The Influence of the Tongue on Vocal Production

The study of human vocal communication has been conducted primarily in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic (WEIRD) societies. Recently, cross-cultural investigations in several domains of voice research have been expanding into more diverse populations. Theoretically, it is important to understand how universals and cultural variations interact in vocal production and perception, but cross-cultural voice research presents many methodological challenges. Experimental methods typically used in WEIRD societies are often not possible to implement in many populations such as rural, small-scale societies. Moreover, theoretical and methodological issues are often unnecessarily intertwined. Here, I focus on three areas of cross-cultural voice modulation research: (i) vocal signalling of formidability and dominance, (ii) vocal emotions, and (iii) production and perception of infant-directed speech. Research in these specific areas illustrates challenges that apply more generally across the human behavioural sciences but also reveals promise as we develop our understanding of the evolution of human communication.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.

The relationship between auditory perception and vocal production has been typically investigated by evaluating the effect of either altered or degraded auditory feedback on speech production in either normal hearing or hearing-impaired individuals. Our goal in the present study was to examine this relationship in individuals with superior auditory abilities. Thirteen professional musicians and thirteen nonmusicians, with no vocal or singing training, participated in this study. For vocal production accuracy, subjects were presented with three tones. They were asked to reproduce the pitch using the vowel /a/. This procedure was repeated three times. The fundamental frequency of each production was measured using an autocorrelation pitch detection algorithm designed for this study. The musicians' superior auditory abilities (compared to the nonmusicians) were established in a frequency discrimination task reported elsewhere. Results indicate that (a) musicians had better vocal production accuracy than nonmusicians (production errors of 1/2 a semitone compared to 1.3 semitones, respectively); (b) frequency discrimination thresholds explain 43% of the variance of the production data, and (c) all subjects with superior frequency discrimination thresholds showed accurate vocal production; the reverse relationship, however, does not hold true. In this study we provide empirical evidence to the importance of auditory feedback on vocal production in listeners with superior auditory skills.

Vocal production mechanisms in a non-human primate: morphological data and a model

Recent evidence obtained from normal listeners, from neurological patients with focal cortical lesions, and from patients who have undergone surgical section of the corpus callosum suggests that the right hemisphere auditory system has an advantage over the left in the perception of complex pitch. A possible production correlate was studied in a patient with right hemisphere tumor in whom speech was monotonic. On binaural testing, both speech and complex pitch discrimination were intact. On dichotic testing, a significant impairment was observed on pitch, but not speech discrimination. Vocal pitch control was assessed by having the patient mimic the pitch of a binaurally presented token frequency. A range of 100 to 240 Hz was tested at 20-Hz intervals. The patient's production was limited to a range of approximately 24 Hz, centered around 140 Hz. The modulation of vocal pitch in the production of intonation contour may be one way in which right hemisphere mechanisms contribute to the production of speech. [Work supported by NIH grants NS03346-19 and RR05396-20.]

Different neural systems serve the production of emotional vocalizations. E.g., the periaqueductal gray is involved in initiating and producing emotional utterances, the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) in the imbuement of vocalizations with emotional tone as well as the volitional control of emotional vocalizations, and the orbitofrontal cortex modulates ACC activity according to our personality. The neural systems for the production of song and speech mainly overlap, with slight right-hemispheric predominance for song, and slight left-hemispheric predominance for speech. The musical elements of a parent's speech (i.e., the emotional prosody of parents), as well as parental singing of songs such as lullabies and playsongs, do not only foster the emotional, cognitive, and social development of a child, but also the development of a child's voice. Because of the strong overlap of song and speech in the brain, music therapy can, e.g., help children with specific language impairment, with selective mutism, and facilitate recovery from aphasia in adults.

Within the traditional choral canon, choral teachers are expected to teach authentic performance practice that incorporates changes in vocal production among varying genres and style periods from Renaissance to Contemporary. Contemporary commercial music (CCM) requires a different vocal approach than the standard Western classical tradition, yet most singing teachers are not being trained in vocal technique associated with CCM in traditional university music departments. Since choral singers are asked to create a variety of vocal qualities and switch between those qualities within a single performance, this article argues that singing teachers should be trained to utilize a multifaceted approach to developing vocal technique, given that recent singing pedagogy literature implies that there is a significant lack of training in the areas of CCM. The scope of this article is to discuss the main tenets of breath, onset, and resonance inherent in both bel canto and contemporary vocal technique by examining both vocal science and traditional vocal pedagogy. By developing a pathway between these styles, teachers enhance their teaching of diverse repertoire without having to learn an entirely new pedagogy. From changes within these three tenets, numerous vocal qualities can be created that are sustainable and healthy for all singers.

A cough that lasts for more than 8 weeks in adults (those older than 15 years) and more than 4 weeks in children is considered chronic and poses a significant health problem, as it can lead to feelings of fatigue, sleep disturbances, hoarseness, disruption of daily activities, vomiting, and often in women, even incontinence. The differential diagnosis of chronic cough in adults and children has its specificities. In certain cases, the etiological factor remains unknown when referring to unexplained (idiopathic) chronic cough. This paper presents the results of a systematic review of publications in medical databases (PubMed) and guidelines from the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), related to the diagnosis and treatment of chronic cough. Diagnostic investigations should be focused on the most common causes of chronic cough. In adults, these include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease, lung malignancy, non-asthmatic eosinophilic bronchitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and upper airway cough syndrome. In children, the most common causes of chronic cough are asthma, protracted bacterial bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, primary ciliary dyskinesia, bronchiectasis, tracheobronchomalacia, pertussis, habitual (psychogenic) cough, and foreign body aspiration. The treatment primarily involves excluding medications that might have chronic cough as an adverse effect. Therapy is directed toward treating the underlying cause of chronic cough. If the cough persists despite treatment (refractory cough) or if it's idiopathic, neuromodulatory medications are employed (opioids, gamma-aminobutyric acid analogs, tricyclic antidepressants). Therapeutic options also include breathing and vocal techniques, superior laryngeal nerve blocks, and vocal cord medialization injections. Drugs directly inhibiting sensory receptors (P2X3, TRPV-1, and NK-1 inhibitors) are currently under clinical trial investigation. The use of validated tests is crucial for assessing therapeutic effectiveness. The etiological factors of chronic cough can have both infectious and non-infectious origins and are not always related to lung diseases. Considering that chronic cough is regarded as a condition of hypersensitivity, when causal treatment does not yield satisfactory results or when dealing with idiopathic chronic cough, therapy is directed towards central or peripheral neuromodulation, as well as techniques involving breathing and vocal production.

Bird Speech Perception and Vocal Production: A Comparison with Humans

In The 21st-Century Voice: Contemporary and Traditional Extra-Normal Voice, Michael Edward Edgerton considers contemporary vocal techniques within an acoustic and anatomical framework. Throughout, he proposes new directions for vocal exploration. Much more than a historical treatise on 20th-century masterworks or vocal science, The 21st-Century Voice explores experimental methods of sound production, offering a systematic series of approaches and methods for assessing, engaging, and, in some instances, overcoming the assumed limits of vocal singing. Appearing a decade after the publication of the first edition, this second editiondraws on and advances our current understandings of voice production. Divided into four parts—air flow, source, resonance/articulation, and heightened potentials—Edgerton considers crucial matters affecting vocal production, such as Registral challenges Filtering Airflow modification Combinatorial, multiphonic principles Extreme voice possibilities Multidimensional vocal issues With more than 250 illustrations, 150 associated audio tracks, an extended appendix on voice science, a glossary of key terms, and lists of representative compositions, The 21st-Century Voice will appeal to composers and performers interested in exploring the ever-broadening range of vocal possibilities. Its engagement with the complexities of vocal production should also be relevant to students and scholars of voice science, acoustics, linguistics, computer modeling, and more.

Traditional genres, modern popular music, ‘classical’ concert music and other styles of music-making in Japan can be viewed as diverse elements framed within a musical culture. Bourdieu's concept of habitus, and Williams' of dominant, residual and emergent traditions, are helpful in formulating an inclusive approach, in contrast to the prevailing demarcation between traditional and popular music research. Koizumi Fumio first challenged the disciplinary separation of research on historical ‘Japanese music’ and modern hybrid music around 1980, and the influence of his work is reflected in a small number of subsequent writings. In Japanese popular music, evidence for musical habitus and residual traits of past practice can be sought not only in characteristics typical of musicological analysis; modal, harmonic and rhythmic structures; but also in aspects of the music's organisation, presentation, conceptualisation and reception. Among these are vocal tone and production techniques, technical and evaluative discourse, and contextual features such as staging, performer-audience interaction, the agency of individual musicians, the structure of corporate music-production, and the use of songs as vehicles for subjectivity. Such an inclusive approach to new and old musical practices in Japan enables demonstration of ways in which popular music is both part of Japanese musical culture and an authentic vehicle for contemporary Japanese identity.

Vocal learners such as humans and songbirds can learn to produce elaborate patterns of structurally organized vocalizations, whereas many other vertebrates such as non-human primates and most other bird groups either cannot or do so to a very limited degree. To explain the similarities among humans and vocal-learning birds and the differences with other species, various theories have been proposed. One set of theories are motor theories, which underscore the role of the motor system as an evolutionary substrate for vocal production learning. For instance, the motor theory of speech and song perception proposes enhanced auditory perceptual learning of speech in humans and song in birds, which suggests a considerable level of neurobiological specialization. Another, a motor theory of vocal learning origin, proposes that the brain pathways that control the learning and production of song and speech were derived from adjacent motor brain pathways. Another set of theories are cognitive theories, which address the interface between cognition and the auditory-vocal domains to support language learning in humans. Here we critically review the behavioral and neurobiological evidence for parallels and differences between the so-called vocal learners and vocal non-learners in the context of motor and cognitive theories. In doing so, we note that behaviorally vocal-production learning abilities are more distributed than categorical, as are the auditory-learning abilities of animals. We propose testable hypotheses on the extent of the specializations and cross-species correspondences suggested by motor and cognitive theories. We believe that determining how spoken language evolved is likely to become clearer with concerted efforts in testing comparative data from many non-human animal species.

Real-time magnetic resonance imaging (RT-MRI) is being increasingly used for speech and vocal production research studies. Several imaging protocols have emerged based on advances in RT-MRI acquisition, reconstruction, and audio-processing methods. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art, discusses technical considerations, and provides specific guidance for new groups entering this field. We provide recommendations for performing RT-MRI of the upper airway. This is a consensus statement stemming from the ISMRM-endorsed Speech MRI summit held in Los Angeles, February 2014. A major unmet need identified at the summit was the need for consensus on protocols that can be easily adapted by researchers equipped with conventional MRI systems. To this end, we provide a discussion of tradeoffs in RT-MRI in terms of acquisition requirements, a priori assumptions, artifacts, computational load, and performance for different speech tasks. We provide four recommended protocols and identify appropriate acquisition and reconstruction tools. We list pointers to open-source software that facilitate implementation. We conclude by discussing current open challenges in the methodological aspects of RT-MRI of speech.

This article discusses the concept, working practices and outcomes of the Concrescence Project, a research project initiated by the author oriented towards innovations in vocal practice and composition through experiments with combining vocal techniques from different cultures. The concept of ethnomodernism is explored, as are different attitudes to vocal sound production in a variety of musical traditions including the avant-garde, traditional styles from the Nordic/Baltic region, and overtone singing. The article concludes with a discussion of microtonal tunings, their notation, and their implementation in vocal composition.

The current paper continues the investigation begun in the previous study, which focused on vocal technique and style in 17th century treatises. The final decades of the 17th century witnessed the emergence of an aesthetic and stylistic dispute between the French and Italian traditions of music composition and singing. This rivalry extended into the 18th century, alongside the broader stylistic transformations of the period: the transition from the late Baroque style to the Classical aesthetic, passing through the elegance of the Galant style, and ultimately culminating in the pre-Romantic sensibilities of the late 18th century. This study examines the stylistic rivalry between the French and Italian traditions from the perspective of the period’s vocal practices. While the Italian singing school continued to be regarded as exemplary and worthy of imitation, 18th century debates also centered on linguistic questions: which language, Italian or French, is better suited to singing? The divergence was further intensified by the controversies surrounding opera buffa, particularly Les Querelles des Bouffons, as well as the rivalry between proponents of Gluck’s reform operas and those aligned with Piccini’s operatic approach. The Italian perspective on vocal practices is primarily reflected in the writings of Tosi and Mancini, whereas other sources — such as Quantz or Burney — offer insights from non-French and non-Italian viewpoints. As in the previous study, the authors emphasize that the historical sources cited represent only a portion of the available material, the selection having been guided by the relevance of each source to questions of vocal production.

The bilateral supramarginal gyri (SMGs) have been implicated in sensorimotor control of speech production, yet their precise roles and interhemispheric interactions are poorly understood. This event-related potential study employed dual-site continuous theta burst stimulation (c-TBS) over the bilateral SMGs simultaneously to investigate their functional dynamics in vocal motor control. Following unilateral and bilateral c-TBS over the SMG as well as sham stimulation, participants vocalized the vowel sounds while exposed to unexpected pitch perturbations in auditory feedback. Unilateral real c-TBS paired with contralateral sham stimulation led to reduced vocal compensation magnitudes and latencies and decreased P2 responses compared to bilateral sham stimulation, with no differences between left and right SMG stimulation. Source localization revealed that decreased P2 responses following left SMG stimulation localized to left-lateralized dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, SMG, middle temporal gyrus, and temporo-parietal junction, whereas such decreases following right SMG stimulation involved left-lateralized primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, and middle temporal gyrus. These findings suggest that both SMGs are causally involved in vocal feedback control through distinct but interconnected networks. Surprisingly, dual-site c-TBS over the bilateral SMG did not alter vocal compensation or cortical activity, suggesting an interhemispheric balancing mechanism for fine-tuning vocal production. Our results offer novel insights into the bihemispheric coordination of auditory-vocal integration, highlighting potential treatment for speech disorders by modulating interhemispheric interactions.