Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 4 complete abstracts (702 words), 10 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
A pair of cone-shaped elastic mucous membrane projecting from the laryngeal wall and forming a narrow slit between them. Each contains a thickened free edge (vocal ligament) extending from the thyroid cartilage to the arytenoid cartilage, and a vocal muscle that shortens or relaxes the vocal cord to control sound production.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Cords, Vocal; Cord, Vocal; Vocal Cord; Vocal Fold; Folds, Vocal; Fold, Vocal; Vocal Folds; Vocal Ligament.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Glottis
Related concepts
- Thyroid Cartilage
- Arytenoid Cartilage
- Vocal Muscle
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 10,837 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Vocal Cords” (counts retrieved 2026-10-31). 1,869 of them (17.2%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is through 1999 with 3,923 records.
Reviews account for 754 records (7.0%) and meta-analyses for 41. Randomized controlled trials number 165 (1.5%) as a share of all records on the topic. Randomized trials make up only a small share of this literature, so much of what is known comes from laboratory, observational or descriptive work.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 3,923 |
| 2000-2009 | 2,115 |
| 2010-2019 | 2,930 |
| 2020 onward | 1,869 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 754 | 7.0% |
| Meta-analyses | 41 | 0.4% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 165 | 1.5% |
Method: PubMed query "Vocal Cords"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-10-31.
Reading the evidence in anatomy and physiology
Anatomy describes how body structures are built and physiology describes how they normally work, so most findings here are descriptive or mechanistic rather than evidence about treatment. Much of what is known comes from dissection, imaging, tissue studies and experiments in animals, and measurements in healthy volunteers can differ from those in people with disease or at different ages. Normal ranges vary between individuals and populations. Check whether a result was measured in people or in another species, the age and health of the participants, and the method used.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAGLS, a multihospital Benchmark for Automatic Glottis Segmentation | 2020 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 46 | cc by PMID 32561845 · DOI · PMC7305104 |
| Concurrent YAP/TAZ and SMAD signaling mediate vocal fold fibrosis | 2021 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 45 | cc by PMID 34188130 · DOI · PMC8241934 |
| Vocal state change through laryngeal development | 2019 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 42 | cc by PMID 31597928 · DOI · PMC6785551 |
| Restoring the tumour mechanophenotype of vocal fold cancer reverts its malignant properties | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 2 | cc by PMID 41721007 · DOI · PMC13143829 |
BAGLS, a multihospital Benchmark for Automatic Glottis Segmentation [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Laryngeal videoendoscopy is one of the main tools in clinical examinations for voice disorders and voice research.
- Closing excerpt
- The BAGLS dataset will allow an objective comparison of glottis segmentation methods and will enable interested researchers to train their own models and compare their methods.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (163 words)
Laryngeal videoendoscopy is one of the main tools in clinical examinations for voice disorders and voice research. Using high-speed videoendoscopy, it is possible to fully capture the vocal fold oscillations, however, processing the recordings typically involves a time-consuming segmentation of the glottal area by trained experts. Even though automatic methods have been proposed and the task is particularly suited for deep learning methods, there are no public datasets and benchmarks available to compare methods and to allow training of generalizing deep learning models. In an international collaboration of researchers from seven institutions from the EU and USA, we have created BAGLS, a large, multihospital dataset of 59,250 high-speed videoendoscopy frames with individually annotated segmentation masks. The frames are based on 640 recordings of healthy and disordered subjects that were recorded with varying technical equipment by numerous clinicians. The BAGLS dataset will allow an objective comparison of glottis segmentation methods and will enable interested researchers to train their own models and compare their methods.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 32561845 · DOI · PMC7305104
Concurrent YAP/TAZ and SMAD signaling mediate vocal fold fibrosis [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Vocal fold (VF) fibrosis is a major cause of intractable voice-related disability and reduced quality of life.
- Closing excerpt
- Based on these data, YAP/TAZ may evolve as an attractive therapeutic target for VF fibrosis.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (198 words)
Vocal fold (VF) fibrosis is a major cause of intractable voice-related disability and reduced quality of life. Excision of fibrotic regions is suboptimal and associated with scar recurrence and/or further iatrogenic damage. Non-surgical interventions are limited, putatively related to limited insight regarding biochemical events underlying fibrosis, and downstream, the lack of therapeutic targets. YAP/TAZ integrates diverse cell signaling events and interacts with signaling pathways related to fibrosis, including the TGF-β/SMAD pathway. We investigated the expression of YAP/TAZ following vocal fold injury in vivo as well as the effects of TGF-β1 on YAP/TAZ activity in human vocal fold fibroblasts, fibroblast-myofibroblast transition, and TGF-β/SMAD signaling. Iatrogenic injury increased nuclear localization of YAP and TAZ in fibrotic rat vocal folds. In vitro, TGF-β1 activated YAP and TAZ in human VF fibroblasts, and inhibition of YAP/TAZ reversed TGF-β1-stimulated fibroplastic gene upregulation. Additionally, TGF-β1 induced localization of YAP and TAZ in close proximity to SMAD2/3, and nuclear accumulation of SMAD2/3 was inhibited by a YAP/TAZ inhibitor. Collectively, YAP and TAZ were synergistically activated with the TGF-β/SMAD pathway, and likely essential for the fibroplastic phenotypic shift in VF fibroblasts. Based on these data, YAP/TAZ may evolve as an attractive therapeutic target for VF fibrosis.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 34188130 · DOI · PMC8241934
Vocal state change through laryngeal development [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Across vertebrates, progressive changes in vocal behavior during postnatal development are typically attributed solely to developing neural circuits.
- Closing excerpt
- Our results emphasize the importance of embodied approaches to vocal development, where exploiting biomechanical consequences of changing material properties can simplify motor control, reducing the computational load on the developing brain.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (157 words)
Across vertebrates, progressive changes in vocal behavior during postnatal development are typically attributed solely to developing neural circuits. How the changing body influences vocal development remains unknown. Here we show that state changes in the contact vocalizations of infant marmoset monkeys, which transition from noisy, low frequency cries to tonal, higher pitched vocalizations in adults, are caused partially by laryngeal development. Combining analyses of natural vocalizations, motorized excised larynx experiments, tensile material tests and high-speed imaging, we show that vocal state transition occurs via a sound source switch from vocal folds to apical vocal membranes, producing louder vocalizations with higher efficiency. We show with an empirically based model of descending motor control how neural circuits could interact with changing laryngeal dynamics, leading to adaptive vocal development. Our results emphasize the importance of embodied approaches to vocal development, where exploiting biomechanical consequences of changing material properties can simplify motor control, reducing the computational load on the developing brain.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 31597928 · DOI · PMC6785551
Restoring the tumour mechanophenotype of vocal fold cancer reverts its malignant properties [4]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Increased extracellular matrix deposition and stiffness promotes solid tumour progression.
- Closing excerpt
- Overall, our findings suggest that vocal fold cancer is a mechanically sensitive malignancy, and that the restoration of tumour mechanophenotype or YAP/TAZ targeting represents a tractable anti-oncogenic therapeutic avenue for vocal fold cancer.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (184 words)
Increased extracellular matrix deposition and stiffness promotes solid tumour progression. Yet, the precise mechanotransduction pathways, especially in less-studied mechanically responsive cancers, remain poorly understood. Here we address this gap using patient-derived tumour cells from early (mobile, T1) and advanced (immobile, T3) stages of vocal fold cancer, the most common squamous cell carcinoma severely impacting the voice box. We reveal that vocal fold cancer progression is linked to cell surface receptor heterogeneity, a loss of laminin-binding integrins in cell-cell junctions and a flocking mode of collective cell motility. Mimicking the physiological movement of healthy vocal fold tissue with stretching or vibrations decreases oncogenic β-catenin and Yes-associated protein (YAP) nuclear levels in vocal fold cancer. Multiplex immunohistochemistry of vocal fold cancer tumours shows a correlation between the extracellular matrix composition, nuclear YAP and patient survival, concordant with vocal fold cancer sensitivity to oncogenic YAP-TEAD Hippo pathway inhibitors both in vitro and in vivo. Overall, our findings suggest that vocal fold cancer is a mechanically sensitive malignancy, and that the restoration of tumour mechanophenotype or YAP/TAZ targeting represents a tractable anti-oncogenic therapeutic avenue for vocal fold cancer.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41721007 · DOI · PMC13143829
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Recommended Protocols for Instrumental Assessment of Voice: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Expert Panel to Develop a Protocol for Instrumental Assessment of Vocal Function [5]
- Research article Pathophysiology and treatment of muscle tension dysphonia: a review of the current knowledge [6]
- Research article Current understanding and review of the literature: vocal fold scarring [7]
- Research article Vocal fold epithelial barrier in health and injury: a research review [8]
- Research article Evidence-based practice: evaluation and management of unilateral vocal fold paralysis [9]
- Research article Laryngopharyngeal Reflux and Voice Disorders: A Multifactorial Model of Etiology and Pathophysiology [10]
References
- Gómez P, Kist AM, Schlegel P, Berry DA, Chhetri DK, Dürr S, et al.. BAGLS, a multihospital Benchmark for Automatic Glottis Segmentation. . 2020. PMID 32561845 · DOI · PMC7305104
- Nakamura R, Hiwatashi N, Bing R, Doyle CP, Branski RC. Concurrent YAP/TAZ and SMAD signaling mediate vocal fold fibrosis. . 2021. PMID 34188130 · DOI · PMC8241934
- Zhang YS, Takahashi DY, Liao DA, Ghazanfar AA, Elemans CPH. Vocal state change through laryngeal development. . 2019. PMID 31597928 · DOI · PMC6785551
- Kaivola J, Punovuori K, Chastney MR, Abdo H, Follain G, Mathieu M, et al.. Restoring the tumour mechanophenotype of vocal fold cancer reverts its malignant properties. . 2026. PMID 41721007 · DOI · PMC13143829
- Patel RR, Awan SN, Barkmeier-Kraemer J, Courey M, Deliyski D, Eadie T, et al.. Recommended Protocols for Instrumental Assessment of Voice: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Expert Panel to Develop a Protocol for Instrumental Assessment of Vocal Function. Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2018. PMID 29955816 · DOI
- Van Houtte E, Van Lierde K, Claeys S. Pathophysiology and treatment of muscle tension dysphonia: a review of the current knowledge. J Voice. 2011. PMID 20400263 · DOI
- Hansen JK, Thibeault SL. Current understanding and review of the literature: vocal fold scarring. J Voice. 2006. PMID 15964741 · DOI
- Levendoski EE, Leydon C, Thibeault SL. Vocal fold epithelial barrier in health and injury: a research review. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2014. PMID 24686981 · DOI · PMC4557797
- Misono S, Merati AL. Evidence-based practice: evaluation and management of unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Otolaryngol Clin North Am. 2012. PMID 22980687 · DOI
- Lechien JR, Saussez S, Harmegnies B, Finck C, Burns JA. Laryngopharyngeal Reflux and Voice Disorders: A Multifactorial Model of Etiology and Pathophysiology. J Voice. 2017. PMID 28438489 · DOI
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-10-31; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-10-31.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.