The Impact of Glottal Configuration on Speech Breathing

The purpose of this study was to examine whether changes in respiratory patterns occurred in response to volitional changes in glottal configuration. Twelve vocally healthy participants read a passage while wearing the Inductotrace respiratory inductive plethysmograph, which measures the excursions of the rib cage and abdomen. Participants read the passage 5 times in a typical speaking voice (baseline phase), 10 times in an experimental voice, which was similar to a breathy vocal quality (experimental phase), and 5 times again in a typical speaking voice (return phase). Kinematic estimates of lung volume (LV) initiation, LV termination, and LV excursion were collected for each speech breath. Participants spoke with larger LV excursions during the experimental phase, characterized by increased LV initiation and decreased LV termination compared with the baseline phase. In response to volitional changes in glottal configuration, healthy individuals spoke with increased LV excursion. They both responded to changes (decreasing LV termination) and planned for more efficient future utterances (increasing LV initiation) during the experimental phase. This study demonstrated that respiratory patterns change in response to changes in glottal configuration; future work will examine these patterns in individuals with voice disorders.