2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Observing and Analysis of the dynamic aspects of the vocal fold vibration using high speed cine-MRI

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22700195
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Perception information processing/Intelligent robotics
Research Institution	Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International
Principal Investigator	NISHIMOTO Hironori 株式会社国際電気通信基礎技術研究所, 脳情報通信総合研究所, 研究員 (50463716)
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2012
Keywords	MRI / 高速撮像 / 声帯 / 舌 / 音声生成
Research Abstract	Vocal folds vibration has important role for speech production. To observe and analyze the dynamic aspects of the vocal fold vibration, we applied high speed cine-MRI method. In this study, we examined following: (i) We developed MRI larynx coil to obtain the MR images of vocal folds. (ii) High speed cine-MRI method was improved. (iii) Dynamic aspects of the tongue vibration producing tongue trill sound was captured as cine-MRI by using the method. (iv). This method was applied to the speaker who producing speech sounds. The images were clearer than that derived by using conventional cine-MRI technique. (v) The closing and opening the vocal folds were captured by the method. This study indicate the points to improve the image quality of the cine-MRI.