Viewers will learn that the larynx is an organ in the neck. It is crucial for speech and breathing. Students will come to understand the larynx controls airflow during breathing, protects the airway during ingestion of food, and produces sound.
They will discover that at the larynx, the aerodigestive tract splits into two separate pathways. Inhaled air goes through the trachea, or windpipe, and into the lungs. In the program learners will realize that the vocal folds are located in the larynx and they produce sound and allow us allow us to speak.
The larynx, commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound, and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. The larynx houses the vocal folds, and manipulates pitch and volume, which is essential for phonation. It is situated just below where the tract of the pharynx splits into the trachea and the esophagus.
The triangle-shaped larynx consists largely of cartilages that are attached to one another and to surroundings structures by muscles or by fibrous and elastic tissue components. It is lined by a ciliated mucous membrane. The cavity of the larynx extends from its triangle-shaped inlet the epiglottis to the circular outlet at the lower border of the cricoid cartilage, where it is continuous with the lumen of the trachea. The mucous membrane lining the larynx forms two pairs of lateral folds that jut inward into its cavity. The upper folds are called the vestibular folds. They are also sometimes called the false vocal folds for the rather obvious reason that they play no part in vocalization. The lower pair serves as the vocal folds, which produce sounds needed for speech and other vocalizations. The vocal folds are sometimes called the true vocal folds or simply vocal cords (and often mistakenly spelt as, “vocal chords”). The slitlike space between the left and right vocal folds, called the rima glottidis, is the narrowest part of the larynx. The vocal folds and the space between them (rima glottidis) are together designated as the glottis. An endoscopic view of the vocal folds and related structures. The laryngeal cavity above the vestibular folds is called the vestibule. The very middle portion of the cavity between the vestibular and vocal folds is the ventricle of the larynx, or laryngeal ventricle. The infraglottic cavity is the open space below the glottis.
In adult humans, the larynx is found in the anterior neck at the level of the C3–C6 vertebrae. It connects the inferior part of the pharynx (hypopharynx) with the trachea. The laryngeal skeleton consists of six cartilages: three single (epiglottic, thyroid and cricoid) and three paired (arytenoid, corniculate, and cuneiform). The hyoid bone is not part of the larynx, though the larynx is suspended from the hyoid. The larynx extends vertically from the tip of the epiglottis to the inferior border of the cricoid cartilage. Its interior can be divided in supraglottis, glottis and subglottis.
