Search

Objective/hypothesis: To specify a set of acoustic cues for vocal aging and to establish their perceptual relevance., Study Design: Perceptual testing., Methods: To identify the acoustic and perceptual correlates of the aging voice, voice quality [in conjunction with speaking rate and fundamental frequency (F(0))] was systematically manipulated using resynthesis to determine its effect on perceived age. Ten young male voices were resynthesized using two levels of noise (random modulation of F(0) contour) and two levels of tremor (constant modulation of F(0) contour with a low-amplitude wave) under a speaking-rate manipulation (an increase in speaking rate that is common to older male voices). These materials were submitted to 40 naive listeners in an age-estimation task. Two sets of comparison materials were also included for evaluation: unmanipulated samples from a 150 voice database of young, middle-aged, and older voices and disordered voice samples representing natural manifestations of the voice qualities of interest., Results: Speaking rate, highest degree of tremor, and highest degree of noise all shifted, in an additive manner, the mean perceived age of the young male voices by a maximum of 12 years on average; individual voices were observed being shifted by a generation. Fundamental frequency manipulations had no significant effect on perceived age., Conclusions: Voice quality (both tremor and noise) and speaking rate are all perceptually relevant cues of age in male voices., (2010 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)

This study aimed to specify a set of acoustic cues fundamental to vocal aging and to establish their perceptual relevance, using acoustic analysis and perceptual testing. Three experiments were conducted to identify the perceptual correlates of the aging voice. The first experiment analyzed important voice parameters that signal a person's age for 16 older males and 14 younger males. In the second and third experiments, these acoustic patterns were systematically shifted through resynthesis to see if perceived age would be significantly influenced. In the second experiment, the older and younger male voices were resynthesized by manipulating speaking rate and fundamental frequency to shift the perceived age of the groups toward each other. In the third experiment, older and middle-aged male voices were resynthesized in a similar manner. In both perceptual studies, an age estimation task with naive listeners was used. The results of the first experiment showed that, in older speakers, sentence, word, and diphthong durations were all significantly longer and mean fundamental frequency was significantly higher than for the younger group. In the second experiment, only the manipulation of speaking rate resulted in a significant shift in perceived age, and it did so only for the older subjects. In the third experiment, a significant shift in age estimates was observed for the middle-aged, but not the older, voices when speaking rate was manipulated. The results of both perception tests suggest that speaking rate, but possibly not fundamental frequency, is a perceptually relevant cue to age in voice.

Professional voice users comprise 25% to 35% of the U.S. working population. Their voice problems may interfere with job performance and impact costs for both employers and employees. The purpose of this study was to examine treatment outcomes of two specific rehabilitation programs for a group of professional voice users. Eighteen professional voice users participated in this study; half had complaints of throat pain or vocal fatigue (Dysphonia Group), and half were found to have benign vocal fold lesions (Lesion Group). One group received 5 weeks of expiratory muscle strength training followed by six sessions of traditional voice therapy. Treatment order was reversed for the second group. The study was designed as a repeated measures study with independent variables of treatment order, laryngeal diagnosis (lesion vs non-lesion), gender, and time. Dependent variables included maximum expiratory pressure (MEP), Voice Handicap Index (VHI) score, Vocal Rating Scale (VRS) score, Voice Effort Scale score, phonetogram measures, subglottal pressures, and acoustic and perceptual measures. Results showed significant improvements in MEP, VHI scores, and VRS scores, subglottal pressure for loud intensity, phonetogram area, and dynamic range. No significant difference was found between laryngeal diagnosis groups. A significant difference was not observed for treatment order. It was concluded that the combined treatment was responsible for the improvements observed. The results indicate that a combined modality treatment may be successful in the remediation of vocal problems for professional voice users.

This longitudinal study gathered data with regard to the question: Does singing training have an effect on the speaking voice? Fourteen voice majors (12 females and two males; age range 17 to 20 years) were recorded once a semester for four consecutive semesters, while sustaining vowels and reading the "Rainbow Passage." Acoustic measures included speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) and sound pressure level (SLP). Perturbation measures included jitter, shimmer, and harmonic-to-noise ratio. Temporal measures included sentence, consonant, and diphthong durations. Results revealed that, as the number of semesters increased, the SFF increased while jitter and shimmer slightly decreased. Repeated measure analysis, however, indicated that none of the acoustic, temporal, or perturbation differences were statistically significant. These results confirm earlier cross-sectional studies that compared singers with nonsingers, in that singing training mostly affects the singing voice and rarely the speaking voice.

Vocal training (VT) has, in part, been associated with the distinctions in the physiological, acoustic, and perceptual parameters found in singers' voices versus the voices of nonsingers. This study provides information on the changes in the singing voice as a function of VT over time. Fourteen college voice majors (12 females and 2 males; age range, 17-20 years) were recorded while singing, once a semester, for four consecutive semesters. Acoustic measures included fundamental frequency (F0) and sound pressure level (SPL) of the 10% and 90% levels of the maximum phonational frequency range (MPFR), vibrato pulses per second, vibrato amplitude variation, and the presence of the singer's formant. Results indicated that VT had a significant effect on the MPFR. F0 and SPL of the 90% level of the MPFR and the 90-10% range increased significantly as VT progressed. However, no vibrato or singers' formant differences were detected as a function of training. This longitudinal study not only validates previous cross-sectional research, ie, that VT has a significant effect on the singing voice, but also it demonstrates that these effects can be acoustically detected by the fourth semester of college vocal training.

From postrecording interviews of professional singers, it was hypothesized that recording environments, i.e., sound-treated environment versus an auditorium, may induce different vocal behaviors. To test this hypothesis, three groups consisting of nonsingers, singers, and actors were recorded in two different recording environments: a sound-treated booth (IAC) and an auditorium (AUD). Three recordings were obtained from each participant: recording one (IAC) and two (AUD1) required the participants to read in a normal voice; recording three (AUD2) required participants to pretend that they were "performing" before a full house. Results indicated that only the singers and the actors exhibited significant spectral and/or frequency/duration differences from one recording environment to another, with the most dramatic differences exhibited by the singers. It was concluded that the environment in which we record experimental samples from professional voice users, especially singers, should be considered as a variable that can affect results.

Although it is generally agreed that the singer's formant (F(S)) is a prerequisite for successful stage performance, the results of this research do not support its presence in the soprano voices of trained female singers. Results are based on a recent investigation testing 10 advanced/professional sopranos in two groups singing sustained vowels at three frequencies: high (932 Hz), mid (622 Hz), and low (261 Hz). Spectrographic analysis shows that the nature of harmonic energy varies in relation to pitch. A resonance band somewhat resembling the tenor F(S) was usually evident in vowels sung at low and mid pitch. However, unlike the F(S) of typically less than 1 kHz bandwidth associated with tenors, sopranos singing similar pitches produced corresponding bandwidths which were significantly broader, usually at least 2-kHz wide. Vowels sung by sopranos at high-pitch levels exhibited strong fundamental frequency production with strong reinforcement of adjacent harmonics extending to 5 kHz and beyond. This type of production in essence nullifies the necessity for a typical F(S). Absence of the F(S) in strong soprano voices might also imply the adaptation of a sufficiently different overall vocal tract configuration, so that techniques geared to developing maximal projection should not be the same as those developed to maximize the F(S) in other voices.

This study investigated selected acoustic cues in the speaking voices of five professional singers; cues that may have enabled naïve listeners to differentiate them from nonsingers and other trained singers who were not consistently identified from their speaking voices. Subjects were divided into three groups based on listeners' perceptual judgments. Group I, the identified singers, consisted of five professional singers, three males and two females, with an average identification score, from their speaking utterances, of 79%. Group II, the unidentified singers, consisted of 15 trained singers, seven males and eight females, who, as a group, were identified correctly from their speaking utterances only 52% of the time. Group III consisted of 20 nonsingers who were incorrectly identified from their speaking utterances as singers only 36% of the time, that is, they were correctly identified as nonsingers from their speech 64% of the time. Acoustic parameters chosen for measurement from vowel productions were: (1) percent jitter, (2) percent shimmer, and (3) noise-to-harmonic ratio. The second sentence of the "Rainbow Passage" was selected to compare several frequency and duration measures between the three groups. These were: (1) mean speaking fundamental frequency, (2) standard deviation of the fundamental frequency, (3) sentence duration, (4) word duration, and (5) consonant/vowel ratio. The data indicated that the acoustic parameters that most consistently distinguished the identified singers from the unidentified singers and the nonsingers were fundamental frequency variation and durational differences. The identified singers varied their speaking fundamental frequency significantly more than did both the unidentified singers and the nonsingers. The identified singers also had longer vocalic segments than did the others.

Acoustic and perceptual analyses were completed to determine the effect of vocal training on professional singers when speaking and singing. Twenty professional singers and 20 nonsingers, acting as the control, were recorded while sustaining a vowel, reading a modified Rainbow Passage, and singing "America the Beautiful." Acoustic measures included fundamental frequency, duration, percent jitter, percent shimmer, noise-to-harmonic ratio, and determination of the presence or absence of both vibrato and the singer's formant. Results indicated that, whereas certain acoustic parameters differentiated singers from nonsingers within sex, no consistently significant trends were found across males and females for either speaking or singing. The most consistent differences were the presence or absence of the singer's vibrato and formant in the singers versus the nonsingers, respectively. Perceptual analysis indicated that singers could be correctly identified with greater frequency than by chance alone from their singing, but not their speaking utterances.

This study was designed to ascertain the intrasubject variability across multiple recording sessions-most often disregarded in reporting group mean data or unavailable because of single sample experimental designs. Intrasubject variability was assessed within and across several experimental sessions from measures of speaking fundamental frequency, vocal intensity, and reading rate. Three age groups of men and women--young, middle-aged, and elderly--repeated the vowel /a/, read a standard passage, and spoke extemporaneously during each experimental session. Statistical analyses were performed to assess each speaker's variability from his or her own mean, and that which consistently varied for any one speaking sample type, both within or across days. Results indicated that intrasubject variability was minimal, with approximately 4% of the data exhibiting significant variation across experimental sessions.

Acoustic analysis was used to gain information about the normal, as well as the abnormal acoustic events associated with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD). This analysis was completed to determine whether specific acoustic events could be used to differentiate the voice of individuals with ADSD from those with normal voice. A group comparison between 14 women diagnosed with ADSD and 14 women (age-matched) with no evidence of vocal pathology or vocal dysfunction was completed. Phonatory breaks, aperiodicity, and frequency shifts, acoustic parameters previously identified in ADSD, were found throughout sustained vowel productions. The duration of the phonatory breaks and aperiodic segments was calculated and the amount of frequency shift was determined. The location of each acoustic event was marked relative to the onset of the vowel production. The subjects with ADSD presented with normal phonation and various amounts of each of the three acoustic parameters. Aperiodic segments primarily characterized the phonation of ADSD, followed by frequency shifts and phonatory breaks. The location of each of these acoustic events was within the midportion of the vowel production. The advantages of segmenting the acoustic waveform into these measures and separating the spasmodic events from normal phonation when examining laryngeal motor control of spasmodic dysphonics is discussed.

This study examined speech breathing patterns during reading by women with bilateral vocal fold nodules judged as mildly dysphonic and by women without vocal nodules. Although it might be predictable that the speech breathing patterns of individuals with laryngeal dysfunction will differ from those without laryngeal dysfunction, there is a lack of empirical data to support such assumptions. The results of the current study indicated that glottal airflow was greater during reading for the women with vocal nodules and that a larger volume of air was expended both per syllable and per breath group during reading. The rate of speech did not significantly differ between the two groups of women. There was no significant difference for the average duration of the breath groups and no significant difference for the number of syllables spoken per breath group. Additionally, both groups of women demonstrated a similar pattern of inspiratory pause location during the reading. The results suggest that speech breathing patterns associated with dysphonia be examined independently to distinguish specifically the nature of the interaction between the laryngeal dysfunction and the speech breathing pattern. Certainly, more information on how the severity of a voice disorder influences speech breathing is necessary.

The purpose of this study was to measure the variability of frequency and intensity of speech, using multiple voice samples obtained over a period of time at a speaker's "comfortable effort level." Variability in vocal output within and across several experimental sessions was assessed from measures of speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) and vocal intensity for utterances repeated three times a day over a 3-day period. Three distinct age groups of men and women-young, middle-aged and elderly-repeated the vowel /a/, read a standard passage, and spoke extemporaneously during each experimental session. Results indicated that variability in SFF and intensity were present across experimental sessions, age groups, gender, and speaking samples. Generally, group means indicated that approximately +/- 1 semitone of variability for SFF and approximately 2 db sound pressure level (SPL) variation in vocal intensity from any one experimental session to the next could be expected; individual variations within any group may reach two semitones and 6 db SPL.

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the reliability of, and agreement among, six speech analysis systems in the determination of fundamental frequency. Five male and five female speakers provided oral reading and sustained vowel samples for analysis. Each sample was analyzed five times by each system. The results indicated high reliability for all of the systems for both sexes and both utterance types. Agreement among the systems was high for the male sustained vowels and the female oral reading samples. In contrast, poor agreement occurred among the systems for the male oral reading samples and the female sustained vowels. The findings indicate that the output of these automatic methods tends to be consistent over repeated trials within the systems in their extraction of fundamental frequency; however, agreement among these systems varies.

The purpose of this study was to determine the variability in speaking fundamental frequency (Fo) associated with sample type in two age groups of normal male and female speakers and a group with vocal-fold paralysis. Young and elderly normal control men and women produced a sustained vowel, read a passage, and spoke extemporaneously in the morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon on three different days. The vocal-fold-paralysis group produced two voice samples at different times on the same day. Two patterns of variability emerged in the normal groups. Young men produced sustained phonation at a significantly lower Fo than their reading or extemporaneous samples. Young and older women and older men produced sustained phonation with a higher Fo than their reading or extemporaneous samples. The eight subjects with unilateral vocal-fold paralysis (seven women, one man) produced samples with a pattern similar to that of the older normal groups but with greater differences between the sustained vowel and speech samples. The use of different sample types resulted in variations in mean speaking Fo in the normal subjects as well as in the vocal-fold-paralysis group. Within-day sampling of all normal subjects resulted in approximately the same variability as across-day sampling. In the vocal-fold-paralysis group, within-day sampling resulted in greater variability of mean Fo for vowels than for connected speech, following a pattern similar to the older normal control subjects and various speech materials for voice.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The purpose of this study was to compare the mean speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), speaking frequency range, and mean speaking intensity for a group of trained male singers and a group of age-matched non-singers in three age ranges: 20 to 35 years old; 40 to 55 years old; and older than 65 years. Each subject was recorded as he read "The Rainbow Passage" and produced the vowel /a/ to the limits of his phonational frequency range. The data indicated that the mean SFF of the nonsingers was significantly lower among the middle-aged speakers than with the young or elderly. In contrast, the tenors exhibited no age-related SFF trends, and the young bass/baritones exhibited lower SFF levels than the middle-aged or elderly. The elderly nonsingers produced frequency ranges that were smaller than any other group. Finally, the young nonsingers used greater speech intensity than did the other groups.

Measures of the SFF, vocal intensity, phonational range, and habitual pitch level are reported for 39 professional singer and 39 nonsinger females, who were divided into three age groups (young, middle, and old age), with the professionals further divided into sopranos and altos. Each read the "Rainbow Passage" and spoke extemporaneously, from which measures of the SFF and vocal intensity were calculated; phonational range and habitual pitch levels were also determined. No significant differences were noted between the reading and speaking tasks. The SFF and intensity levels were significantly higher for the professionals in comparison to the nonsingers, but only for certain age groups. Moreover, whereas the nonsinger SFF levels varied significantly as a function of age, those for the professional singers did not. Although trends occurred, no significant differences were found for the mean phonational range or habitual pitch levels when the professionals and nonsingers were compared.