Theoretical Modeling and Experimental High-Speed Imaging of Elongated Vocal Folds

In this paper, the role of vocal fold elongation in governing glottal movement dynamics was theoretically and experimentally investigated. A theoretical model was first proposed to incorporate vocal fold elongation into the two-mass model. This model predicted the direct and nondirect components of the glottal time series as a function of vocal fold elongation. Furthermore, high-speed digital imaging was applied in excised larynx experiments to visualize vocal fold vibrations with variable vocal fold elongation from -10% to 50% and subglottal pressures of 18- and 24-cm H₂O. Comparison between theoretical model simulations and experimental observations showed good agreement. A relative maximum was seen in the nondirect component of glottal area, suggesting that an optimal elongation could maximize the vocal fold vibratory power. However, sufficiently large vocal fold elongations caused the nondirect component to approach zero and the direct component to approach a constant. These results showed that vocal fold elongation plays an important role in governing the dynamics of glottal area movement and validated the applicability of the proposed theoretical model and high-speed imaging to investigate laryngeal activity.