Quantitative High-Speed Laryngoscopic Analysis of Vocal Fold Vibration in Fatigued Voice of Young Karaoke Singers

Summary Purpose The present study aimed to determine whether there were physiological differences in the vocal fold vibration between nonfatigued and fatigued voices using high-speed laryngoscopic imaging and quantitative analysis. Methods Twenty participants aged from 18 to 23 years (mean, 21.2 years; standard deviation, 1.3 years) with normal voice were recruited to participate in an extended singing task. Vocal fatigue was induced using a singing task. High-speed laryngoscopic image recordings of /i/ phonation were taken before and after the singing task. The laryngoscopic images were semiautomatically analyzed with the quantitative high-speed video processing program to extract indices related to the anteroposterior dimension (length), transverse dimension (width), and the speed of opening and closing. Results Significant reduction in the glottal length-to-width ratio index was found after vocal fatigue. Physiologically, this indicated either a significantly shorter (anteroposteriorly) or a wider (transversely) glottis after vocal fatigue. Conclusion The high-speed imaging technique using quantitative analysis has the potential for early identification of vocally fatigued voice.