MODELS OF VOCAL FOLD

VIBRATION

PRESENTER: Ms. ARCHANA U

FACULTY: Dr. K YESHODA
INTRODUCTION
Why models???

• For evaluating the contributions of the larynx to speech

production,

• For assessing the role of various tissues,

• For the influence of medial compression of the vocal fold

vibrations and their longitudinal tension.

Oscillation/Vibration is a repeated back-and-forth movement.

The criteria of mechanical oscillation are as follows:

• There must be a stable equilibrium position.

• There must be inertia in the system to overshoot this

equilibrium position.

• If oscillation is self-sustained: The net energy loss per

cycle of oscillation must be zero.

• Vocal fold oscillation works on the principle of self-

sustained oscillation.

• Force is produced by the airflow through the glottis

through the interaction with an acoustic tube above or

below the glottis or there is a wave like movement in the

vocal fold cover.

• This phenomenon is called flow-induced oscillation.

MYOELASTIC-
AERODYNAMIC THEORY??
• Independent movement of the inferior and superior
portions of the vocal folds is a major factor in the creation
of the mucosal wave; as the folds make contact at their
lower edge, a wave begins to ripple across their surface.

• The wavelike motion of the vocal folds during oscillation

is described scientifically in terms of 'normal modes' of
vibration.

• Each mode is a distinct way in which the various parts of

the vocal fold can move during one vibrational cycle.
• No single mode is likely to represent the entire vibratory

pattern of the vocal folds at a given time.

• Different parts of the vocal folds tend to vibrate in different

ways simultaneously.

The
various modes of
The first integer
vibration are each
represents the
given a numeric label
number of
consisting of two
lengthwise
integers. The second integer
divisions in the
is the number of
movement of the
vertical divisions in
folds
the movement
10 mode: In this mode, amplitude is at its maximum in the centre of
the fold, and decreases gradually toward the end points. This is the
simplest of all the modes.

11 mode: Adds vertical movement, in addition to the lengthwise

vibratory patterns.

20 mode: Here, the length of the fold is 'split' in two; each half
vibrates as in the '10' mode above. The centre of the vocal fold is not
vibrating at all (zero amplitude).

30 mode: Similar to 10 and 20 above, the vocal fold is divided into

three parts, each of which vibrates as in the '10' mode.
DEGREES OF FREEDOM
• A simple, rigid mass-spring system has a limited number
of possible modes of vibration, depending on how many
masses are involved and how many directions they are
free to move in (degrees of freedom).

• The vocal folds has infinite degrees of freedom, and thus,

an infinite number of possible 'modes' of vibration, due to
the soft tissues.

• However, in practice, a small number of dominant

vibratory patterns tend to appear over and over again.
SINGLE DEGREE OF FREEDOM MODEL:
(FLANAGAN AND LANDGRAF, 1967)

• Also called as ONE MASS MODEL.

• In this model the vocal folds must move as a single mass

towards and away from the midline, only.

• They can go nowhere else.

When the closing folds meet at the midline, they give up some of their
momentum. Due to the internal properties of the folds, the tissue tends
to be displaced toward the midline.

As a result, the glottis is closed for a brief period of time, and at the
same time the forces acting on the mass of the vocal folds assist to
open the glottis. Hence, the vocal folds oscillate automatically.

The one mass model of the vocal folds is able to represent only the
lateral displacement of the vocal fold.
1. In viscous condition: The folds tend to mold into one

another as they meet.

2. At the hard boundary condition: The folds tend to rebound.

Viscous condition represents low-pitch phonation.

Hard boundary condition represents high-pitch phonation.

 When the glottis is closing, the airflow begins to decrease,
and the air that is above the glottis continues to move with its
same speed (because of inertia).

This creates a region just above the vocal folds where the air
pressure decreases, because air is not coming from the
bottom through the glottis as fast as it is leaving above.

When the vocal folds are opening, air pressure against the
walls is greater than when the vocal folds are close together.
Thus, it is the asymmetry of driving force (air) that sustains
oscillation.
LET’S RECALL
Advantages:

Although one-mass model is a closer representation of

actual vocal fold oscillation, some refinements will make the
model even more like human phonation.
Disadvantages:
• Assumes a uniform, one-dimensional motion for the vocal fold
layers.

• Does not accurately model most voice vibrations.

• Incapable of explaining how flow energy is transferred to the vocal

folds tissue to sustain the oscillation.

• Realistic models for the human vocal folds must contain many more
parameters because of the flexible nature of biological tissue. Here,
it’s only the inlet-outlet pressure differences.

• The vocal folds do not move as a single mass towards and away
from the midline and therefore a more complex model is required to
exhibit “real larynx” behavior.

• Imaging techniques do not support.

TWO MASS MODEL (ISHIZAKA AND
FLANAGAN, 1972)

• The two-mass model is the most widely used

biomechanical model of vocal fold vibrations.

• It captures the fact that actual vocal folds have a wave-like

motion from bottom to top.

• This model was proposed to account for vertical phase

differences.
If the equilibrium position is considered as x0, the displacements of M1
and M2 are x1 and x2.
The stiffness exhibited by the spring S1 and S2 is due to the longitudinal
tension of the vocal folds.
If the masses are displaced from the equilibrium by distances x1-x0 and
x2-x0, the restoration force is equal to S1(x1-x0) and S2 (x2-x0).
NOTE,

Restoration forces are not linearly proportional to the

displacement,

The vibratory pattern of the vocal fold is not sinusoid, and

Under certain condition the system can become unstable.

• The resistances r1 and r2 represent the viscous
characteristics of the vocal fold tissues.

• The symbols fort r1 and r2 represent dashpots.

• A dashpot is a mechanical device, a damper which resists

motion via viscous friction.

• A common example of a dashpot is the familiar hydraulic

piston-fluid-cylinder combination that is used to prevent
open door from closing too quickly.

• In the larynx, the dashpots r1 and r2 function to decrease the

velocities of the masses M1 and M2 due to the restoration
forces of S1 and S2.
• Air flow through the trachea is shown as Ut.

• As the constriction at M1 and M2 is reached, the velocity

increases, and so the restoration forces are
complemented by the Bernoulli effect.

• The two mass models capture both a shear mode (with

two masses out of phase), and compressional mode (with
both masses in phase) and can simulate mucosal wave
pattern.
LET’S RECALL
Advantages:

• Accounts for vertical phase difference by means of a pair of coupled

oscillators that describe the lower and upper fold portions.

• Accounts for most of the relevant glottal detail, including phase

differences of upper and lower edges.

• Useful for real-time speech synthesis and medical diagnostics.

• Provides information on pathological behavior of the vocal folds.

• Predicts that there is a range of frequencies within which the vocal

cords can be excited.

• The operating range increases with increasing pressure and flow.

Upper limit of the voice would be higher in individuals for whom the
trachea and bronchi are shorter and stiffer.
Disadvantages:

• The effect of the vocal tract impedance has been ignored.

• Limited capability of representing the wave shapes during the two

phases (fails to represent the physics during closed phase).

• Villain et al. (2001) remark that the elastic structure fixed to a rigid
wall is a crude approximation since in reality there is a significant
radiation on the surface waves from the throat in voiced sounds.

• Glottal area is assumed to be rectangular. As a consequence,

closure of the glottis occurs in an abrupt manner and this affects the
spectral tilt of the glottal source, introducing additional energy at
high frequencies.
THREE MASS MODEL
To include the effect of the cover-body vocal fold structure.

This model essentially adds a ‘‘body’’ mass that is positioned

lateral to the two cover masses.

The cover masses are both connected to the body mass via
spring and damper systems that represent stiffness of the
cover tissue as well as the effective coupling stiffness
between the body and cover.
The body mass, in turn, is connected to a rigid lateral
boundary with another spring and damper system that
account for the effective stiffness of the body which will
depend on the level of contraction of the muscle tissue.

To account for shear forces in the cover, the two cover

masses are coupled to each other with another spring-
damper element.
Advantages:

• Coupled oscillation of the cover and body layers.

• Physiologically realistic control parameters characterizing

the cover and body tissue are more easily determined (than
with the two-mass approach) when the more closely follows
anatomical boundaries.

• For example, a contraction of the thyroartenoid muscle

(muscle in the ‘‘body’’) will increase the stiffness of the body
but may not necessarily stiffen the cover.
Disadvantages:

• The VF vibratory patterns are not completely understood.

• It does not explain the vibration with respect to different

phases and directions.

• No details about the mucosal wave pattern in detail.

• Does not explain the variations in vibrations, pitch

changing mechanism.
BODY-COVER MODEL BY
HIRANO (1974)
• The five layers of the vocal folds have been classified on the
basis of the differing degrees of stiffness of the layers.

• Stiffness refers to the resistance of a structure to being

displaced.

• Each layer has its own mode of vibration, depending on its

structural composition and stiffness properties.

• The structural complexity gives rise to a sound wave that is

acoustically complex and that results, in turn, in a rich and
resonant human voice.

• The wave like motion of the vocal folds results from

interactive properties of the tissue layers within the mucosa.
• In this model, the body of the vocal fold (thyroarytenoid
muscle) is the first and largest mass.

• The upper and lower portions of the cover (lamina propria

and epithelium) comprise two smaller masses.

• The glottis opens and closes asymmetrically with vertical

phase difference from bottom to top.

• Air pressure also is asymmetrical, increasing when the

glottis is in a convergent shape and decreasing when the
glottis is divergent.
• This asymmetry of air pressure provided by the three-
mass model, combined with the impact of pressure
changes above the glottis caused by inertia, is sufficient
to sustain vocal fold oscillation.

• A wavelike motion has been observed within the cover,

suggesting that a RIBBON MODEL is appropriate for this
tissue layer.

• A ribbon is fixed at each end (by the Arytenoid and

Thyroid cartilages).
• The bottom of the vocal folds are farther apart than the upper
part of the folds. This a convergent shape because the
airflow is converging.

• On the other hand, the airflow diverges when the lowermost

parts of the vocal folds are closer together; this is a
divergent glottal shape.

• Average air pressures within the glottis tend to be larger in

the convergent glottal configuration than in the divergent
shape, resulting in the asymmetry of air pressures needed to
sustain oscillation.
• Energy is transferred from the air stream to the tissue
because the net driving force over the cycle is
synchronized with the tissue movement.

• Titze and McGowen, 1990 showed an upward propagating

mucosal wave will produce the same glottal shapes.
Advantages:

This model very easily explains the body-cover transition and

also explains about the vertical phase differences which are
essential for air flow and sustained oscillation.

Disadvantages:

On the other hand, this model does not correspond to chaos

theory where each point on the vocal fold has a distinct mass
and locus of movement.

Thus the complexity of vocal fold vibration is not sufficed by

this model.
SIXTEEN MASS MODEL
BY TITZE (1973)
In an attempt to simulate human like speech that would

(1) Phonate in at least two distinct registers,

(2) Provide sufficient flexibility for pathological studies,

(3) Be capable of simulating short responses of the folds,

such as moderate coughs or voice breaks,

(4) Be regulated by parameters that have direct physiological

correlates, and

(5) Increase the “naturalness” of utterances.

• Titze’s model attempts to simulate various observed vocal
fold behaviors, including vertical and horizontal motion of
the folds and horizontal and vertical phase difference.

• Each vocal fold is conceived as consisting of two portions

that behave differently during oscillation.

• They are mucous membrane and the vocalis muscle,

tightly coupled to the vocal ligament.
• The mucous membrane has been observed at high pitch
phonation (that of a female singer) to collect in 8 nodal
regions in a standing wave pattern.

• This pattern and some mathematical considerations led

Titze to subdivide the mucous membrane and vocalis-
vocal ligament masses into 8 separate masses.

• The model then consists of 16 masses which are allowed

to move in a direction perpendicular to airflow (in a lateral
direction) and in the direction of this flow.

• No motion in a longitudinal (ant-post) direction is

considered.
3 general categories of forces that act upon the vocal folds:

INTERNAL EXTERNAL DISSIPATIVE

Losses
associated with
Nearest Gravity and glottal flow,
neighbour force- aerodynamic losses in the
restoring force forces vocal tract, and
losses in the
vocal tissues
• The mucous membrane supports little tension when not
engaged in vibration.

• In motion, it is displaced considerably, and it is out of

phase with the rest of the vocal fold, so it generates large
lateral strains between particles.

• Titze assumes exponential elastic behavior to be exhibited

by the mucous membrane.
Merits:

• Computer simulation of this model yields glottal shapes,

spectra, air flow characteristics, and velocity functions which
show promising approximation to the data available on
human speech.

• In 1975, Titze and Strong treated the vocal fold as a

continuum and they applied visco-elastic properties of vocal
fold tissue to their model. The effects of tissue viscosity and
incompressibility were incorporated to account for coupling
between horizontal and vertical motion when vertical phase
differences occur.
• In 1979, Titze and Talkin were able to model the effects of
various laryngeal configurations on phonation, taking into
account the curved boundaries of the vocal folds and their
visco-elastic properties.

• They found fundamental frequency to be primarily affected

by vocal fold length and controlled through longitudinal
stress in the muscle layers.

• They also found that subglottal pressure is not a major

factor in the control of F0.
EGG MODEL
3 concepts:

• The folds close and open in a zipper like manner , which shows the
modelled vocal folds hinged at the anterior commissure, during the
closing stage. The reverse occurs during the opening stage.

• In a sequence of vibratory cycles, the opening and closing angles of

the folds may differ from each other. Variations in the angle
parameter is shown to have a differential impact on segments of the
EGG.

• A phase lag may exist between the upper and lower vocal fold
margin movements. Specifically, the lower margin leads the upper
margin in both the opening and closing stages of vibration.
• The origin of these concepts comes from observations of
ultra-high speed laryngeal films of normal males
phonating in modal register. These three concepts led to
the creation of a vocal fold vibratory model from which
calculations of fold contact area was made.

• This model is related to the calculation of contact area and

finally to the prediction of the electroglottogram.