Laryngeal muscular control of voice production and quality

描述(申请人提供)：虽然人们已经很好地接受了声带振动和由此产生的声音质量关键取决于声带僵硬和几何形状，但调节声带僵硬和几何形状的神经肌肉机制仍然不清楚。关于喉部肌肉的激活，特别是环甲肌(CT)和甲状旁肌(TA)的相互作用，如何以及在多大程度上影响声带不同层次的僵硬，以及更重要的是，分层声带内不同的僵硬条件如何影响由此产生的振动、声学和声音质量，目前还没有系统的、定量的研究。喉部肌肉的激活也会同时导致声带几何形状的改变，其对发声的影响尚不清楚。更好地了解喉肌肉激活如何调节声带僵硬和几何形状以及由此产生的声学和声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。这种认识的缺失在很大程度上是由于缺乏合适的神经肌肉喉模型来进行这种系统和定量的研究。此外，尽管已经有许多研究集中在发声或声音质量上，但探索生理和知觉之间的因果关系的研究很少。在这项研究中，我们建议使用我们新设计的实验方法(Zhang等人，2012)，在最近开发的体外灌流活人喉模型中研究声音控制的肌肉过程，该方法允许参数肌肉刺激并观察其对虚拟活人喉发声的影响。还建议进行计算研究，以促进对实验数据的解释和概念化。在这里描述的研究中要解决的两个主要问题是：1)正常发声所需的僵硬和几何条件是什么，以及如何通过喉部肌肉的激活来实现这些条件？2)喉部肌肉活动的左右不对称(在嗓音障碍中常见)如何影响声带振动、声学和声音质量？

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?