EFFECT OF THE EXTRINSIC LARYNGEAL MUSCLES ON VOICE PRODUCTION

Knowledge of the effect of the musculature of the larynx on voice production is meager. Information is available on the action of a large number of individual muscles, but one is as yet far from being able to explain all movements of the larynx on the basis of the action of these muscles. However, the synergic reactions of the larynx must in most instances depend on the activity of the individual muscles involved. Information on the physiology of the intrinsic laryngeal muscles is much more adequate than that on the extrinsic muscles. Thus, the vocal result of any defect due to impairment of an individual intrinsic laryngeal muscle, or of a group of them, is rather well known. The function of the extrinsic laryngeal muscles in voice production is, however, not clear. The few contributions to the subject have differed, and have even been contradictory, in their conclusions. This is