Postural and muscular effects of upper-limb movements on voicing

Journal of Voice, 2005

The aim of this study was to examine respiratory phasing and loading levels of sternocleidomastoideus (STM), scalenus (SC), and upper trapezius (TR) muscles in vocalization tasks with variation in vocal loudness and pitch. Eight advanced singing students, aged 22 to 28 years, participated. Surface electromyographic (EMG) activity was recorded from STM, SC, and TR. Thorax movement was detected by two strain gauge sensors placed around the upper (upper TX) and lower (lower TX) thorax. A glissando and simplified singing and speaking tasks were performed. Sustained vowels /a:-i-ae-o:/ were sung in a glissando from lowest to highest pitch (mixed voice/falsetto) back to lowest pitch and in short singing sequences at comfortable, low, and high pitches. The same vowels were spoken softly and loudly for about the same length. The subjects inhaled between the vowels. It was concluded that the inspiratory phased STM and SC muscles produced a counterforce to compression of upper TX at high pitches in glissando. STM and SC were activated to higher levels during phonation than in inhalation. As breathing demands were reduced, STM and SC activity was lowered and the respiratory phasing of peak amplitude changed to inhalation. TR contributed to exhalation in demanding singing with long breathing cycles, but it was less active in singing tasks with short breathing cycles and was essentially inactive in simplified speaking tasks.

Journal of Applied Physiology, 2004

To better understand the role of each of the laryngeal muscles in producing vocal fold movement, activation of these muscles was correlated with laryngeal movement during different tasks such as sniff, cough or throat clear, and speech syllable production. Four muscles [the posterior cricoarytenoid, lateral cricoarytenoid, cricothyroid (CT), and thyroarytenoid (TA)] were recorded with bipolar hooked wire electrodes placed bilaterally in four normal subjects. A nasoendoscope was used to record vocal fold movement while simultaneously recording muscle activity. Muscle activation level was correlated with ipsilateral vocal fold angle for vocal fold opening and closing. Pearson correlation coefficients and their statistical significance were computed for each trial. Significant effects of muscle ( P ≤ 0.0005) and task ( P = 0.034) were found on the r (transformed to Fisher's Z′) values. All of the posterior cricoarytenoid recordings related significantly with vocal opening, whereas ...

Anacrusis, 2019

When making music with a choir consisting partly or entirely of amateur singers, the choral conductor must impart pedagogical information across a large group in order to achieve a clear vocal sound and encourage a healthy singing experience. Although it is not possible to give individual, specific feedback to each singer in the choral rehearsal, conductors may be able to influence singers’ breathing patterns through the utilization of rhythmical arm movements. Breathing patterns can be entrained by arm and body movements (Rassler and Raabe 2003), supporting a strong neural coupling between breathing and external temporal patterns (Ebert, Rassler, and Hefter 1999). However, scholars in the fields of singing and physiology have not yet adequately addressed the effect of conducting and arm movements in the regulation of breathing strategies during singing, and how this coordination could contribute to the adoption of healthy breathing strategies by untrained singers (Salomoni, Hoorn, and Hodges 2016). The aim of this study is to examine the transmission of breathing patterns from conductor to singer using arm movements as a common rhythmical sensory input. The study explored this interaction through a singing task and subject response. Participants selected from a university music school were asked to sing a melody while unaccompanied, and along with recorded stimuli: 1) Metronome (after Ebert, Raßler, and Hefter 1999), 2) piano accompaniment, and 3) two videos of a conductor indicating tempo alone, and tempo with breath gestures. In a repetition of the task, subjects were asked to improvise rhythmic arm movements throughout (after Rassler and Raabe 2003). In response to the stimuli, it was shown that singers felt the lowest confidence in preparation to sing during the metronomic beat task and felt most out of breath during the piano-accompanied performance. The rhythmic breathing patterns chosen by participants showed entrainment with patterns in the conducted video stimuli, and participants’ breathing patterns demonstrated a greater level of entrainment during the improvised arm movement segment. We believe this research can help inform choral conductors in their choice of breath-informed gestures utilized in both rehearsal and performance, and could provide conductors with a pedagogical tool for regulating breathing strategies when working with amateur singers.

2010

Laboratory Phonology, 2017

The primary goal of this work is to examine prosodic structure as expressed concurrently through articulatory and manual gestures. Specifically, we investigated the effects of phrase-level prominence (Experiment 1) and of prosodic boundaries (Experiments 2 and 3) on the kinematic properties of oral constriction and manual gestures. The hypothesis guiding this work is that prosodic structure will be similarly expressed in both modalities. To test this, we have developed a novel method of data collection that simultaneously records speech audio, vocal tract gestures (using electromagnetic articulometry) and manual gestures (using motion capture). This method allows us, for the first time, to investigate kinematic properties of body movement and vocal tract gestures simultaneously, which in turn allows us to examine the relationship between speech and body gestures with great precision. A second goal of the paper is thus to establish the validity of this method. Results from two speakers show that manual and oral gestures lengthen under prominence and at prosodic boundaries, indicating that the effects of prosodic structure extend beyond the vocal tract to include body movement. 1

Human Movement Science, 1991

: Peri analysis of upper arms and head mavement may potentially facilitate the understandd .qxxch contra!, but has suffered fram difficult methodological ture. Ta resolve these, the present study employed a new Pacates smah prismatic markers and computes by triangulad to, ma&or mavement of the head and the upper naturalistic interview. Movement analysis was ive mavement extrema ('period analysis') and the ity of each periad. The results showed systematic etween postural sway and vahmtazy movement. Head movement was an upper arm movement, and the dominant arm moved more than movement correlated significantly, with speech rate. ts and classified into 4 kinematic classes, as in far speech praductive functions of body movearms, and their lacus of control.

Experimental Brain Research, 2008

Electromyogram recordings revealed a concurrent contraction of the orbicularis oris, the primary articulator for bilabial stops, when participants executed a precision grip contracting the abductor pollicis brevis, a point motor act contracting the extensor indicis proprius or a curl motor act contracting the Xexor sublimis digitorum (FDS). In contrast, the concurrent contraction of several facial muscles not directly involved in labial articulation was not observed during these acts. The results converge both with observations of sympathetic hand and mouth activity among nonhuman primates and prelinguistic human infants and with demonstrations of the inXuence of grasping on labial articulation in adult humans (e.g., Gentilucci et al., J Neurophysiol 86, 1685-1699, 2001). The Wndings are also consistent with theories suggesting the transition from gestural to verbal, articulate communication systems may be subserved by the properties of the human equivalent of monkey F5 mirror and canonical neurons located in Broca's area.

Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, 2013

In this investigation the jaw-mouth-lip (JML) coordination is quantified using cross-correlation (CC) between facial electromyography (EMG) while speaking words 'zero to nine'. The facial EMG data of four prominent facial muscles, namely Zygomaticus Major (ZM) from the mouth region, Levator Labii Superioris (LLS), Orbicularis Oris Inferioris (OOI) from the lip region and Anterior Belly of Diagastric (ABD) from the jaw region are collected and analysed. A total of six muscle pairs, (1) ABD-ZM, (2) ZM-LLS, (3) OOI-ZM, (4) ABD-LLS, (5) ABD-OOI and (6) LLS-OOI, are formed based on their position. Based on correlation study, all these muscle pairs show a significantly different coordination level (p50.05). The CC of the ABD-LLS muscle pair is observed with maximum coordination level among all spoken words (Tukey's post-hoc, ¼ 0.05). These investigations based on CC in JML coordination could be used in designing various biomedical engineering tools such as speech prosthesis, facial lie detectors, etc.

Journal of Voice, 2012

Phonation onset is important in the maintenance of healthy vocal production for speech and singing. The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine differences in vocal fold vibratory behavior between sung and spoken phonation onset gestures. Given the greater degree of precision required for the abrupt onset sung gestures, we hypothesize that differences exist in the timing and coordination of the vocal fold adductory gesture with the onset of vocal fold vibration. Staccato and German (a modified glottal plosive, so named for its occurrence in German classical singing) onset gestures were compared with breathy, normal, and hard onset gestures, using high-speed digital imaging. Samples were obtained from two subjects with no history of voice disorders (a female trained singer and a male nonsinger). Simultaneous capture of acoustical data confirmed the distinction among gestures. Image data were compared for glottal area configurations, degree of adductory positioning, number of small-amplitude prephonatory oscillations (PPOs), and timing of onset gesture events, the latter marked by maximum vocal fold abduction, maximum adduction, beginning of PPOs, and beginning of steady-state oscillation. Results reveal closer adductory positioning of the vocal folds for the staccato and German gestures. The data also suggest a direct relationship between the degree of adductory positioning and the number of PPOs. Results for the timing of onset gesture events suggest a relationship between discrete adductory positioning and more evenly spaced PPOs. By contrast, the overlapping of prephonatory adductory positioning with vibration onset revealed more unevenly spaced PPOs. This may support an existing hypothesis that less well-defined boundaries interfere with normal modes of vibration of the vocal fold tissue.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2018

During speech production, we make vocal tract movements with remarkable precision and speed. Our understanding of how the human brain achieves such proficient control is limited, in part due to the challenge of simultaneously acquiring high-resolution neural recordings and detailed vocal tract measurements. To overcome this challenge, we combined ultrasound and video monitoring of the supralaryngeal articulators (lips, jaw, and tongue) with electrocorticographic recordings from the cortical surface of 4 subjects (3 female, 1 male) to investigate how neural activity in the ventral sensory-motor cortex (vSMC) relates to measured articulator movement kinematics (position, speed, velocity, acceleration) during the production of English vowels. We found that high-gamma activity at many individual vSMC electrodes strongly encoded the kinematics of one or more articulators, but less so for vowel formants and vowel identity. Neural population decoding methods further revealed the structure ...