Laryngeal muscular control of voice production and quality

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管人们普遍认为声带振动和由此产生的语音质量主要取决于声带硬度和几何形状，但调节声带硬度和几何形状的神经肌肉机制仍不清楚。目前还没有系统的，定量的研究如何以及在何种程度上激活喉肌，特别是环甲肌（CT）和甲杓肌（TA）的相互作用，影响声带的不同层的刚度，更重要的是，如何不同的刚度条件下分层声带影响产生的振动，声学和语音质量。喉肌激活也会导致声带几何形状的同时变化，其对发声的影响尚不清楚。更好地了解喉肌激活如何调节声带硬度和几何形状以及由此产生的声学和语音质量可能有助于临床医生设计和选择治疗，或作为术中监测和评估治疗进展的一部分。这种认识的不足主要是由于缺乏一个适当的神经肌肉喉模型进行这样的系统和定量研究。此外，虽然有许多研究集中在语音产生或语音质量，很少有研究探索生理和感知之间的因果关系。在这项研究中，我们提出在最近开发的离体灌注活体人喉模型中研究语音控制的肌肉过程（Berke等人，2012），使用我们新设计的实验方法（Zhang等人，2012），其允许参数化肌肉刺激和观察其对虚拟活体人类喉部中的发声的影响。计算研究也提出了促进解释和概念化的实验数据。在这里描述的研究中要解决的两个主要问题是：1）正常发声所需的刚度和几何条件是什么，以及它们是如何通过喉肌激活来实现的？喉肌激活的左右不对称性（通常在嗓音障碍中观察到）如何影响声带振动、声学效果和嗓音质量？

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although it has been well accepted that vocal fold vibration and the resulting voice quality critically depend on vocal fold stiffness and geometry, the neuromuscular mechanisms regulating vocal fold stiffness and geometry still remain unclear. There has been no systematic, quantitative investigation of how and to what extent activation of laryngeal muscles, especially the interaction of the cricothyroid (CT) and thyroarytenoid (TA) muscles, affects the stiffness of the different layers of the vocal folds, and more importantly, how different stiffness conditions within the layered vocal fold affect the resulting vibration, acoustics, and voice quality. Laryngeal muscle activation also leads to simultaneous changes in vocal fold geometry, the influence of which on phonation is unclear. A better understanding of how laryngeal muscle activation regulates vocal fold stiffness and geometry and the resulting acoustics and voice quality may be useful for clinicians in the design and selection of treatment, or as part of intraoperative monitoring and assessment of treatment progress. This deficiency of understanding is largely due to the lack of an appropriate neuromuscular larynx model for conducting such systematic and quantitative investigations. Moreover, although there have been many studies focusing on either voice production or voice quality, there has been very little research exploring the cause-effect relation between physiology and perception. In this research, we propose to investigate the muscular processes of voice control in a recently-developed ex-vivo perfused living human larynx model (Berke et al., 2012), using our newly designed experimental approach (Zhang et al., 2012) that allows parametric muscle stimulation and observation of its influence on phonation in a virtually living human larynx. Computational studies are also proposed to facilitate interpretation and conceptualization of the experimental data. The two main questions to be addressed in the studies described here are: 1) What are the stiffness and geometry conditions that are required for normal phonation and how are they achieved through laryngeal muscle activation? and 2) How do left-right asymmetry in laryngeal muscle activation (commonly observed in voice disorders) affect vocal fold vibration, acoustics, and voice quality?