Vocal pitch and intensity regulation. A comparative study of electrical activity in the cricothyroid muscle and the airflow rate.

Abstract

THE SCIENTIFIC literature abounds with numerous reports on the control mechanism of vocal pitch and intensity. Certain scientific techniques have established their experimental value in this determination, particularly electromyography of the laryngeal and respiratory muscles and measurements of the airflow rate and the subglottic pressure. Vogelsanger,¹van den Berg,²Ladefoged and McKinney,³Isshiki,⁴and other scientists have studied the relationship between vocal intensity, subglottic pressure, and airflow rate. Faaborg-Anderson,^5,6Katsuki,⁷Zenker and Zenker,⁸and other investigators have accumulated, by electromyography, information on the activities of laryngeal muscles associated with changes in pitch and volume of voice. Vocal pitch and intensity are determined by various physical parameters which are the result of muscle activities during phonation; consequently an investigation of the relation between these physical parameters and the muscle activities should prove of value for a better understanding of the resulting complex vocal manifestations.