Immediate effect of different exercises in the vocal space of women with and without vocal nodules

PURPOSE: To investigate the immediate effect of voiced tongue vibration (VSL), high-resistance straw in the air (CAR), and overarticulation (OA) on the vocal space of vocally healthy women (MVS) and with vocal nodules (MNV). METHODS: 12 women participated in the MNV and 12 women in the MVS, allocated to perform the vocal exercises of VSL, CAR, and OA. Each participant performed only one of the three proposed exercises, for 5 minutes, preceded and followed by recording a sequence of vehicle sentences for extracting formants (F1 and F2) from the vowel segments [a, i, u]. The vowel space was analyzed through the differences between the measures of the formants of the vowels. RESULTS: we observed a reduction of F1 in the interval [a]-[i] and [i]-[u] and of F2 between the vowels [a]-[u] and [i]-[u] in the MVS, after performing the CAR. In MNV, we observed a reduction of F2 in the interval [a]-[i] after VSL. In the intergroup analysis, there were higher F1 values between the intervals of the vowels [a]-[i] and [i]-[u] in the MVS, before performing the CAR, and after exercise only in the interval [a]-[i]. A higher value of F1 and F2 was observed in the interval between the vowels [i]-[u] in the MNV after VSL. CONCLUSION: The VSL exercise reduced the vowel space in MNV women. CAR reduced the vocal space of women in the MVS. The MNV had a smaller vowel space compared to the MVS before and after the CAR. We observed a reduction in the vowel space in the MNV compared to the MNV after the VSL exercise.