Abstract
The piriform fossae are the 2 pear-shaped cavities lateral to the laryngeal vestibule at the lower end of the vocal tract. They act acoustically as side-branches to the main tract, resulting in a spectral zero in the output of the human voice. This study investigates their spectral role by comparing numerical and experimental results of MRI-based 3D printed Vocal Tracts, for which a new experimental method (based on room acoustics) is introduced. The findings support results in the literature: the piriform fossae create a spectral trough in the region 4–5 kHz and act as formants repellents. Moreover, this study extends those results by demonstrating numerically and perceptually the impact of having large piriform fossae on the sung output.
Highlights
The piriform fossae, or piriform sinuses, owe their name to their pear shape
The first subsection benchmarks the new experimental method against theoretical predictions and numerical simulations of the acoustic modes of a cylinder, the second compares the experimental and numerical results of MRI-based Vocal Tracts and the last one assesses the spectral impact of the piriform fossae on the human singing voice
We investigated the spectral impact of the piriform fossae on the human singing voice, on MRI-based Vocal Tracts, both experimentally (3D printed VTs) and numerically
Summary
The piriform fossae, or piriform sinuses, owe their name to their pear shape. This pair of bilateral cavities is located posteriorly at the bottom of the pharynx, just above the oesophageal entrance. The singer’s formant cluster is a well-established feature of the acoustic output from the VT of trained opera singers that is independent of the vowel being sung [3]. It is commonly described as a cluster of F3, F4 and F5. This suggests that the singer’s formant cluster is related to a region of the VT that does not change greatly in shape with vowel articulation; anatomically, this relates to the hypopharyngeal cavities [1]. The epilarynx (laryngeal vestibule and laryngeal ventricles) does not change greatly in shape across vowels whereas Painter [4] claims that if the volume of the piriform fossae cannot be actively enlarged, action of the inferior pharyngeal constrictor muscles, posteroanterior expansion of the epilarynx, or raising the larynx can actively reduce their volume
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