 Hey everybody Dr. O here in this video we're going to talk about the larynx or your voice box then we will talk about the vocal cords as well so you can see here the larynx it actually connects the pharynx down down to the trachea and it helps to regulate how much air is going to enter and exit your your respiratory system your lungs it's primarily made of it's made of all cartilage but there's lots of different types of cartilages here there's three big ones as you can see those are the ones that are bolded on both of these images we have the epiglottis that's that elastic flap that covers like a lid covers the top of the glottis when you swallow so that food or drink doesn't go down the wrong pipe into your airways you have the thyroid cartilage on that forms the front of the larynx this is where the laryngeal prominence or your adam's apple is because it tends to be larger in men and you'll see how that also seems to play a role with sound production later then the cricoid cartilage is really just this ring around the edges not as big of a deal you can also see the let's see the arytenoid cartilage corniculate cartilage and the cuneiform cartilage these smaller cartilages they actually will attach to the muscles that control speech and sound production because of their link to the vocal cords so they're going to be pretty important in speech production not in sound production not really the structure here what else about this just those small spaces you see the cricothyroid ligament cricotracheal ligament especially that cricothyroid ligament that's going to be where tracheotomy would be performed so not a huge deal but just kind of interesting so those are the cartilages think of it being truly a box a box of cartilage with cartilage on the top front backs and the sides let's dive in though and see what it's actually protecting it's protecting the glottis which you see here which is the opening to the trachea so the glottis is really the opening but it's also you have the true vocal cords then you have what are called the vestibular folds or the false vocal cords so these are so that the white portion there are your actual vocal cords and because there's an opening between them there's a space that allows them to vibrate as sound travels through them so can so think about the vocal cords oscillating or vibrating being very similar to the sound you produce when you when you strum a guitar string something like that the size and thickness of these true vocal cords do play a big role in the pitch so the reason that people have different pitches or different make different sounds when when they speak is because of that that can also be altered because your vocal cords are attached to muscles so this is why some people are really good at impersonating other people they can they can manipulate these muscles better than the rest of us and they can change with their voice sounds we can all change how our voice sounds but some people are much better than others and then lastly because of the thickness and tension in these vocal cords generally men are going to have deeper voices because of the size of the larynx remember the larynx the cartilage is bigger in most men and that's where that deeper voice would come from all right so that is the larynx and your vocal cords and just basically sound production is going to be air being pushed out of this glottis and vibrating or oscillating these vocal cords now speech is going to involve lots of other structures the actual sound that comes out of your mouth will involve your sinuses your tongue and the rest of your mouth and lots of other structures as well so okay i hope this helps have a wonderful day be blessed