SPECIAL ARTICLE   

Otorinolaringologia 2018 December;68(4):148-54

DOI: 10.23736/S0392-6621.18.02179-3

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Around the human voice: the anatomical path of the phonetic organ. A story of functional evidence and theoretical hypothesis

Maria TROVATO ✉

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

At the beginning, the investigations of the source of the human voice were piloted by anatomic drawings and functional anatomy. Firstly, Iulii Casserii Placentini in 1601 and Antoine Ferrein in 1741 opened the anatomic path of voice with a description of the human larynx as well as the vocal folds. Following the voice anatomic path, from then on four theories namely aerodynamic, myoelastic, muco-ondulatory and neurochronaxic have been proposed without falling into an unambiguous hypothesis able to explain phonation phenomena. By attempting a revision of post mortem laryngeal data recorded by Sappy and reported in Testut & Latarjet text, this study is adding new evidence to ancient investigations because of circumference and diameters of larynxes that show size variations dependent on age either in male or female subjects. Since these results are comparable with recent data picked up by computed tomography in pediatric larynxes, they are supporting the hypothesis that larynx configuration is dynamically built through the entire course of life. Further, by pointing to individualize the main merits as well as the weak spots of phonation theories, the roles played in human phonation by bio-mechanism namely glottal cycle and phonation threshold pressure bio-drivers have been examined.

KEY WORDS: Voice - Larynx - Sound