Regulation of Voice Development in Childhood and Puberty, A Review

Abstract

Our aim with this systematic review was to get further knowledge of the biological background of the normal human voice production. The search included genetics and brain development related to voice production as well as hormones. Only 18 papers were found in a search made by the library of the Royal English Society of Medicine, We supplemented the systematic search with references, found in papers that did have interesting information even if no voice production measures were found. Voice analysis included the quantitative GAT (glottal analysis tools), OCT (optical coherence tomography) and deep learning research on the vocal folds. The sexual hormones were discussed, as well as the genetic development of voice production, regulated from the hypothalamus probably related to growth hormone. The primitive integrating voice production centre placed in the motor cortex located over the hand in the homunculus is discussed. Two signal processing brain functions for voice production of voluntary and involuntary processing have different developmental aspects. Updated results of fMRI brain studies are referred to as well as results of tissue examinations. All these findings are important in the future. Advanced quantitative voice production analysis based on huge amounts of sound information can be combined with artificial intelligence methods to treat voice production deficiencies. In this way developmental disorders of voice production could be diagnosed and treated better.