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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Preparation of the Rat Vocal Fold for Neuromuscular Analyses
Published on: May 15, 2020
Biomechanics of fundamental frequency regulation: Constitutive modeling of the vocal fold lamina propria
Roger W Chan1, Thomas Siegmund, Kai Zhang
1Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, Texas 75390-9035, USA. roger.chan@utsouthwestern.edu
Abstract:
Accurate characterization of biomechanical characteristics of the vocal fold is critical for understanding the regulation of vocal fundamental frequency (F(0)), which depends on the active control of the intrinsic laryngeal muscles as well as the passive biomechanical response of the vocal fold lamina propria. Specifically, the tissue stress-strain response and viscoelastic properties under cyclic tensile deformation are relevant, when the vocal folds are subjected to length and tension changes due to posturing. This paper describes a constitutive modeling approach quantifying the relationship between vocal fold stress and strain (or stretch), and establishes predictions of F(0) with the string model of phonation based on the constitutive parameters. Results indicated that transient and time-dependent changes in F(0), including global declinations in declarative sentences, as well as local F(0) overshoots and undershoots, can be partially attributed to the time-dependent viscoplastic response of the vocal fold cover.
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