Interaction between epilaryngeal and laryngeal adjustments in regulating vocal fold contact pressure

This study investigates the peak vocal fold contact pressure at different conditions of epilaryngeal narrowing and laryngeal adjustments. The results show that for a given subglottal pressure, the peak vocal fold contact pressure may increase or decrease with epilaryngeal narrowing, depending on a complex interaction between vocal fold vertical thickness, initial glottal angle, and subglottal pressure. However, epilaryngeal narrowing also significantly increases vocal efficiency so that for a target sound pressure level, the peak vocal fold contact pressure decreases with epilaryngeal narrowing. Overall, the peak vocal fold contact pressure and respiratory effort can be minimized by epilaryngeal narrowing, adopting a small initial glottal angle, and an intermediate vocal fold thickness.