To develop and evaluate a technique for 3D dynamic MRI of the full vocal tract at high temporal resolution during natural speech.
We demonstrate 2.4 × 2.4 × 5.8 mm3spatial resolution, 61‐ms temporal resolution, and a 200 × 200 × 70 mm3FOV. The proposed method uses 3D gradient‐echo imaging with a custom upper‐airway coil, a minimum‐phase slab excitation, stack‐of‐spirals readout, pseudo golden‐angle view order in
This technique captured known dynamics of vocal tract articulators during natural speech tasks including tongue gestures during the production of consonants “s” and “l” and of consonant–vowel syllables, and was additionally consistent with 2D dynamic MRI. Coordination of lingual (tongue) movements for consonants is demonstrated via volume‐of‐interest analysis. Vocal tract area function dynamics revealed critical lingual constriction events along the length of the vocal tract for consonants and vowels.
We demonstrate feasibility of 3D dynamic MRI of the full vocal tract, with spatiotemporal resolution adequate to visualize lingual movements for consonants and vocal tact shaping during natural productions of consonant–vowel syllables, without requiring multiple repetitions.