Dynamic measurements of speech articulators using magnetic resonance imaging

Mohammad, Mohammad A.S (1999) Dynamic measurements of speech articulators using magnetic resonance imaging. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a common medical imaging technique that has been used for measuring the shape of the vocal tract for use in speech research. A significant drawback of using MRI in speech studies is the long scanning time. In this project, a new method was developed for increasing the temporal resolution of MR images needed for dynamic speech studies. This method works by post-processing the collected MR images, with total control of the reconstruction procedure. The subject does not need to be phonetically trained and is not involved in the measurement procedure, which provides a more natural speech environment. By reconstructing the collected images, multi-planar sequential frames are generated that represent the changing shape of the vocal tract during a short utterance. These frames provide much-needed information about the dynamics of articulatory motion and demonstrate the usage of MRI for dynamic speech studies. Qualitative observation of three-dimensional articulatory motion is possible using Virtual Reality and grey-scale representation of vocal tract cavity. Quantitative data were drawn from the frames generating measurements of articulatory motion for the tongue, velum and jaw. This makes Southampton Dynamic MRI (SDMRI) method capable of producing results comparable to the data collected using a variety of other measurement techniques. The quantitative multi-planar data produced by SDMRI method can be used to achieve a better model of the speech production system.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics