TY - JOUR TI - Overtone focusing in biphonic tuvan throat singing AU - Bergevin, Christopher AU - Narayan, Chandan AU - Williams, Joy AU - Mhatre, Natasha AU - Steeves, Jennifer KE AU - Bernstein, Joshua GW AU - Story, Brad A2 - Griffiths, Timothy D A2 - Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara G VL - 9 PY - 2020 DA - 2020/02/12 SP - e50476 C1 - eLife 2020;9:e50476 DO - 10.7554/eLife.50476 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.50476 AB - Khoomei is a unique singing style originating from the republic of Tuva in central Asia. Singers produce two pitches simultaneously: a booming low-frequency rumble alongside a hovering high-pitched whistle-like tone. The biomechanics of this biphonation are not well-understood. Here, we use sound analysis, dynamic magnetic resonance imaging, and vocal tract modeling to demonstrate how biphonation is achieved by modulating vocal tract morphology. Tuvan singers show remarkable control in shaping their vocal tract to narrowly focus the harmonics (or overtones) emanating from their vocal cords. The biphonic sound is a combination of the fundamental pitch and a focused filter state, which is at the higher pitch (1–2 kHz) and formed by merging two formants, thereby greatly enhancing sound-production in a very narrow frequency range. Most importantly, we demonstrate that this biphonation is a phenomenon arising from linear filtering rather than from a nonlinear source. KW - Tuvan throat singing KW - acoustic phonetics KW - speech biomechanics KW - biphonation JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -