Laryngeal muscles and articulatory control.

The present study continues earlier work on laryngeal control in speech with particular reference to adjustments in Swedish voiceless consonants and consonant cluster. Electromyographic recordings were obtained from four intrinsic laryngeal muscles together with simultaneous transillumination and acoustic signals. Results indicate that the vocalis and lateral cricoarytenoid muscles participate in the control of both articulation and phonation (F0). The interarytenoid muscle appeared to be involved only in articulatory adjustments. Activity in the cricothyroid was mostly related F0 change; however, this muscle also showed an increase in activity for voiceless sounds. In addition, the vocalis muscle appeared to participate in glottal adduction without complete closure in voiceless clusters with the lateral cricoarytenoid and the interarytenoid playing no particular roles. The results suggest the need of studying laryngeal behavior in speech within a general systems famework for movement control.