Speech and respiration

Abstract

This investigation deals with the temporal aspects of air volume changes during speech. Speech respiration differs fundamentally from resting respiration. In resting respiration the duration and velocity of inspiration (air flow or lung volume change) are in a range similar to that of expiration. In speech respiration the duration of inspiration decreases and its velocity increases; conversely, the duration of expiration increases and the volume of air flow decreases dramatically. The following questions arise: are these two respiration types different entities, or do they represent the end points of a continuum from resting to speech respiration? How does articulation without the generation of speech sound affect breathing? Does (verbalized?) thinking without articulation or speech modify the breathing pattern? The main test battery included four tasks (spontaneous speech, reading, serial speech, arithmetic) performed under three conditions (speaking aloud, articulating subvocally, quiet performance by tryping to exclusively 'think' the tasks). Respiratory movements were measured with a chest pneumograph and evaluated in comparison with a phonogram and the identified spoken text. For quiet performance the resulting respiratory time ratio (relation of duration of inspiration versus expiration) showed a gradual shift in the direction of speech respiration--the least for reading, the most for arithmetic. This change was even more apparent for the subvocal tasks. It is concluded that (a) there is a gradual automatic change from resting to speech respiration and (b) the degree of internal verbalization (activation of motor speech areas) defines the degree of activation of the speech respiratory pattern.