MRI and acoustic study of angry screaming versus trained belting with vocal health implications

Intense vocalizations, such as screaming and yelling, may yield negative vocal health consequences. The purpose of this study was to investigate physiological and acoustic differences between emotional versus learned high-intensity voice productions (i.e., primitive screaming versus trained belt for healthy yelling). We hypothesized that (1) angry screaming would be produced with constrictive vocal tract and laryngeal actions, similar to swallowing physiology; and (2) trained belting would override natural constrictive tendencies to produce intense voice with reduced phonotraumatic risk. In this study, we present single-subject magnetic resonance imaging and acoustic observations that are consistent with our hypotheses.