Louisa Traser1,2,3, Peter Birkholz4, Tabea Viktoria Flügge3,5, Robert Kamberger6, Michael Burdumy3,7, Bernhard Richter1,3, Jan Gerrit Korvink8, Matthias Echternach1,3. 1. Institute of Musicians' Medicine, Freiburg University Medical Center, Germany. 2. Department of Otolaryngology, Freiburg University Medical Center, Germany. 3. Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Germany. 4. Institute of Acoustics and Speech Communication, Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany. 5. Department of Craniomaxillofacial Surgery, Freiburg University Medical Center, Germany. 6. Laboratory of Simulation, Department of Microsystems Engineering-IMTEK, University of Freiburg, Germany. 7. Department of Medical Physics, Radiology, Freiburg University Medical Center, Germany. 8. Institute of Microstructure Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
Abstract
Purpose: Recently, efforts have been made to investigate the vocal tract using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Due to technical limitations, teeth were omitted in many previous studies on vocal tract acoustics. However, the knowledge of how teeth influence vocal tract acoustics might be important in order to estimate the necessity of implementing teeth in vocal tract models. The aim of this study was therefore to estimate the effect of teeth on vocal tract acoustics. Method: The acoustic properties of 18 solid (3-dimensional printed) vocal tract models without teeth were compared to the same 18 models including teeth in terms of resonance frequencies (fRn). The fRn were obtained from the transfer functions of these models excited by white noise at the glottis level. The models were derived from MRI data of 2 trained singers performing 3 different vowel conditions (/i/, /a/, and /u/) in speech and low-pitched and high-pitched singing. Results: Depending on the oral configuration, models exhibiting side cavities or side branches were characterized by major changes in the transfer function when teeth were implemented via the introduction of pole-zero pairs. Conclusions: To avoid errors in modeling, teeth should be included in 3-dimensional vocal tract models for acoustic evaluation. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5386771.
Purpose: Recently, efforts have been made to investigate the vocal tract using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Due to technical limitations, teeth were omitted in many previous studies on vocal tract acoustics. However, the knowledge of how teeth influence vocal tract acoustics might be important in order to estimate the necessity of implementing teeth in vocal tract models. The aim of this study was therefore to estimate the effect of teeth on vocal tract acoustics. Method: The acoustic properties of 18 solid (3-dimensional printed) vocal tract models without teeth were compared to the same 18 models including teeth in terms of resonance frequencies (fRn). The fRn were obtained from the transfer functions of these models excited by white noise at the glottis level. The models were derived from MRI data of 2 trained singers performing 3 different vowel conditions (/i/, /a/, and /u/) in speech and low-pitched and high-pitched singing. Results: Depending on the oral configuration, models exhibiting side cavities or side branches were characterized by major changes in the transfer function when teeth were implemented via the introduction of pole-zero pairs. Conclusions: To avoid errors in modeling, teeth should be included in 3-dimensional vocal tract models for acoustic evaluation. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5386771.
Authors: Peter Birkholz; Steffen Kürbis; Simon Stone; Patrick Häsner; Rémi Blandin; Mario Fleischer Journal: Sci Data Date: 2020-08-05 Impact factor: 6.444