3D dynamic MRI of the vocal tract during natural speech. Issue 3 (3rd November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lim, Yongwan; Zhu, Yinghua; Lingala, Sajan Goud; Byrd, Dani; Narayanan, Shrikanth; Nayak, Krishna Shrinivas
• Is Part Of: Magnetic resonance in medicine. Volume 81:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 1511
• Page End: 1520
• Publication Date: 2018-11-03
• Subjects: dynamic MRI -- dynamic speech imaging -- golden‐angle stack‐of‐spirals -- lateral production -- rapid vocal tract shaping -- speech articulation; Nuclear magnetic resonance -- Periodicals; Electron paramagnetic resonance -- Periodicals; 616.07548
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.27570
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0740-3194

Abstract

Abstract : Purpose: To develop and evaluate a technique for 3D dynamic MRI of the full vocal tract at high temporal resolution during natural speech. Methods: We demonstrate 2.4 × 2.4 × 5.8 mm 3 spatial resolution, 61‐ms temporal resolution, and a 200 × 200 × 70 mm 3 FOV. The proposed method uses 3D gradient‐echo imaging with a custom upper‐airway coil, a minimum‐phase slab excitation, stack‐of‐spirals readout, pseudo golden‐angle view order in kx ‐ ky, linear Cartesian order along kz, and spatiotemporal finite difference constrained reconstruction, with 13‐fold acceleration. This technique is evaluated using in vivo vocal tract airway data from 2 healthy subjects acquired at 1.5T scanner, 1 with synchronized audio, with 2 tasks during production of natural speech, and via comparison with interleaved multislice 2D dynamic MRI. Results: This technique captured known dynamics of vocal tract articulators during natural speech tasks including tongue gestures during the production of consonants "s" and "l" and of consonant–vowel syllables, and was additionally consistent with 2D dynamic MRI. Coordination of lingual (tongue) movements for consonants is demonstrated via volume‐of‐interest analysis. Vocal tract area function dynamics revealed critical lingual constriction events along the length of the vocal tract for consonants and vowels. Conclusion: We demonstrate feasibility of 3D dynamic MRI of the full vocal tract, with spatiotemporal resolution adequate to visualize lingual movements for consonants and vocal tact shaping during natural productions of consonant–vowel syllables, without requiring multiple repetitions.