Figure 1.

Acoustical Dimensions of Voices

(A) During voice production, the vocal folds in the larynx oscillate periodically generating a buzzing sound with a fundamental frequency (f0) and a highly harmonic structure. Acoustical filtering by the vocal tract airways—nasal cavity (a) and mouth cavity (b)—above the larynx modifies this buzzing sound, resulting in regions of enhanced energy in the spectrum called formants.

(B) Spectrogram of the syllable “had” spoken by an adult female speaker. Color scale indicates power (dB). Note the vertical stripes corresponding to the harmonics (integer multiples of f0) and the bands corresponding to the formants (F1–F3).

(C) Stimulus power spectrum.

(D and E) Stimulus amplitude waveform. See also Figure S1 and Table S1 for more information on the acoustical parameters measured in the different studies.