Vocal tract shape and acoustic adjustments of children during phonation into narrow flow-resistant tubes

Abstract

The goal of the study is to quantify the salient vocal tract acoustic, subglottal acoustic, and vocal tract physiological characteristics during phonation into a narrow flow-resistant tube with 2.53 mm inner diameter and 124 mm length in typically developing vocally healthy children using simultaneous microphone, accelerometer, and 3D/4D ultrasound recordings. Acoustic measurements included fundamental frequency ($f_o$), first formant frequency ($F_1$), second formant frequency ($F_2$), first subglottal resonance ($F_{\textrm{Sg1}}$), and peak-to-peak amplitude ratio ($P_{\textrm{vt}}$:$P_{\textrm{sg}}$). Physiological measurements included posterior tongue height (D1), tongue dorsum height (D2), tongue tip height (D3), tongue length (D4), oral cavity width (D5), hyoid elevation (D6), pharynx width (D7). All measurements were made on eight boys and ten girls (6–9 years) during sustained /o:/ production at typical pitch and loudness, with and without flow-resistant tube. Phonation with the flow-resistant tube resulted in a significant decrease in $F_1$, $F_2$, and $P_{\textrm{vt}}$:$P_{\textrm{sg}}$ and a significant increase in D2, D3, and $F_{\textrm{Sg1}}$. A statistically significant gender effect was observed for D1, with D1 higher in boys. These findings agree well with reported findings from adults, suggesting common acoustic and articulatory mechanisms for narrow flow-resistant tube phonation. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.