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Summary Background Earlier studies have shown that nasalization affects the radiated spectrum by modifying the vocal tract transfer function in a complex manner. Methods Here we study this phenomenon by measuring sine-sweep response of 3-D models of the vowels /u, a, ᴂ, i/, derived from volumetric MR imaging, coupled by means of tubes of different lengths and diameters to a 3-D model of a nasal tract. Results The coupling introduced a dip into the vocal tract transfer function. The dip frequency was close to the main resonance of the nasal tract, a result in agreement with the Fujimura & Lindqvist in vivo sweep tone measurements [Fujimura & Lindqvist, 1972]. With increasing size of the coupling tube the depth of the dip increased and the first formant peak either changed in frequency or was split by the dip. Only marginal effects were observed of the paranasal sinuses. For certain coupling tube sizes, the spectrum balance was changed, boosting the formant peaks in the 2 – 4 kHz range. Conclusion A velopharyngeal opening introduces a dip in the transfer function at the main resonance of the nasal tract. Its depth increases with the area of the opening and its frequency rises in some vowels.

Summary Objectives The vocal tract discomfort scale is a self-rating seven-point Likert scale that quantifies frequency and severity of eight qualitative descriptors including burning, tight, dry, aching, tickling, sore, irritable, and lump in the throat, and ranges from 0 (never/none) to 6 (always/extreme; Mathieson et al. 2009). The objectives of the current study were to compare the vocal tract discomfort scale results between elementary school teachers and high school teachers and between male and female teachers using the Persian vocal tract discomfort scale. Also, teachers in different age ranges and with different experiences were compared regarding vocal tract discomfort symptoms. Methods The researchers chose 20 elementary and high schools by simple random sampling in Khorramabad, Iran. The survey was given to available teachers of the selected schools. Considering the inclusion criteria, required sample size, and after excluding questionnaires that were not correctly answered, 120 were selected such that 30 were chosen for each subgroup. Subjects consisted of 60 elementary school teachers (30 females and 30 males) with the mean age of 40.92 years (standard deviation = 6.07) and 60 high school teachers (30 females and 30 males) with the mean age of 40.67 years (standard deviation = 6.00). SPSS 25 was used for analyzing the data. Results Results indicated that the frequency and severity of the vocal tract discomfort in elementary school teachers were significantly higher than for the high school teachers with a medium to large effect size. Although the frequency and severity of the symptoms were higher in female compared with male teachers, those differences were not significantly different. Younger teachers had lower frequency and severity ratings of vocal tract discomfort symptoms than older teachers. Teaching experience was not an important factor in predicting vocal tract discomfort symptoms in teachers. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that there is higher frequency, greater severity, and higher percentages of vocal tract discomfort symptoms in elementary compared with high school teachers. In addition, although the mean frequency and severity of vocal tract discomfort symptoms were not significantly different between females and males, females reported higher percentages of the symptoms. Because each of the eight vocal tract symptoms was experienced at the time of testing by between 42% (tightness) and 68% (dryness) of the participants, it is suggested that an educational program regarding vocal tract discomfort may be helpful for this profession.

With the continuing growth of voice-controlled devices, voice metrics have been widely used for user identification. However, voice biometrics is vulnerable to replay attacks and ambient noise. We identify that the fundamental vulnerability in voice biometrics is rooted in its indirect sensing modality (e.g., microphone). In this paper, we present VocalPrint, a resilient mmWave interrogation system that directly captures and analyzes the vocal vibrations for user authentication. Specifically, VocalPrint exploits the unique disturbance of the skin-reflect radio frequency (RF) signals around the near-throat region of the user, caused by the vocal vibrations. The complex ambient noise is isolated from the RF signal using a novel resilience-aware clutter suppression approach for preserving fine-grained vocal biometric properties. Afterward, we extract the vocal tract and vocal source features and input them into an ensemble classifier for authentication. VocalPrint is practical as it allows the effortless transition to a smartphone while having sufficient usability due to its non-contact nature. Our experimental results from 41 participants with different interrogation distances, orientations, and body motions show that VocalPrint achieves over 96% authentication accuracy even under unfavorable conditions. We demonstrate the resilience of our system against complex noise interference and spoof attacks of various threat levels.

Summary Objective Semioccluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises are routinely included in many voice therapy programs because they have been shown to improve acoustic, aerodynamic, and patient-reported voice outcomes. One limitation of the traditional SOVT exercise is that the nature of phonation through straws or semioccluded oral postures allows only for single phoneme production. A variably occluded facemask (VOFM) allows for use of articulated connected speech beyond the production of single phonemes, while still providing occlusion and, presumably, the vocal efficiency benefits that arise from it. This study reports on the effect of time duration of phonation with a variably occluded facemask on voice outcomes in patients with voice disorders. Design Prospective, randomized cohort study. Methods Fifteen patients with voice disorders phonated for 5 minutes through a VOFM with diameter openings of 3.2, 6.4, and 9.6 mm. Acoustic and aerodynamic voice measures were collected before and after each occlusion trial. These results were compared to a historical patient group that received the same phonation training for 2 minutes. Results Positive effect sizes were found for acoustic and aerodynamic improvements for all patients for at least one occlusion diameter. Effect sizes for aerodynamic outcomes were greater in the 5-minute conditions for both the 9.6- and 6.4-mm occlusions than the 2-minute condition. Effect sizes for acoustic outcomes were greater in the 5 minute than 2-minute trial for the 9.6- and 6.4-mm occlusion diameter, but greater in the 2 minute than 5-minute trial for 3.2-mm diameter. Discussion This study provides evidence that all three occlusion sizes may elicit beneficial changes for different patients; however, 5 minutes of phonation into a facemask with end occlusion of 6.4-mm diameter results in improved acoustic and aerodynamic voice outcomes for many patients with voice disorders. Future studies should further explore phonatory physiologic changes of the VOFM in a larger sample of patients and translate effects into clinical treatment for patients with voice disorders.

Summary Objective Several techniques have been practiced in the field of voice therapy to balance glottal pressures and improve glottal adduction. As such, Semioccluded Vocal Tract Exercises using narrow diameter straws have shown promise as a technique to increase glottal contact as reflected by Closed Quotients (CQ) measured from electroglottograph (EGG). This study explored the effect of nasal resistance (NR) technique, a manually induced NR approach, on glottal adduction in phononormal subjects as a possible new therapeutic technique to assist in glottal closure. Subjects Thirty-four vocally healthy adult females qualified for this study. All subjects were reportedly and perceptually normal. Methods Subjects were instructed to perform tasks including (a) steady modal phonation, (b) straw phonation, (c) humming, and (d) NR technique in a random order. EGG measures included calculation of the CQ and jitter during the mid-section of each stimuli for a minimum of 10 EGG cycles. One-way repeated measures ANOVAs and Bonferroni post-hoc comparisons were calculated to determine differences between each phonatory task for the outcome measures of CQ and jitter. Results Analyses revealed that the mean CQ was significantly different in all the tasks performed with humming (33.99%) at the lowest and NR technique at highest (43.88%). Though the CQ of straw phonation (40.53%) was higher than modal steady phonation (36.65%), jitter was found to be significantly lower for NR technique (0.23%). Jitter during straw phonation (0.43%) did not differ significantly from modal phonation (0.44%). Conclusion These results provide preliminary evidence that NR technique can increase CQ with lower levels of jitter compared to straw phonation using a narrow diameter of 2 mm. Future studies should expand enrollment to men, larger age ranges, and patients with hypofunctional symptoms (eg, Parkinson disease) to evaluate the potential benefits of NR as a therapeutic technique.

The objective of this study was to determine the immediate effects of transcutaneous electrical nervous stimulation (TENS) and semi-occluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises on acoustic parameters in teachers in the city of Chillan. The study was based on a quantitative methodological perspective, with a comparative descriptive scope and a quasi-experimental longitudinal design. The sample was composed of 30 teachers belonging to the Reyes de Espana School, who were evaluated using Praat software, pre and post treatment. The teachers were divided into 2 groups; control group (semi-occluded vocal tract therapy) and experimental group (semi-occluded vocal tract therapy and electrostimulation) who were treated during a single session of approximately 10 min. The values of the acoustic parameters were then compared [Jitter, Shimmer, Harmonic to Noise Ratio (HNR) and Maximum Phonation Time (MPT)] between both groups. The acoustic analysis showed statistically significant post-intervention changes in all the parameters evaluated for both study groups, however, in the experimental group the means showed a greater difference, with a p value less than .01. Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises in resonance tubes combined with TENS have immediate positive effects on TMF, Jitter, Shimmer and HNR acoustic parameters in teachers without vocal pathology.

Effective child automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems have become increasingly important due to the growing use of interactive technology. Due to the lack of publicly available child speech databases, young child ASR systems often rely on older child or adult speech for training data. However, there is a large acoustic mismatch between child and adult speech. This study proposes a novel fundamental frequency ( f o )-based frequency warping technique for both frequency normalization and data augmentation to combat this acoustic mismatch and address the lack of available child speech training data. The technique is inspired by the tonotopic distances between formants and f o , developed to model human vowel perception. The tonotopic distances are reformulated as a linear relationship between f o and vowel formants on the Mel scale. This reformulation is verified using f o and formant measurements from child utterances. The relationship is further generalized such that the frequency warping technique only relies on two parameters. The LibriSpeech ASR corpus is used for training, and both the OGI Kids’ Speech and CMU Kids Corpora are used for both training and testing. A single word ASR experiment and a continuous read speech ASR experiment are performed to evaluate the f o -based frequency normalization and data augmentation techniques. In the single word experiment, the system using f o -based frequency normalization significantly improved over the baseline system with no normalization, with a relative improvement of up to 22.3%, when the mismatch between training and testing data was large. In the continuous speech experiment, the combination of f o -based frequency normalization and data augmentation resulted in a relative improvement of 19.3% over the baseline. Additionally, in all experiments, the f o -based techniques outperformed other techniques such as vocal tract length normalization (VTLN) or vocal tract length perturbation (VTLP). Results were validated using Gaussian mixture model (GMM), deep neural network (DNN), and bidirectional long–short term memory (BLSTM) acoustic models.

The aim of this paper is perform the synthesis of sung Spanish vowels considering the soprano vocal category of lyrical singers, including variation of sustained pitches with vibrato and tremolo effects, considering sounds from Spanish language. The Fant source-filter theory is used to model the production of the sung vowels: the source is based on the Rosenberg glottal pulse model and the filter (the vocal tract) is composed by an all-pole filter model with formant frequencies and bandwidths from the vowels of the Spanish language, obtained through experimental voice signals from two soprano singers. All the sounds synthesized are available to be accessed and they were submitted to a group of listeners which gave a very good evaluation with respect to the intelligibility and naturalness of the sounds.

Vocal tract elongation, which uniformly lowers vocal tract resonances (formant frequencies) in animal vocalizations, has evolved independently in several vertebrate groups as a means for vocalizers to exaggerate their apparent body size. Here, we propose that smaller speech-like articulatory movements that alter only individual formants can serve a similar yet less energetically costly size-exaggerating function. To test this, we examine whether uneven formant spacing alters the perceived body size of vocalizers in synthesized human vowels and animal calls. Among six synthetic vowel patterns, those characterized by the lowest first and second formant (the vowel /u/ as in ‘boot’) are consistently perceived as produced by the largest vocalizer. Crucially, lowering only one or two formants in animal-like calls also conveys the impression of a larger body size, and lowering the second and third formants simultaneously exaggerates perceived size to a similar extent as rescaling all formants. As the articulatory movements required for individual formant shifts are minor compared to full vocal tract extension, they represent a rapid and energetically efficient mechanism for acoustic size exaggeration. We suggest that, by favouring the evolution of uneven formant patterns in vocal communication, this deceptive strategy may have contributed to the origins of the phonemic diversification required for articulated speech. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.

We are creating a new set of web-based interactive learning units in phonetics and phonology. These serve two purposes: supplementing student learning in the English Linguistics Basismodul, and providing review material for intermediate/advanced-level courses. With the proposed units, instructors have a resource for flipped classroom teaching or self-paced learning by assigning them to students to complete outside of limited contact hours. Students are able to review their most needed topics, and spend as much time as necessary. With less class-time spent on review, courses can more efficiently focus on new material. Each unit has a short quiz with autograded questions and feedback that provides dynamic links to relevant sections of the unit. In addition to supplementing the Basismodul, the units will provide important review material for intermediate/advanced-level courses. At present, these courses are required to spend a substantial portion at the beginning of the course reviewing foundational material. With the new review units, instructors will be able to refer students to these units for review, and/or incorporate them into flipped-classroom teaching. Units will be self-contained to allow instructors better choice of units to assign. For example, a Morphology course may require units on the sound structure of words, while a Sociophonetics course might require more extensive review of the physical properties of speech. Each unit will begin with an initial assessment quiz, recommend the unit of needed, and conclude with a final quiz. Both assessments will draw from a larger pool of questions, allowing the student to retake them. The main part of each unit will consist of short texts with interactive multimedia elements implemented using the H5P plugin, an HTML5-based tool for creating interactive content. Acknowledgement: This project was funded by E-Learning Förderfonds, SeLL (Service-Center für gutes Lehren und Lernen) at Heinrich-Heine-Universität düsseldorf in 2022 (https://www.elearning.hhu.de/projektfoerderung/elearning-foerderfonds/foerderprojekte-nach-runden/gefoerderte-projekte-2022-i-1)

he proposed textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to key aspects in phonetics and phonology with a special focus on the sound pattern of English. Both segmental and suprasegmental aspects of the language are explored and several of the main concepts of phonetics and phonology are discussed in relation to English, Greek, but also other languages. Initially, students are introduced to the study of phonetics. The vocal tract and the articulation of consonants (place, manner, voicing) and vowels (tongue height, tongue backness, rounding) is explained. The need for a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and symbols is addressed, accompanied by the presentation of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Special reference to the sounds of English and Greek is made. The concept of voice onset time (VOT) is subsequently described for two reasons. On the one hand it clarifies voicing and aspiration in plosives, and on the other, it offers the chance to briefly refer to acoustic phonetics and acquaint students with waveforms and spectrograms. In the phonological part of the textbook, students are first exposed to the core concepts of phonemic and allophonic distribution. The difference between phonemic and phonetic transcription is addressed and additional IPA symbols/diacritics are offered. Core phonological processes are then demonstrated, such as assimilation, insertion, deletion and neutralization. Basic theoretical tools are explored, including distinctive features and linear rules. The textbook then proceeds to a description of syllable structure as well as aspects of stress in English and elsewhere. The textbook closes with a brief overview of tone and intonation. Throughout, the textbook is accompanied by several exercises and small datasets. Some are discussed and analyzed within the text, and some are left for students to work through at home, so that they practice their critical, analytical and problem-solving skills., The proposed textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to key aspects in phonetics and phonology with a special focus on the sound pattern of English. Both segmental and suprasegmental aspects of the language are explored and several of the main concepts of phonetics and phonology are discussed in relation to English, Greek, but also other languages. Initially, students are introduced to the study of phonetics. The vocal tract and the articulation of consonants (place, manner, voicing) and vowels (tongue height, tongue backness, rounding) is explained. The need for a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and symbols is addressed, accompanied by the presentation of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Special reference to the sounds of English and Greek is made. The concept of voice onset time (VOT) is subsequently described for two reasons. On the one hand it clarifies voicing and aspiration in plosives, and on the other, it offers the chance to briefly refer to acoustic phonetics and acquaint students with waveforms and spectrograms. In the phonological part of the textbook, students are first exposed to the core concepts of phonemic and allophonic distribution. The difference between phonemic and phonetic transcription is addressed and additional IPA symbols/diacritics are offered. Core phonological processes are then demonstrated, such as assimilation, insertion, deletion and neutralization. Basic theoretical tools are explored, including distinctive features and linear rules. The textbook then proceeds to a description of syllable structure as well as aspects of stress in English and elsewhere. The textbook closes with a brief overview of tone and intonation. Throughout, the textbook is accompanied by several exercises and small datasets. Some are discussed and analyzed within the text, and some are left for students to work through at home, so that they practice their critical, analytical and problem-solving skills.

Introduction Transparent, patient-specific vocal tract replicas are helpful in research and educational endeavors but challenging to procure. An accessible method for fabricating these models, improving on previously suggested processes, would make them more widely available. Method Detailed instructions for fabricating a transparent, patient-specific vocal tract model were addressed. The broad steps were (1) digitally reconstructing (patient-specific) vocal tract geometry, (2) producing a vocal tract mold (using methods such as three-dimensional [3D] printing), and (3) casting transparent material (such as silicone) around the vocal tract mold and removing the mold. The cavities remaining within the cast represented the exact geometry of the vocal tract. Discussion A combination of 3D printing and silicone casting can produce useful vocal tract replicas. Several simple changes to previous methods can improve consistency and reduce the labor and cost of production. Limitations and potential modifications to expand the applications of this method are discussed.

Purpose This study primarily aimed at observing the possible tissue mobilization on facial, neck, and chest tissues caused by different double source of vibration semioccluded vocal tract exercises (DSV-SOVTEs). Another goal was to inspect the degree of self-perceived sensation of a massage-like sensation. Method Fifty-five participants engaged in a set of several DSV-SOVTEs: (a) phonation with a silicone tube submerged 2 and 8 cm below water surface, (b) Acapella Choice device, (c) lip trills, and (d) tongue trills. A self-perceived massage-like sensation was also assessed. All exercises were performed at three loudness levels. Tissue mobilization signal was captured by four accelerometers placed in four different body regions: (a) over the cheek, (b) over the neck, (c) over the thyroid cartilage, and (d) over the suprasternal notch. Results There is a differential effect of all DSV-SOVTEs on tissue mobilization. All four observed dependent variables from tissue oscillation modulation (frequency, amplitude, jitter, and shimmer) showed significant three-way interactions. In general, amplitude and frequency of tissue oscillation modulation increases with loudness. A self-perceived massage-like sensation showed highly significant differences between DSV-SOVTEs. Conclusions All DSV-SOVTEs do mobilize tissues. Type of exercise, loudness level, and body region produce an effect on all tissue oscillation variables. Acapella device produces the largest amplitude of vibration, lowest frequency, and more regular oscillation of tissue. Water resistance therapy showed the most irregular tissue oscillation. Control of these variables is likely to be relevant to obtain the best outcomes in patients.

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is becoming an established tool in capturing articulatory and physiological motion of the structures and muscles throughout the vocal tract and enabling visual and quantitative assessment of real-time speech activities. Although motion capture speed has been regularly improved by the continual developments in high-speed MR technology, quantitative analysis of multi-subject group data remains challenging due to variations in speaking rate and imaging time among different subjects. In this paper, a workflow of post-processing methods that matches different MR image datasets within a study group is proposed. Each subject's recorded audio waveform during speech is used to extract temporal domain information and generate temporal alignment mappings from their matching pattern. The corresponding image data are resampled by deformable registration and interpolation of the deformation fields, achieving inter-subject temporal alignment between image sequences. A four-dimensional dynamic MR speech atlas is constructed using aligned volumes from four human subjects. Similarity tests between subject and target domains using the squared error, cross correlation, and mutual information measures all show an overall score increase after spatiotemporal alignment. The amount of image variability in atlas construction is reduced, indicating a quality increase in the multi-subject data for groupwise quantitative analysis.

The study addresses the benefit of tuning single harmonics with vocal tract resonances to increase vocal loudness. The loudness of theoretically constructed vocal sounds with variable levels of sound energy in the first, second, and third harmonics is computed on the basis of ISO standard 226:2003. In comparison to increased loudness with changes in overall spectral slope, it is shown that single harmonic tuning requires a greater range of SPL to produce a similar range of loudness. For example, a 10-40 dB increase in the level of a single harmonic produces less than two doublings of loudness, whereas a spectral slope change from -12 dB/octave to -3 dB/octave can produce a similar doubling of loudness with only a 5 dB SPL increase.

Sound generation during voiced speech remains an open research topic because the underlying process within the human larynx is hardly accessible for direct measurements. In the present study, harmonic sound generation during phonation was investigated with a model that replicates the fully coupled fluid-structure-acoustic interaction (FSAI). The FSAI was captured using a multi-modal approach by measuring the flow and acoustic source fields based on particle image velocimetry, as well as the surface velocity of the vocal folds based on laser vibrometry and high-speed imaging. Strong harmonic sources were localized near the glottis, as well as further downstream, during the presence of the supraglottal jet. The strongest harmonic content of the vocal fold surface motion was verified for the area near the glottis, which directly interacts with the glottal jet flow. Also, the acoustic back-coupling of the formant frequencies onto the harmonic oscillation of the vocal folds was verified. These findings verify that harmonic sound generation is the result of a strong interrelation between the vocal fold motion, modulated flow field, and vocal tract geometry.

The perceived pitch of human voices is highly correlated with the fundamental frequency (f0) of the laryngeal source, which is determined largely by the length and mass of the vocal folds. The vocal folds are larger in adult males than in adult females, and men’s voices consequently have a lower pitch than women’s. The length of the supralaryngeal vocal tract (vocal-tract length; VTL) affects the resonant frequencies (formants) of speech which characterize the timbre of the voice. Men’s longer vocal tracts produce lower frequency, and less dispersed, formants than women’s shorter vocal tracts. Pitch and timbre combine to influence the perception of speaker characteristics such as size and age. Together, they can be used to categorize speaker sex with almost perfect accuracy. While it is known that domestic dogs can match a voice to a person of the same sex, there has been no investigation into whether dogs are sensitive to the correlation between pitch and timbre. We recorded a female voice giving three commands (‘Sit’, ‘Lay down’, ‘Come here’), and manipulated the recordings to lower the fundamental frequency (thus lowering pitch), increase simulated VTL (hence affecting timbre), or both (synthesized adult male voice). Dogs responded to the original adult female and synthesized adult male voices equivalently. Their tendency to obey the commands was, however, reduced when either pitch or timbre was manipulated alone. These results suggest that dogs are sensitive to both the pitch and timbre of human voices, and that they learn about the natural covariation of these perceptual attributes.

Purpose The study of air pressure in the vocal tract is essential to understanding vocal function. Changes in vocal tract shape during different phonatory gestures are hypothesized to produce nonuniform air pressure across lower vocal tract locations. Current methods of air pressure measurement, however, are limited to a single location in the anterior oral cavity. The purposes of this study were (a) to assess the feasibility of a novel method of simultaneously measuring phonatory air pressure at multiple locations across the lower vocal tract using high-resolution pharyngeal manometry (HRM) and (b) to compare pressure across locations and among phonatory tasks. Method Two subjects underwent HRM while performing phonatory tasks. A catheter was passed transnasally and air pressure was measured simultaneously at five locations between the velopharyngeal port and the upper esophageal sphincter. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each location by task, and for each task averaged across locations. Results HRM was well tolerated, and air pressures from multiple locations in the lower vocal tract were able to be obtained simultaneously. During vocal tract semi-occlusion tasks, air pressures differed by location. Pressures averaged across locations demonstrated a pattern of increasing pressure with increasing semi-occlusion. Conclusions HRM is feasible for measuring air pressure simultaneously at multiple locations in the lower vocal tract during phonation with high spatial and temporal resolution, providing rich data to augment understanding of vocal function. The high spatial and temporal resolution yielded by this new method, paired with preliminary evidence that pressures change by location as a function of phonatory task, may be useful in future assays exploring differences in lower vocal tract air pressures between normal and disordered populations.

For building a successful automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine large training data is required. It increases training complexity and become impossible for less resource language like Punjabi which have zero children corpus. Consequently, the issue of data scarcity, and small vocal length of children speakers also degrades the system performance under limited data conditions. Unfortunately, Punjabi is a tonal language and building an optimized ASR for such a language is near impossible. In this paper, we have explored fused feature extraction approach to handle large training complexity using mel frequency-gammatone frequency cepstral coefficient (MF-GFCC) technique through feature warping method. The efforts have been made to develop children’s ASR engine using data augmentation on limited data scenarios. For that purpose, we have studied in-domain data augmentation that artificially combined noisy and clean corpus to overcome the issue of data scarcity in train set. The combined dataset is processed with a fused feature extraction approach. Apart, the tonal characteristics and child vocal length issues are also overcome by inducing pitch features and train normalization strategy using vocal tract length normalization (VTLN) approach. In addition to that, combined augmented and original speech signals are noted to reduce the Word error rate (WER) performance with larger relative improvement (RI) of 20.59% on noisy and 19.39% on clean environment conditions using hybrid MF-GFCC approach than that on conventional Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) and Gammatone Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (GFCC) based ASR systems.

Classical singers use nasal consonants as “resonance exercises,” and experimental results have shown that singers may use some velopharyngeal opening (VPO), most often in [a:] and more seldom in [i:] or [u:]. In particular, male singers have been found to increase VPO as pitch rises toward register change frequencies (passaggi). Laryngoscopic findings have shown that some VPO stabilizes vocal fold vibration; the effect is related to positive reactance. This study investigates the effects of VPO on vocal tract (VT) reactance over the range of fundamental frequencies (f0) used in singing using a computerized tomography-based finite element model of the VT and nose of a female. According to the results, by raising the lowest VT resonances, the VPO increased the VT reactance in the frequency ranges 207–359 Hz for [i:], 265–411 Hz for [u:], and 500–611 Hz for [a:], depending on the VPO size (full or half VPO). These frequency ranges are close to the first and second passaggio of a female singer. The change may have an especially practical stabilizing effect for [a:], which is otherwise characterized by very large changes in VT reactance and negative reactance at the second passaggio.

This study aimed to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool for screening COVID-19 patients based on the acoustic parameters of their voices. Twenty-five acoustic parameters were extracted from voice samples of 203 COVID-19 patients and 171 healthy individuals who produced a sustained vowel, i.e., /a/, as long as they could after a deep breath. The selected acoustic parameters were from different categories including fundamental frequency and its perturbation, harmonicity, vocal tract function, airflow sufficiency, and periodicity. After the feature extraction, different machine learning methods were tested. A leave-one-subject-out validation scheme was used to tune the hyper-parameters and record the test set results. Then the models were compared based on their accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Based on accuracy (89.71%), recall (91.63%), and F1-score (90.62%), the best model was the feedforward neural network (FFNN). Its precision function (89.63%) was a bit lower than the logistic regression (90.17%). Based on these results and confusion matrices, the FFNN model was employed in the software. This screening tool could be practically used at home and public places to ensure the health of each individual's respiratory system. If there are any related abnormalities in the test taker's voice, the tool recommends that they seek a medical consultant.

Acoustic models of the vocal tract for articulatory speech synthesis often neglect a range of acoustic effects that are known to exist in the human vocal tract. Here we extended a basic acoustic vocal tract model by three features: the piriform fossae, transvelar acoustic coupling of the oral and nasal cavities, and sound radiation from the skin of the neck. The main goal was to find out how these features affect the naturalness of the synthesized speech. To this end, ten German words were synthesized with different combinations of the additional features, and listeners compared the naturalness of these stimuli. Surprisingly, all three features reduced the perceived naturalness, although they should make the synthesis more realistic. A closer analysis revealed that all new features emphasized the low frequencies compared to the high frequencies of the synthetic speech, leading to slightly more muffled speech with the used glottal excitation. An additional perception experiment with synthetic stimuli with a slightly more tense voice revealed no perceptual preference for the synthesis with or without the piriform fossae. These results indicate that the examined features play a minor role for the naturalness of articulatory synthesis compared to the voice source characteristics.

Previous models have theorized that, during phonation, skewing of the glottal waveform (which is correlated with acoustic intensity) occurred because of inertance of the vocal tract. Later, we reported that skewing of the flow rate waveform can occur without the presence of a vocal tract in an excised canine larynx. We hypothesized that in the absence of a vocal tract, the skewing formed when dynamic pressures acted on the glottal wall during the closing phase; such pressures were greatly affected by formation of intraglottal vortices. In this study, we aim to identify how changes in false vocal folds constriction can affect the acoustics and intraglottal flow dynamics. The intraglottal flow measurements were made using particle image velocimetry in an excised canine larynx where a vocal tract model was placed above the larynx and the constriction between the false vocal folds was varied. Our results show that for similar values of subglottal pressures, the skewing of the glottal waveform, strength of the intraglottal vortices, and acoustic energy increased as the constriction between the false vocal folds was increased. These preliminary findings suggest that acoustic intensity during phonation can be increased by the addition of a vocal tract with false fold constriction.

Resumen Introducción: Los ejercicios de tracto vocal semiocluido (ETVSO) son herramientas utilizadas en la rehabilitación fisiológica de la voz. Los ETVSO son ejercicios vocales producidos por la semioclusión del tracto vocal, a través de una serie de posturas que buscan alargar y/o ocluir el tracto vocal, generando un cambio en el patrón vibratorio de los pliegues vocales, grado de aducción y el patrón respiratorio. Los ETVSO pueden dividirse, según el tipo de semioclusión, en sostenida, transitoria y oscilatoria, así como en ejercicios de mayor resistencia a menor resistencia. Objetivo: Describir los diferentes tipos de ejercicios de tracto vocal semiocluido, el tipo de semioclusión, el grado de resistencia y sus efectos en los pliegues vocales, patrón respiratorio y configuración del tracto vocal. Metodología: Se realizó una revisión de la literatura en las bases de datos PubMed, Medline y Science Direct, usando los siguientes términos: “Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Postures”, "tract vocal semiocclude” y “ejercicios de tracto vocal semiocluido”. Se utilizaron operadores booleanos "AND" y "OR" para especificar la búsqueda. Resultados: Los beneficios de estos ejercicios impactan positivamente en variables aerodinámicas, en la función glótica y en la configuración del tracto vocal. Conclusiones: Los ejercicios de tracto vocal semiocluido son una familia de ejercicios vocales producidos por semioclusión sostenida, transitoria y oscilatoria del tracto vocal, a través de una serie de posturas que buscan alargar y/o ocluir el tracto vocal, cuyos beneficios impactan positivamente los pliegues vocales y el tracto vocal. Abstract Introduction: Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTE) are tools used in physiologic voice rehabilitation. Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises are vocal exercises produced by the semi-occlusion of the vocal tract through a series of postures that seek to lengthen and/or occlude the vocal tract, generating a change in the vibratory pattern of vocal folds, degree of vocal folds adduction, and the respiratory pattern. SOVTE can be divided, according to the type of semi-occlusion, into sustained, transient and oscillatory, as well as exercises with high and low degree of airflow resistance. Objective: To describe the different types of semi-occluded vocal tract exercises, the type of semi-occlusion, the type of resistance, and their effects on the vocal folds, respiratory pattern, and configuration of the vocal tract. Methodology: A literature review was performed in the PubMed, Medline, and Science Direct databases, using the following terms: "Semi-occluded vocal tract postures", "Semi-occluded vocal tract" and "Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises”. Boolean operators "AND" and "OR" were used to specify the search. Results: The benefits of these exercises positively impact aerodynamic variables, glottal function, and configuration of the vocal tract. Conclusions: The semi-occluded vocal tract exercises are a family of vocal exercises produced by the sustained, transitory, and oscillatory semi-occlusion of the vocal tract, through a series of postures that seek to lengthen and/or occlude the vocal tract, whose benefits positively impact on vocal folds and vocal tract.

Resumen El presente artículo corresponde a una reflexión sobre las orientaciones filosóficas en la terapia vocal actual. Cuando existe alguna alteración o trastorno vocal, se habla comunmente de un desequilibrio entre los subsistemas involucrados en el proceso fonatorio, es decir, fuelle (sistema respiratorio), fuente (pliegues vocales) y filtro (tracto vocal). Si no hay un correcto balance, entonces el sistema no tiene un correcto funcionamiento y pueden aparecer síntomas como ronquera, sensación de cuerpo extraño, prurito, fatiga vocal o bien disfonía o incluso afonía. Como consecuencia de estas dificultades, se generan compensaciones que durante el proceso de la intervención fonoaudiológica el profesional debe volver a “equilibrar”. Para lograr este objetivo, se desarrollan y analizan las diversas herramientas que entregan las filosofías de pensamiento a lo largo de la historia de la rehabilitación vocal, donde se encuentran la orientación higiénica, psicológica, sintomatológica, fisiológica y ecléctica. En este mismo sentido, el profesional debe buscar lo que percibe como más idóneo para cada paciente o grupo a intervenir, centrado en mejorar la calidad vocal y las necesidades actuales de estos, basándose en el contexto mundial actual, con el objetivo de lograr un buen proceso de entrenamiento o rehabilitación y finalmente lograr el alta. Abstract The present article corresponds to a reflection about the philosophical orientations in the current vocal therapy. When there are some vocal alterations or disorders, we usually talk about an imbalance between the sub-sysmtems involved in the fonatory process, which are bellows (respiratory system), source (vocal folds) and filter (vocal tract). When there is not a correct balance, the system does not work properly and, as a consequence, it is possible to experiment symptoms such as hoarseness, foreign body sensation, pruritus, vocal fatigue, dysphonia or even aphonia. As a result of these difficulties, it is possible to generate compensations through the intervention of speech therapy. By virtue of this therapy the professional must ‘balance’. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to develop and analyze the different tools that philosophical studies offer through the history of vocal rehabilitation. Some of these tools are hygienic orientation, psychological, symptomatological, physiological and eclectic. Thinking on that, the professional must search what it is most suitable for every patient or group of people that he/she will be working with. This must be focus on improving vocal quality and the actual necessities of the patient, based on the current global context. The final purpose of the professional is to achieve a good and healthy process of training and/or rehabilitation to accomplish medical discharge.

The performance of speech recognition systems trained with neutral utterances degrades significantly when these systems are tested with emotional speech. Since everybody can speak emotionally in the real-world environment, it is necessary to take account of the emotional states of speech in the performance of the automatic speech recognition system. Limited works have been performed in the field of emotion-affected speech recognition and so far, most of the researches have focused on the classification of speech emotions. In this paper, the vocal tract length normalization method is employed to enhance the robustness of the emotion-affected speech recognition system. For this purpose, two structures of the speech recognition system based on hybrids of hidden Markov model with Gaussian mixture model and deep neural network are used. To achieve this goal, frequency warping is applied to the filterbank and/or discrete-cosine transform domain(s) in the feature extraction process of the automatic speech recognition system. The warping process is conducted in a way to normalize the emotional feature components and make them close to their corresponding neutral feature components. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated in neutrally trained/emotionally tested conditions for different speech features and emotional states (i.e., Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happy, and Sad). In this system, frequency warping is employed for different acoustical features. The constructed emotion-affected speech recognition system is based on the Kaldi automatic speech recognition with the Persian emotional speech database and the crowd-sourced emotional multi-modal actors dataset as the input corpora. The experimental simulations reveal that, in general, the warped emotional features result in better performance of the emotion-affected speech recognition system as compared with their unwarped counterparts. Also, it can be seen that the performance of the speech recognition using the deep neural network-hidden Markov model outperforms the system employing the hybrid with the Gaussian mixture model.

Emotion recognition through speech is one of the fundamental approaches for human interaction. Speech modulations stipulate different emotions and context. In this paper, we propose modified dense convolutional networks (modified DenseNet201) for emotion detection from speech using its paralinguistic features such as vocal tract features. The proposed network performs emotion classification from speech using spectrograms of its audio files. The proposed network outperforms other alternative models like residual networks, AlexNet, VGG16, SVM, XGBoost, boosted random forest etc. for emotion classification from speech. Moreover, the proposed network surpasses all other existing methods proposed in the literature and obtains state-of-the-art results in most of the cases. Further, the proposed network has been successfully validated on two different language datasets: ‘EmoDB’ and ‘SAVEE’ which qualifies it as a language-independent emotion detection system from speech.

Summary Objectives The purpose of the present study was to establish the method for an acoustic simulation of a vocal tract created from CT data during phonation of the Japanese vowel /a/ and to verify the validity of the simulation. Material and methods The subjects were 15 healthy adults (8 males, 7 females). The vocal tract model was created from CT data acquired during sustained phonation of the Japanese vowel /a/. After conversion to a mesh model for analysis, a wave acoustic analysis was performed with a boundary element method. The wall and the bottom of the vocal tract model were regarded as a rigid wall and a nonrigid wall, respectively. The acoustic medium was set to 37°C, and a point sound source was set in the place corresponding to the vocal cord as a sound source. The first and second formant frequencies (F1 and F2) were calculated. For 1 of the 15 subjects, the range from the upper end of the frontal sinus to the tracheal bifurcation was scanned, and 2 models were created: model 1 included the range from the frontal sinus to the tracheal bifurcation; and model 2 included the range from the frontal sinus to the glottis and added a virtually extended trachea by 12 cm cylindrically. F1 and F2 calculated from models 1 and 2 were compared. To evaluate the validity of the present simulation, F1 and F2 calculated from the simulation were compared with those of the actual voice and the sound generated using a solid model and a whistle-type artificial larynx. To judge the validity, the vowel formant frequency discrimination threshold reported in the past was used as a criterion. Namely, the relative discrimination thresholds (%), dividing ▵F by F, where F was the formant frequency calculated from the simulation, and ▵F was the difference between F and the formant frequency of the actual voice and the sound generated using the solid model and artificial larynx, were obtained. Results F1 and F2 calculated from models 1 and 2 were similar. Therefore, to reduce the exposure dose, the remaining 14 subjects were scanned from the upper end of the frontal sinus to the glottis, and model 2 with the trachea extended by 12 cm virtually was used for the simulation. The averages of the relative discrimination thresholds against F1 and F2 calculated from the actual voice were 5.9% and 4.6%, respectively. The averages of the relative discrimination thresholds against F1 and F2 calculated from the sound generated by using the solid model and the artificial larynx were 4.1% and 3.7%, respectively. Conclusions The Japanese vowel /a/ could be simulated with high validity for the vocal tract models created from the CT data during phonation of /a/ using the boundary element method.

Purpose To develop a real-time dynamic vocal tract imaging method using an accelerated spiral GRE sequence and low rank plus sparse reconstruction. Methods Spiral k-space sampling has high data acquisition efficiency and thus is suited for real-time dynamic imaging; further acceleration can be achieved by undersampling k-space and using a model-based reconstruction. Low rank plus sparse reconstruction is a promising method with fast computation and increased robustness to global signal changes and bulk motion, as the images are decomposed into low rank and sparse terms representing different dynamic components. However, the combination with spiral scanning has not been well studied. In this study an accelerated spiral GRE sequence was developed with an optimized low rank plus sparse reconstruction and compared with L1-SPIRiT and XD-GRASP methods. The off-resonance was also corrected using a Chebyshev approximation method to reduce blurring on a frame-by-frame basis. Results The low rank plus sparse reconstruction method is sensitive to the weights of the low rank and sparse terms. The optimized reconstruction showed advantages over other methods with reduced aliasing and improved SNR. With the proposed method, spatial resolution of 1.3*1.3 mm2 with 150 mm field-of-view (FOV) and temporal resolution of 30 frames-per-second (fps) was achieved with good image quality. Blurring was reduced using the Chebyshev approximation method. Conclusion This work studies low rank plus sparse reconstruction using the spiral trajectory and demonstrates a new method for dynamic vocal tract imaging which can benefit studies of speech disorders.

Se describen las diferentes aplicaciones que puede tener la versión argentina de la escala Vocal Tract Discomfort (VTD), herramienta de autovaloración de síntomas o sensaciones que pueden presentarse en sujetos con alteraciones de la voz o en riesgo de presentarlas. Esta herramienta ha sido adaptada de su versión original en inglés y validada al español argentino para su utilización en detección de sujetos en riesgo vocal, para complementar el diagnóstico subjetivo y objetivo de la voz, para monitorear las sensaciones del paciente en la terapéutica y para poder comparar y discutir con resultados de investigaciones en diferentes países del mundo; donde también ha sido validada para su uso clínico e investigativo.

In recent studies, it has been assumed that vocal tract formants (Fn) and the voice source could interact. However, there are only few studies analyzing this assumption in vivo. Here, the vowel transition /i/-/a/-/u/-/i/ of 12 professional classical singers (6 females, 6 males) when phonating on the pitch D4 [fundamental frequency (ƒo) ca. 294 Hz] were analyzed using transnasal high speed videoendoscopy (20.000 fps), electroglottography (EGG), and audio recordings. Fn data were calculated using a cepstral method. Source-filter interaction candidates (SFICs) were determined by (a) algorithmic detection of major intersections of Fn/nƒo and (b) perceptual assessment of the EGG signal. Although the open quotient showed some increase for the /i-a/ and /u-i/ transitions, there were no clear effects at the expected Fn/nƒo intersections. In contrast, ƒo adjustments and changes in the phonovibrogram occurred at perceptually derived SFICs, suggesting level-two interactions. In some cases, these were constituted by intersections between higher nƒo and Fn. The presented data partially corroborates that vowel transitions may result in level-two interactions also in professional singers. However, the lack of systematically detectable effects suggests either the absence of a strong interaction or existence of confounding factors, which may potentially counterbalance the level-two-interactions.

The glossectomy procedure, involving surgical resection of cancerous lingual tissue, has long been observed to affect speech production. This study aims to quantitatively index and compare complexity of vocal tract shaping due to lingual movement in individuals who have undergone glossectomy and typical speakers using real-time magnetic resonance imaging data and Principal Component Analysis. The data reveal that (i) the type of glossectomy undergone largely predicts the patterns in vocal tract shaping observed, (ii) gross forward and backward motion of the tongue body accounts for more change in vocal tract shaping than do subtler movements of the tongue (e.g., tongue tip constrictions) in patient data, and (iii) fewer vocal tract shaping components are required to account for the patients' speech data than typical speech data, suggesting that the patient data at hand exhibit less complex vocal tract shaping in the midsagittal plane than do the data from the typical speakers observed.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS To investigate the effects of acute vocal exertion on individuals with vocal fatigue and to determine whether semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTEs) are more effective than vocal rest in mitigating acute effects. STUDY DESIGN Prospective, repeated-measures design. METHODS On consecutive days, 10 individuals (6 males, 4 females) with scores indicating vocal fatigue on the Vocal Fatigue Index completed two 10-minute vocal exertion tasks. Vocal rest or SOVTEs were interspersed in counterbalanced order between exertion tasks. Respiratory kinematic, acoustic, aerodynamic, and self-perceptual measures were collected at baseline, following vocal exertion, following SOVTE/vocal rest, and following the second exertion task. RESULTS Acute vocal exertion worsened phonation threshold pressure (P

Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTEs) are increasingly popular as therapeutic exercises for patients with voice disorders. This popularity is reflected in the growing research literature, investigating the scientific principles underlying SOVTEs and their practical efficacy. This study examines several acoustic, articulatory, and aerodynamic variables before, during, and after short-duration (15 s) SOVTEs with a narrow tube in air. Participants were 20 healthy young adults, and all variables were measured at threshold phonation levels. Acoustic variables were measured with a microphone and a neck accelerometer, and include fundamental frequency, glottal open quotient, and vocal efficiency. Articulatory variables were measured with ultrasound, and include measures of the tongue tip, tongue dorsum, and posterior tongue height, and horizontal tongue length. Aerodynamic variables were measured with an intraoral pressure transducer and include subglottal, intraoral, and transglottal pressures. Lowering of the posterior tongue height and tongue dorsum height were observed with gender-specific small changes in the fundamental frequency, but there were no significant effects on the transglottal pressure or vocal efficiency. These findings suggest that the voices of healthy young adults already approach optimal performance, and the continued search for scientific evidence supporting SOVTEs should focus on populations with voice disorders.

SUMMARY Background Low vertical larynx results in reduced musculoskeletal tension and easier vocal fold vibration what is critical not only for professional voice users but also for patients with dysphonia. High-resolution manometry (HRM) provides real time upper esophageal sphincter positioning as a surrogate for laryngeal location and it may be a tool for laryngeal excursion biofeedback. This study aims to evaluate HRM as a biofeedback instrument to control vertical laryngeal position. Methods Ten (50% males, mean age 28 years) professional singers were asked to raise and descent their larynx using any strategy with HRM transnasal catheter in place. The tasks were repeated after the computer screen was positioned at the visual field of the participant that was instructed on how to self-evaluate laryngeal positioning based on the upper esophageal sphincter color plot and the variations with real time images. Results Median downward laryngeal excursion was 2.0 cm without biofeedback and 3.1 cm after biofeedback (P = 0.03). Median upward laryngeal excursion was 0.2 cm without biofeedback and 0.5 cm after biofeedback (P = 0.4). Conclusions Singers can improve laryngeal vertical movements, especially the lowering of the larynx, when biofeedback is provided. HRM biofeedback allows singers to visualize the larynx position while singing, facilitating real-time vocal tract position modification and may serve as an efficient tool for singing training.

application/pdf, Toyohashi University of Technology, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics

The process of voice production is a complex process and depends on the correct interaction of the vocal folds and the glottal airstream inducing the primary voice source, which is subsequently modulated by the vocal tract. Due to the restricted access to the glottis, not all aspects of the three-dimensional process can be captured by measurements without influencing the measurement object. Hence, the application of a numerical tool capturing the physical process of phonation can provide an extended database for voice treatment and, therefore, can contribute to an increased effectiveness of voice treatment. However, such numerical models involve complex and demanding procedures to model the material behavior and the mechanical contact of the vocal folds and to realize moving boundaries of the involved physical domains. The present paper proposes a numerical model called simVoice, which circumvents these computational expenses by prescribing the experimentally obtained vocal fold motion within the simulation. Additionally, a hybrid approach for sound computation further enhances the computational efficiency and yields good agreement with acoustic measurements. An analysis of the computational workloads suggests that the key factor for a further increase in efficiency is an optimized flow simulation and source term computation.

BACKGROUND Maxillary hypoplasia is a common skeletal condition in cleft lip and palate (CLP). Maxillary osteotomy is typically used to reposition the maxilla in CLP with maxillary hypoplasia. Previous studies have suggested that vowel articulations are adjusted postsurgically due to altered vocal tract configuration and articulatory reorganization. This acoustic study aims to investigate whether vowels are normalized postoperatively and to explore the nature of articulatory reorganization. METHODS AND PROCEDURES A prospective study was conducted to examine the vowel production of a group of individuals with CLP (N = 17) undergoing maxillary osteotomy and a group of normal controls (N = 20), using speech acoustic data. The data were collected at 0 to 3 months presurgery (T1), 3-months (T2), and 12-months (T3) postsurgery. General linear model repeated measures and independent t-tests were undertaken on F1, F2, and vowel space area. RESULTS General linear model repeated measures revealed no main effects of time for F1 (F [2, 22] = 1.094, P = 0.352), F2 (F [2, 22] = 1.269, P = 0.301), and vowel space area (F [2, 28] = 0.059, P = 0.943). Independent t-tests showed statistically significant differences (P

Objective: To identify the speech therapy strategies used to promote vocal health to teachers of early childhood, elementary and high school, participating in programs/actions for prevention and promotion of vocal health, as well as to describe and analyze their effects through an integrative literature review.Methods: An integrative review was conducted, which consisted of searches in the Lilacs, SciELO, and Medline databases.Inclusion criteria were complete articles available online in any language and year of publication that addressed strategies for promoting vocal health and preventing disorders in the target population, used in vocal health programs/actions with teachers.Results: Of the 624 articles that were included, six were selected to compose the study.It was possible to verify that the most used resources were educational strategies, through programs of guidance and attention to the teacher's vocal health.The results of the interventions were analyzed using self-assessment questionnaires, some of which have been standardized, with validation and adaptation to Brazilian Portuguese.Among practical strategies, exercises involving semi-occluded vocal tract, breathing, relaxation, resistance, and vocal projection, as well as vocal warm-up and cool-down, were the most used.Conclusions: Vocal health programs present diversified strategies, such as time and results analysis.The accurate study allowed to verify that the programs are effective and allow better vocal performance to the teacher, notably, through direct and indirect strategies. Objetivo: Identificar as estratégias fonoaudiológicas utilizadas para promoção da saúde vocal aos professores do ensino infantil, fundamental e médio participantes de programas/ações de prevenção e promoção à saúde vocal, bem como descrever e analisar seus efeitos, por meio de uma revisão integrativa da literatura. Métodos: Foi realizada uma revisão integrativa que consistiu em buscas nas bases de dados Lilacs, SciELO e Medline. Os critérios de inclusão foram: artigos completos disponíveis online em qualquer idioma e ano de publicação que abordassem estratégias para promoção da saúde vocal e prevenção aos distúrbios na população-alvo, empregadas em programas/ações de saúde vocal com professores. Resultados: Dos 624 artigos que foram incluídos, seis foram selecionados para compor o estudo. Foi possível verificar que os recursos mais utilizados foram estratégias educativas, por meio de programas de orientação e atenção à saúde vocal do professor. Os resultados das intervenções foram analisados com a utilização de questionários de auto avaliação, sendo alguns já padronizados, com validação e adaptação para o português brasileiro. Entre as estratégias práticas, os exercícios que envolvem trato vocal semiocluído, respiração, relaxamento, resistência e projeção vocal, bem como a realização de aquecimento e desaquecimento vocal, foram os mais utilizados. Conclusões: Os programas de saúde vocal apresentam estratégias bem diversificadas, tal como o tempo e análise dos resultados. O estudo acurado permitiu constatar que os programas são eficazes e permitem uma melhor performance vocal ao professor, notadamente, por meios de estratégias diretas e indiretas.

Otolaryngologists and speech therapist can be experts in managing specific puberphonia lesions to improve voice. However, not all voice problems have lesions amenable to surgical or medical therapies. Many are associated with maladaptive speech behaviors. We may employ a variety of techniques to improve vocal quality and function in patients with and without structural or neurologic laryngeal pathology. There is an alarming increase in cases of puberphonia and it’s after effects. Otolaryngologists can partner to manage a constellation of puberphonia voice problems with directed voice evaluation and therapy. We, in a small Otorhinolarygolist center in a small city, Chennai has registered and treated 600 cases of puberphonia. We are able to register the devastating problems of puberphonia. Regarding the treatment of puberphonia, in which laryngeal massage, outside the neck, is consistently highlighted as being an effective therapy technique for treating it. In addition, there have been several individual studies conducted to examine the effectiveness of laryngo pharyngeal manipulation inside the vocal tract, which also yielded positive results. A basic review of UMAR techniques and this partnership with yoga breathing trainers is presented which give almost immediate low pitch speech and give a good follow up.

Men's voices may provide cues to overall condition; however, little research has assessed whether health status is reliably associated with perceivable voice parameters. In Study 1, we investigated whether listeners could classify voices belonging to men with either relatively lower or higher self-reported health. Participants rated voices for speaker health, disease likelihood, illness frequency, and symptom severity, as well as attractiveness (women only) and dominance (men only). Listeners' were mostly unable to judge the health of male speakers from their voices; however, men rated the voices of men with better self-reported health as sounding more dominant. In Study 2, we tested whether men's vocal parameters (fundamental frequency mean and variation, apparent vocal tract length, and harmonics-to-noise ratio) and aspects of their self-reported health predicted listeners' health and disease resistance ratings of those voices. Speakers' fundamental frequency (fo) negatively predicted ratings of health. However, speakers' self-reported health did not predict ratings of health made by listeners. In Study 3, we investigated whether separately manipulating two sexually dimorphic vocal parameters—fo and apparent vocal tract length (VTL)—affected listeners' health ratings. Listeners rated men's voices with lower fo (but not VTL) as healthier, supporting findings from Study 2. Women rated voices with lower fo and VTL as more attractive, and men rated them as more dominant. Thus, while both VTL and fo affect dominance and attractiveness judgments, only fo appears to affect health judgments. Results of the above studies suggest that, although listeners assign higher health ratings to speakers with more masculine fo, these ratings may not be accurate at tracking speakers' self-rated health.

In the clinic, many diagnostic and therapeutic procedures focus on the oscillation patterns of the vocal folds (VF). Dynamic characteristics of the VFs, such as symmetry, periodicity, and full glottal closure, are considered essential features for healthy phonation. However, the relevance of these individual factors in the complex interaction between the airflow, laryngeal structures, and the resulting acoustics has not yet been quantified. Sustained phonation was induced in nine excised porcine larynges without vocal tract (supraglottal structures had been removed above the ventricular folds). The multimodal setup was designed to simultaneously control and monitor key aspects of phonation in the three essential parts of the larynx. More specifically, measurements will comprise (1) the subglottal pressure signal, (2) high-speed recordings in the glottal plane, and (3) the acoustic signal in the supraglottal region. The automated setup regulates glottal airflow, asymmetric arytenoid adduction, and the pre-phonatory glottal gap. Statistical analysis revealed a beneficial influence of VF periodicity and glottal closure on the signal quality of the subglottal pressure and the supraglottal acoustics, whereas VF symmetry only had a negligible influence. Strong correlations were found between the subglottal and supraglottal signal quality, with significant improvement of the acoustic quality for high levels of periodicity and glottal closure.

The following list of recent research in singing is a brief sampling of articles and dissertations published during the last few years. It is by no means comprehensive and reflects only a small fraction of the available documents.If you have published recent research in singing, voice pedagogy, voice science, vocal repertoire, pedagogic methodology, or other topics of interest to the membership of NATS, please send citations and abstracts to Donald Simonson at drs@iastate.edu for review and possible inclusion in future columns.Donahue, Erin, Wendy D. LeBorgne, Susan Baker Brehm, and Barbara D. Weinrich. "Reported Vocal Habits of First-Year Undergraduate Musical Theater Majors in a Preprofessional Training Program: A 10-Year Retrospective Study." Journal of Voice 28, no. 3 (May 2014): 316-323.Over a period of 10 consecutive years, incoming freshman music theater students were asked to complete a survey on their perceptions of their voices and voice use. They were also screened by an experienced voice pathologist and were given a stroboscopic screening exam reviewed by a board-certified otolaryngologist. Of the 188 participants, the average age was 18.28 years; there were 90 female and 98 male subjects. The survey focused on self-reported training and practice habits, vocal health and hygiene practices, and current negative voice symptoms that might contribute to voice problems. The collected data revealed many potential risks to voice use in the study group. Over half of the group reported at least one current negative vocal symptom at the time of the study. The vast majority engaged in warm-ups, but very few performed cool-downs. Many reported behaviors that might put them at higher risk of developing acid reflux or experiencing symptoms similar to those caused by acid reflux. Additionally, the group reported generally poor hydration habits. The findings suggest that as a group, these students exhibited a lack of self-awareness, denial of problems, and a lack of knowledge that may impact future voice use. It is hoped that the collected data will provide impetus to further develop strategies to educate this group of singers, and thus to instill lifelong habits and awareness that will promote injury prevention, continuing education, and overall vocal longevity.Green, Kathryn, Warren Freeman, Matthew Edwards, and David Meyer. "Trends in Musical Theatre Voice: An Analysis of Audition Requirements for Singers." Journal of Voice 28, no. 3 (May 2014): 324-327.Examining 1,238 professional music theater audition listings over a six-month period, the authors identified four main genres of expected performance capability. Legit, pop/rock, contemporary music theater," and traditional music theater were the main genres listed, with over 50% in the pop/rock and contemporary listings. Specifics regarding the characteristics for each type are included.Based on the study's results, it is clear that today's music theater performer needs a flexible approach to singing in various styles and genres; that over half of the listed jobs require techniques beyond those associated with legit or classical voice performance makes this very clear. Additionally, belt voice ability was requested in three of the four main genres identified, highlighting the need for its inclusion as a substantial part of music theater voice training.Guzman, Marco, Anne-Maria Laukkanen, Petr Krupa, Jaromir Horacek, Jan G. Svec, and Ahmed Geneid. "Vocal Tract and Glottal Function During and After Vocal Exercising with Resonance Tube and Straw." Journal of Voice 27, no. 4 (July 2013): 523.e19-523.e34.This study was designed to evaluate vocal tract and glottal function during and after phonation into a tube and a stirring straw. A classically trained male singer was examined with computerized tomography (CT) while (1) phonating a sustained [a:], (2) phonating a sustained vowel-like sound into a resonance tube (27 cm long and 9mm inner diameter) for 15 minutes, and immediately after that (3) produce another sustained [a:] without the resonating tube. …

Speech analysis plays a pivotal role in the exploitation of forensic recordings in resolving a wide range of questions. Although this topic may include a large set of methodologies based on varied digital features (MFCC, Centroid, Harmonicity, VOT, etc., cf. [1]), this work approaches the theme from a phonetic perspective, taking into consideration the vowel formants, and focusing on their variability and difficulty of measurement. Formants correspond to the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract and are, therefore, sensible to specific speaker-related variations such as age and sex. In this respect, formants' variation contributes to characterizing the subjective timbre of the person. For this reason, formants' values are largely used in forensics [2], with all the practical problems that come with them, and in particular when dealing with speaker recognition or discrimination [3], [4]. Indeed, formants' values correspond to specific frequencies of the sound signal and are usually reported in Hertz. They are, however, affected by numerous internal and external variables, so that although on average they are characteristic of the individual speaker, they always vary within frequency bands that cannot be defined in absolute terms [5]. How, then, is it possible to provide reliable answers to forensic questions? In essence, it is up to the specialist to determine if there are the conditions to carry out an analysis, and to understand, for example, whether the differences between formants' values could be ascribed to two different speakers or the difference is too subtle to justify this claim. What should be measurable today, and must be defined at the level of jurisprudence, is therefore the professionalism of the expert. However, this is still heterogeneous in different countries, although several codes of practice such as the International Association for Forensic Phonetics or engineering society ones have been validated.

Infants learn to speak rapidly during their first years of life, gradually improving from simple vowel-like sounds to larger consonant-vowel complexes. Learning to control their vocal tract in order to produce meaningful speech sounds is a complex process which requires to learn the relationship between motor and sensory processes. In this paper, a computational framework is proposed that models the problem of learning articulatory control for a physiologically plausible 3-D vocal tract model using a developmentally-inspired approach. The system babbles and explores efficiently in a low-dimensional space of goals that are relevant to the learner in its synthetic environment. The learning process is goal-directed and self-organized, and yields an inverse model of the mapping between sensory space and motor commands. This study provides a unified framework that can be used for learning static as well as dynamic motor representations. The successful learning of vowel and syllable sounds as well as the benefit of active and adaptive learning strategies are demonstrated. Categorical perception is found in the acquired models, suggesting that the framework has the potential to replicate phenomena of human speech acquisition.

The aim of this paper is to explore a robust method for vowel region detection from multimode speech. In realistic scenario, speech can be classified into three modes namely; conversation, extempore, and read. The existing method detects the vowel form the speech recorded in clean environment which may not be appropriate for the multimode speech tasks. To address this issue, we proposed an approach based on continuous wavelet transform coefficients and phone boundaries for detecting the vowel regions from different modes of the speech signal. For evaluation of the proposed vowel region (VR) detection technique, TIMIT (read speech) and Bengali (read, extempore, and conversation speech) corpora are used. The proposed VR detection technique is compared to the state-of-the-art methods. The experiments has recorded significant gain in the performance of the proposed technique than the state-of-the-art methods. The efficiency of the proposed technique is shown by extracting vocal tract and excitation source features from automatically detected VRs for developing the multilingual speech mode classification (MSMC) model. The evaluation results report that the performance of the MSMC model is significantly improved when features are extracted from the vowel regions than the entire speech utterance.

Articulatory Phonology advances an account of phonological structure in which dynamically defined vocal tract tasks—gestures—are simultaneously and isomorphically units of cognitive representation and units of physical action. This paradigm has fundamentally altered our understanding of the linguistic representation of words. This article reviews the relatively recent incorporation of prosody into Articulatory Phonology. A capsule review of the Articulatory Phonology theoretical framework is presented, and the notions of phrasal and prominence organization are introduced as the key aspects of linguistic prosodic structure under consideration. Parameter dynamics, activation dynamics, and prosodic modulation gestures, such as the π-gesture, are outlined. The review is extended to touch on rhythm, intonation, and pauses and to consider innovations for integrating multiple aspects of prosodic structure under this dynamical approach. Finally, a range of questions emerges, crystallizing outstanding issues ranging from the abstract and theoretical to the interactive and functional.

Summary Objective/Background Straw phonation, a well-established method of vocal exercise, started over 100 years ago. However, some of the most basic questions about best practices remain including the ideal extension length and the ideal restriction (semiocclusion) diameter. This study aims to help answer these questions by looking at both separately, with all other variables controlled. Methods Four (4) straws with lengths of 5, 25, 50, and 75 centimeters and 4 restrictions with diameters of 3, 9, 15, and 21 mm were tested, separately. They were attached to the end of a simulated vocal tract which was then affixed to an excised canine larynx. Airflow was increased until the larynges achieved self-sustained phonation then aerodynamic, acoustic, and electroglottographic data were collected. Results There was a significant decrease in the phonation threshold pressure using the 5 and 25 cm straw lengths and the 9 and 15 mm restrictions. The phonation threshold flow and contact quotient saw insignificant changes, except in the case of the 3 mm restriction. Discussion It is theorized that the increased inertive reactance helps to decrease phonation threshold pressure. By controlling for all other variables, the effects of the length or diameter of the straw can be analyzed in isolation. These results narrow the significant range of lengths and diameters used in straw phonation.