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Purpose: The purpose of this preliminary study was to identify a vocal task that could be used as a clinical indicator of the vocal aptitude or vocal fitness required for vocally demanding occupations in a manner similar to that of the anaerobic power tests commonly used in exercise science. Performance outcomes for vocal tasks that require rapid acceleration and high force production may be useful as an indirect indicator of muscle fiber complement and bioenergetic fitness of the larynx, an organ that is difficult to study directly. Method: Sixteen women (age range: 19-24 years, Mage = 22 years) were consented for participation and completed the following performance measures: forced vital capacity, three adapted vocal function tasks, and the horizontal sprint test. Results: Using a within-participant correlational analyses, results indicated a positive relationship between the rate of the last second of a laryngeal diadochokinesis task that was produced at a high fundamental frequency/high sound level and anaerobic power. Forced vital capacity was not correlated with any of the vocal function tasks. Conclusions: These preliminary results indicate that aspects of the laryngeal diadochokinesis task produced at a high fundamental frequency and high sound level may be useful as an ecologically valid measure of vocal power ability. Quantification of vocal power ability may be useful as a vocal fitness assessment or as an outcome measure for voice rehabilitation and habilitation for patients with vocally demanding jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether merging the clinical pitch pattern test procedure with psychoacoustic adaptive methods would create a new tool feasible to capture individual differences in pitch temporal processing and patterning capacity of children and adults. Method: Sixty-six individuals, young children (ages 10-- 12 years, n = 22), older children (ages 13--15 years, n = 23), and adults (ages 18--33 years, n = 21), were recruited and assigned to subgroups based on reported duration (years) of instrumental music instruction. Additional background information was collected in order to assess if the pitch temporal processing and patterning span developed, the Pspan, was sensitive to individual differences across participants. Results: The evaluation of the Pspan task as a scale indicated good parallel reliability across runs assessed by Cronbach's alpha, and scores were normally distributed. Between- subjects analysis of variance indicated main effects for both age groups and music groups recruited for the study. A multiple regression analysis with the Pspan scores as the dependent variable found that 3 measures of music instruction, age in years, and paternal education were predictive of enhanced temporal processing and patterning capacity for pitch input. Conclusions: The outcomes suggest that the Pspan task is a time-efficient data collection tool that is sensitive to the duration of instrumental music instruction, maturation, and paternal education. In addition, results indicate that the task is sensitive to age-related auditory temporal processing and patterning performance changes during adolescence when children are 10--15 years old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]