w n u

A N D wrrsiou r

C O N T R O L O F V O L U M E . S EE D I SC U S S IO N D S

T E X T. T H E A T T E M PT T O H O L D D O W N T H E V O L U M E O F

[a]

IN THE R]Glff HAND GRAPH C AUSES

THE

VIBRATO TO DISAPPEAR (SEE PITCH GRAPH AT

ro p , F0).

F

o e c o n

lateral

li y

]

interarytenoid

_________

audio

Vowel

a]

STRAIGHT

IBRATO

ubject V

FIG 5:

PR ESEN C E A N D A B SEN C E or

VIB R A TO. VIB R A TO C A N B E SEEN IN LA TER A L C R 1 -

COARYTENOID MUSCLE, AS IN ALL OTHER MUSCLES, EXCEPT INTERARYTENOID.

Normal Vibrato Fast

arcato Chuckle

Subject R

5.25/second

6-7/second 10-11/second

Subject C 5.75/second 6.25-7.5/second

7.5-9/second

Subject M 5/second

5 6/second

10-10.5/second

Subject V

5/second

6.5-7/second

7.5-8.5/second

T A B L E 1 :

R A T E S O F P U L S A T IO N I N V O C A L T O N E .

for each accent, at the normal rate of

the vibrato, which in this case is 5/sec.

When the marcato is done entirely by

breath impulses the pitch is more

steady. When the laryngeal muscles

contribute to the marcato, there is a

drop in pitch before each accent. This

is not readily perceptible to the ear,

because it is very brief and there is a

drop in loudness at the same time. In

the rapid marcato, the vibrato is made

to conform to a faster frequency. 7/sec

here. The chuckle is still more rapid.

8/sec.

The same rates apply to melisma, or

florid ornamentation. Ordinary singing

is likely to assume tempi in which the

normal vibrato rate will come out even,

but demands for accelerandi will speed

this up. All four subjects performed

rapid scales and arpeggios in various

ways: as legato as possible, marcato

using abdominally produced breath im-

pulses, and with chuckling technic. It

was assumed that attempting to per-

form the runs in the manner of chuck-

ling could speed them up. This suc-

ceeded in only a few cases, and is

probably used best only for brief orna-

ments, like turns and mordents. Most

of the florid work, including runs from

Handel's Messiah, were performed at

the fast vibrato rate. Subject C pro-

duced a good trill at

6.5/sec

her fast

marcato frequency.

Vibrato did not appear continuously

in all the muscles, but when it did the

intrinsic all synchronized in this re-

spect. The same was true also of the

extrinsic muscles. At first it appeared

that the idea of diadochokinesis, of an-

tagonistic muscles working alternately

to produce trembling, was not sup-

ported by this study. However, in one

instance, shown in Fig. 7, the electrodes

originally placed in the cncothyroid

slipped out and registered the energy

potentials of the sternohyoid instead.

Diadochokinesis was discovered be-

tween this muscle, which is extrinsic,

and the lateral cricoarytenoid, which is

intrinsic. The vocalis was not very ac-

tive at this moment, but to the extent

that it showed vibrato it synchronized

with the lateral.

A check of vibrati registered in all

the muscles studied showed that while

the energy peaks in the vibrato of the

intrinsic muscles

pre eded

the high

phases of the pitch vibrato, the energy

peaks in the vibrato of the extrinsic

muscles

oin ided

with the high phases

of the pitch vibrato. This behavior was

not completely consistent, but at least

eighty percent of the vibrato peaks con-

formed to this pattern. In other words,

the vibrato of the tone followed the

vibrato of the intrinsic muscles, and

between each two peaks in the vibrato

pattern of the intrinsic muscles there

was a reaction in the form of a vibrato

peak in the extrinsic muscles.

ummary

Four professional singers, two so-

pranos, a tenor, and a bass, participated

in an electromyographic investigation

of the cricothyroid, lateral cricoary-

tenoid, and vocalis muscles. In one

subject the interarytenoid was in-

cluded. Five extrinsic muscles were

also studied.

Scales were performed throughout a

range from C

to E

. There were

(roughly) 6 four-octave scales, 75

three-octave scales, 75 two-octave

scales, 150 scales of an octave and a

fourth,

375

one-octave scales in various

registers, vowels, and singing technics.

Sustained tones were sung for a va-

riety of purposes. There were over

250 in various registers, 200 swelltones

(messa di voce), 400 using assorted

technics and vowels,

250

brief tones

using different attacks.

In addition 125 florid or melismatic

vocalises were performed. Several voice

[Please turn the page ]

OCTOBER

197

9


5/6

G 3

F

r,

lateral

vocalis

audio

-- -- --- -

STACCATO

D

1- .

3

second

lateral

vocalis

audio

RAPID MARCATO

F 1

Isecond

lateral

irtte rarytenoid

audio

-.

A

( . 1 3

MARCATO

i e cond

s o a v

15IsV

CHUCKLING

03

o

second

5 O O V

m im

l .r.w9.

r E

5 O p V

-

t.. . ;

FIG 6: Viou

RATES OF PU

SATION. NOT

THAT

TIM

SCALE IS DO

BLED TO FAC

I T A TE C O U N T IN

OF FREQUE

CIES. CHUC

LING

MAY B

CALLED AN E

CEPTION TO TH

RULE THAT TH

INTERARYTENO

NEVER SHOW

VIBRATO.

Acn

ALLY THE R

LAXING OF TH

MUSCLE SEVE

AL TIMES PE

SECOND IS WHA

GIVES THE FEEL

ING OF ASP

RATES, HA-u

HA, ALTHOUG

BOTH THE PITC

GRAPH (F,) AN

THE AUDIO GRAP

SHOW THA

COMPLETE SEP

ARATION (AS I

STACCATO DOE

NO T TAKE PLAC

second

s a a v

... .-

I50,V

A,

Vowel [a].

APID MARCATO

HUCKLING

A4..

'0

sternohyoid

av

lateral

vocal is1

audio

Vowel [a]

ubject C

-7G

7:

DI.thoclIoKlNIsls BLTWI-LN INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC

Muscuis

NOTE THAT BOTH

TIME- AND AM PI ITUDE-SCALES ARE DOUBLE THOSE OF THE FIRST FIVE FIGURES. THIS IS TO

MAKE THE VIBRATI EASIER TO SEE.

Subject C

WAS ALTERNATELYINHIBITING AND RELEASING

HER VIBRATO. PLACING A VERTICAL. STRAIGHT EDGE IN THE GRAPHS WILL SHOW THAT PEAKS

IN THE STERNOHYOID GRAPH COINCIDE WITH PEAKS IN THE PITCH GRAPH (F0). THEY

COME JUST AFTER THE PEAKS IN THE LATERAL CRICOARYTENOID GRAPH. PEAKS IN THE

VIBRATO OF INTRINSIC MUSCLES ALWAYS PRECEDE PEARS IN THE PITCH-VIBRATO. THERE

IS

RI FMISH IN THE VOCALIS GRAPH AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TONE.

Ti us

IS AN ARTIFACT

OF THE 1-QUIP MENT AND DOES NOT REPRESENT THE BEHAVIOR OF THE MUSCLE,

Subject V

building exercises were sung, over 225

examples. Samples of normal whisper

ing, stage whispering, and vocal fry

totaled over 125.

Since not more than three muscle

could be studied simultaneously, the

above totals must be assigned over one

half to intrinsic and the balance to

extrinsic investigations.

The most readily observable fac

was synergy in which all the muscle

showed more or less parallel EMG. The

vibrato appeared at least part of the

time in all

muscles, the intrinsic mus

cles alternating with the extrinsic in d

adochokinesis. The interarytenoid wa

an exception. It showed no vibrato, and

there was a minimum level of intensity

below which it could not fall if phona

tion were to continue.

O

REFERENCES

BASMAJIAN,

I. V., and G. STRcK :

A new

bipolar electrode for electromyography

Journal of Applied Physiology, 17, 849

1962 .

FAABORG-ANDERSON, KNUD:

Electromy-

ographic investigation of intrinsic laryngea

muscles in humans. Copenhagen, Acta

2 0

HE NATS BULLETIN


6/6

Physiologica Scandinavica, Vol. 140, Sup.

140, 1957.

HIR.uo

M I N O R U , J O H N O H A L A a nd TI M

SMITH:

Current techniques in obtaining

EMG data. Working Papers in Phonetics,

7 , U CL A ,

Nov. 1967.

HIRAN0 MIN0RU and 101114

OHAL A: Use of

hooked-wire electrodes for electromyog-

raphy of the intrinsic laryngeal muscles.

Journal of Speech and H ear ing R esearch

in press).

HIP.ANo,

M. W.

VENNARD and I. OHALA;

R egulat ion of R egis ter , P itch and Inten-

s i ty of Voice ; an e lect romyographic in-

vestigation of intrinsic laryngeal muscles.

Folia Phoniatrica, Vol. 22,

No. 1,

1970

HIR0T0 IKucHIRo MINoRu HIRANO Y0RI-

KAZU

TOYO GUM I an d

T A X E M O T O S H I N :

Electromyographic investigation of the in-

trinsic laryngeal muscles related to speech

sounds. Annals of O tology, Rhinology and

Laryngology, 76, No. 4, 861-872, 1967.

HIR 0T0 , e t a l . a bove) : A new method o f

placement of a needle electrode in the in-

trinsic laryngeal m uscles for electromyog-

raphy. O to-rhino-laryngology Clinic, Kyo -

to, 55, 499-504, 1 9 6 2

lssl-UKI NoBuinKo:

M emoirs of research

center of voice science. Kyoto, Oto-rhino-

laryngology Clinic, 52,

1 9 5 9

K A T S U K I ,

YA suji: The function of the pho-

natory muscles. Japanese Journal of Phys-

iology, 1, 29-36, 1950.

VENNARD , WILLIAM, and

NoBumKo

I 5 S H I X I :

Coup de glot te , a misund erstood expres-

sion. THE NA TS BU LLETIN , Feb. 1964.

Th is research, the first in a series of dc c-

tromyographic studies, was partially support-

ed by the National Institutes of Health,

United Sta tes Department of H eal th , Educa-

t ion, and W elfare . The elec tromyography

was done a t the Univers i ty of Cali fornia at

Lo s An geles , in the phonetics Laboratory,

presided over by PETER LAD EvOGED. Support-

ing aerodyna mic studies were carried out at

the Ins t itu te of Laryngology and Voice D is -

orders, HANS VON LEDEN, director, affiliated

with the University of Southern California.

N41NOR11 JIIRANI), M.D.,

is now in the De-

partment of Otolaryngology, School of Medi-

cine, University of Kurume, Kyushu, Japan.

/l was in the United States on a Fuibright

hange,

performing

research at tire Insti-

uie of Laryngology and Voice Disorders (of-

i iated with USC) and at the Phonetics De-

partment, UCLA .

JOHN

011A, PH.D.,

is now in the De-

partment of Linguistics at the University of

California at Berkeley. He was a graduate

student at UCLA and assisted in the re-

,arch of Dr. Hirano,

after

which he spent

a year at the Research Institute of Logo-

t eJics and Phoniatrics. School of Medicine,

f ,zinersity of Tokyo.

WILLIAM VENNAR D, M. M., is a past presi-

dent of NA TS. He is chairman of the Voice

Department of the University of Southern

California and has taught summer sessions

at the Meadow Brook School and the BIos-

rnFestival S chool.

SEE YOU IN D LL S

NATS

PLACEMENT

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?4 et4

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[Continued front

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O

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1

laryngeal synergy

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