Speech is one of those things you don’t appreciate all that much until it is taken away. What exactly is it, and how are words and sounds made though? In short, sound is tied to vocal cords, which, in turn, are tied to the larynx.
This stroboscopic footage from a laryngoscopy shows what happens to our vocal cords when we mutter any sound. As you can see, it looks like something from a low-budget horror film (I don’t think I need to point out what else it resembles, but you can use your imagination) yet intriguing nonetheless..
WATCH: “Beth’s First Laryngoscopy – Vocal Cords in Action”
In their description of the video, Auditory Neuroscience notes:
[box style=”0″] Human speech sounds come in two flavors: voiced and unvoiced. Voiced speech sounds are generated when the vocal folds produce a rapid click train, the so called “glottal pulse train”, which then resonates around the vocal tract.
This youtube video of a human laryngoscopy procedures shows the vibrating vocal folds during vocalization. Note the muscular apparatus which can open the vocal folds wide when the subject takes a deep breath, or vary the amount of tension on them to change the voice pitch. [/box]
So, what’s the verdict? Creepy or cool?