Summary
Objective
To examine the immediate effects of straw phonation exercises in normal subjects while
altering the effective length of the vocal tract.
Study Design
A nonrandomized comparison of semi-occluded vocal tract length during straw phonation
exercises was carried out.
Methods
Oral pressure, mean airflow, aerodynamic resistance, and contact quotient were measured
in 20 healthy subjects immediately before and after straw phonation exercises. A short-
and long-duration phonatory task was used to examine the voice parameters during semi-occluded
vocal tract exercises. These tasks involved repeating a vocalization of the vowel
/a/ through a tube. Each subject underwent the protocol using tubes of three different
lengths (7.5 cm, 15 cm, and 30 cm) to allow for the effect of moving the outlet of
the vocal tract distal to the mouth to be monitored.
Results
Oral pressure and aerodynamic resistance decreased significantly, contact quotient
showed a decreasing trend, and airflow increased significantly in pre- and postmeasurements
15 minutes after a long-duration phonatory task. Short-duration tasks were found to
have no effect on voice parameters.
Conclusion
The results present and validate a method to isolate the effect that the length of
a semi-occluded vocal tract has during straw phonation exercises.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 23, 2017
Accepted:
May 19,
2017
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Voice Foundation.
