Sensitivity of vocal fold vibratory modes to their three-layer structure: implications for computational modeling of phonation

The sensitivity of the eigenmodes and eigenfrequencies of the human vocal fold to its three-layer structure is studied using finite-element modeling. The study covers a variety of three-dimensional vocal fold models ranging from an idealized, longitudinally uniform structure to a physiologically more realistic, longitudinally varying structure. Geometric parameters including the thickness of the ligament and cover layers as well as the ligament length are varied systematically. The results indicate that vocal fold vibratory modes are quite insensitive to the longitudinal variation in the thickness of the three layers as well as the variation in ligament length. However, significant overall changes in thickness of each layer can produce noticeable changes in these modes. The implications of these findings on computational modeling of phonation are discussed.