GabyIt turns out that the soft pads embedded in a cat’s vocal cords are responsible for purring. This discovery, led by prominent vocal scientist Christian Herbst from the University of Vienna in Austria, challenges the common belief that purring is caused by active muscle contractions. Vocal science is the study of voice, timbre, and sound.
How Do Purring Cats’ Vocal Cords Work?
For years, researchers have puzzled over how cats produce their low-frequency sounds, which are typically associated with larger animals that have longer vocal cords. These ‘purring pads,’ integrated into the vocal cords, likely increase the cords’ density and cause them to vibrate more slowly. This, in turn, creates the delightful rumble that cat owners cherish, as reported by Science Alert.
Researchers think purring may be a passive aerodynamic process that continues automatically after the brain sends an initial signal. The team says the vocal-cord vibrations resemble the low, creaky voice humans can make. When we speak in such a voice, our vocal cords vibrate at a very low frequency. The pads that enable cats to purr function in a similar way, even though cats’ vocal cords are much shorter than ours.
The team reached these conclusions after examining the larynges of eight cats. All eight larynges produced the distinctive sound through vocal-cord vibrations without active muscle contractions or nerve impulses. These findings, published in the journal Current Biology, indicate that active muscle contractions are not necessary for purring.
Over time, researchers have proposed various hypotheses about what prompts cats to purr. Some scientists suggest purring signals contentment and a readiness to interact with humans. Others argue purring may have healing effects on humans. Many cat owners have experienced this phenomenon firsthand.
