RE: [HAPS-L] Your voice when you have a cold

["Janet Sherman" <jsherman@xxxxxxx>]

Whales have huge frontal sinuses.  So, too, did some dinosaurs.  The
sinuses are very much involved with the quality of sound and with its
ability to travel over distances. 

-----Original Message-----
From: HAPS-L-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:HAPS-L-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of David Evans
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 3:20 PM
To: HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [HAPS-L] Your voice when you have a cold

My assumption is that the frontal sinuses, for instance, provide for
voice resonance just as the different types of sound boxes behind a
string instrument provide for distinct "voices." Thus, different
individual instruments can have clearly distinct sound qualities; I
(deaf as I am) can even distinguish some differences between certain
violins. Some of those boxes are not even open to the front--I am
thinking about the traditional bass instruments of West Africa.

The sinus morphologies differ significantly from person to person and
even when comparing right and left sides in some people. Therefore,
everyone should have a distinct voiceprint; I suppose this might include
identical twins although I have no data on twins. However, my son and
his full first cousin (both male, about the same height, and born on the
same day) sound different.

Testing the hypothesis: The filling of the sinuses should have a similar
effect to stuffing a rag in the sound box of a guitar--try it yourself
and see. I don't know if this actually works and, since I am partially
deaf, am not the person to try it. Does this seem to be a more or less
reasonable approach to answer the question?

Let me know.
-----Original Message-----
From: HAPS-L-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:HAPS-L-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Ken Saladin
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 12:19 PM
To: HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [HAPS-L] Your voice when you have a cold

HAPSters,

A possibly dubious bit of traditional wisdom is that the reason your
voice changes when you have a cold is that mucus obstructs the travel of
sound waves into the paranasal sinuses and back, thus impeding the role
of the sinuses as resonating chambers.

I'm not so sure I buy that. Are the canals between the nasal cavity and
the sinuses really wide enough (or patent enough) for significant
conduction of sound waves? Just how wide are their apertures? (Gray's
doesn't say.) Couldn't the sinuses act as resonating chambers by means
of bone conduction of sound to and from the chambers? In a cold,
couldn't the swelling of the nasal mucosa itself and congestion of the
nasal cavity suffice to explain the change in voice?

Ken


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