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Measurement of temporal changes in vocal tract area function from 3D cine-MRI data
Hironori Takemoto1, Kiyoshi Honda, Shinobu Masaki
1ATR Human Information Science Laboratories, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, 619-0288 Japan.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|March 9, 2006
Summary
This study introduces a 3D cine-MRI method to track vocal tract changes during speech. The technique accurately captures dynamic vocal tract area functions, crucial for understanding speech production.
Area of Science:
- Acoustic phonetics
- Medical imaging
- Speech science
Background:
- Understanding the dynamic changes in the vocal tract is essential for speech production research.
- Previous MRI methods often captured static vocal tract shapes, neglecting dynamic articulatory movements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a 3D cine-MRI technique for measuring temporal changes in vocal tract area functions.
- To analyze the dynamic articulatory movements during the Japanese /aiueo/ utterance.
Main Methods:
- A synchronized sampling method was employed with 3D cine-MRI to capture head-neck volumes during repeated utterances.
- Area functions were extracted frame-by-frame from the volumetric data.
- Formants were calculated from the extracted area functions and compared to natural speech.
Main Results:
- Reciprocal changes in front and back vocal cavity volumes were observed.
- Areas near the larynx and posterior hard palate remained relatively constant.
- Calculated formants showed a mean absolute percent error of 4.5% compared to natural speech.
Conclusions:
- The developed 3D cine-MRI technique provides accurate measurements of dynamic vocal tract area functions.
- Static MRI methods may introduce geometric deviations due to gravity, affecting vocal tract shape analysis.
- This method offers a more realistic approach to studying speech articulation.
