Abstract

Purpose
To develop a real‐time imaging technique that allows for simultaneous visualization of vocal tract shaping in multiple scan planes, and provides dynamic visualization of complex articulatory features.
Materials and Methods
Simultaneous imaging of multiple slices was implemented using a custom real‐time imaging platform. Midsagittal, coronal, and axial scan planes of the human upper airway were prescribed and imaged in real‐time using a fast spiral gradient‐echo pulse sequence. Two native speakers of English produced voiceless and voiced fricatives /f/‐/v/, /θ/‐/ð/, /s/‐/z/, /∫/‐ in symmetrical maximally contrastive vocalic contexts /a_a/, /i_i/, and /u_u/. Vocal tract videos were synchronized with noise‐cancelled audio recordings, facilitating the selection of frames associated with production of English fricatives.
Results
Coronal slices intersecting the postalveolar region of the vocal tract revealed …

Date

2012

Authors

Yoon‐Chul Kim, Michael I Proctor, Shrikanth S Narayanan, Krishna S Nayak

Journal

Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Volume

35

Issue

4

Pages

943-948

Publisher

Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company