Vocal tract dimensional development of adolescents: an acoustic reflection study

Female adolescent singing voice characteristics: an exploratory study using LTAS and inverse filtering

Background and Aim: To date, little research is available that objectively quantifies female adolescent singing-voice characteristics in light of the physiological and functional developments that occur from puberty to adulthood. This exploratory study sought to augment the pool of data available that offers objective voice analysis of female singers in late adolescence.Methods: Using long-term average spectra (LTAS) and inverse filtering techniques, dynamic range and voice-source characteristics were determined in a cohort of vocally healthy cis-gender female adolescent singers (17 to 19 years) from high-school choirs in Aotearoa New Zealand. Non-parametric statistics were used to determine associations and significant differences.Results: Wide intersubject variation was seen between dynamic range, spectral measures of harmonic organisation (formant cluster prominence, FCP), noise components in the spectrum (high-frequency energy ratio, HFER), and the normalised amplitude quotient (NAQ) suggesting great variability in ability to control phonatory mechanisms such as subglottal pressure (Psub), glottal configuration and adduction, and vocal tract shaping. A strong association between the HFER and NAQ suggest that these non-invasive measures may offer complimentary insights into vocal function, specifically with regard to glottal adduction and turbulent noise in the voice signal.Conclusion: Knowledge of the range of variation within healthy adolescent singers is necessary for the development of effective and inclusive pedagogical practices, and for vocal-health professionals working with singers of this age. LTAS and inverse filtering are useful non-invasive tools for determining such characteristics.

Relationship Between Oropharyngeal Geometry and Acoustic Parameters in Singers: A Preliminary Study

OBJECTIVE

To verify possible correlations between formant and cepstral parameters and oropharyngeal geometry in singers, stratified by sex.

METHOD

Voice records and oropharyngeal measures of 31 singers - 13 females and 18 males, mean age of 28 (±5.0) years - were retrieved from a database and analyzed. The oropharyngeal geometry measures were collected with acoustic pharyngometry, and the voice records consisted of sustained vowel /Ԑ/ phonation, which were exported to Praat software and edited to obtain the formant and cepstral parameters, stratified by sex. The Pearson linear correlation test was applied to relate voice parameters to oropharyngeal geometry, at the 5% significance level; the linear regression test was used to justify the variable related to the second formant.

RESULTS

Differences between the sexes were identified only in the oral cavity length (greater in males) and pharyngeal cavity length (greater in females). There was a linear correlation between the third formant and the cepstrum in the female group. In the male group, there was a linear correlation between the cepstrum and the third and fourth formants. A positive linear correlation with up to 95% confidence was also identified between the pharyngeal cavity volume and the second formant in the female group, making it possible to estimate a regression model for the second formant (R2 = 0.70).

CONCLUSION

There are correlations between the oropharyngeal geometry and formant and cepstral parameters in relation to sex. The pharyngeal cavity volume showed the greatest correlation between females and the second formant.

Modern Responses to Traditional Pitfalls in Gender Affirming Behavioral Voice Modification

Gender-affirming behavioral voice modification has primarily been directed by cisgender clinicians who do not actively live or master the process of voice modification themselves but instead observe it from the outside looking in. The lack of a "lived experience" by cisgender instructors naturally leaves gaps and oversights that may reduce the effective potential of voice training. Input from transgender people who have learned voice modifications techniques is key to providing the best possible care. Ear training, direct vocal modeling, and mastery of gender-modification techniques are crucial elements that are less emphasized in the current system.

Oropharyngeal Geometry of Maxilectomized Patients Rehabilitated with Palatal Obturators in the Trans-surgical Period: Repercussions on the Voice

INTRODUCTION

Patients undergoing maxillectomies may present alterations in the stomatognathic functions involved in oral communication. Rehabilitative treatment should favor the rescue of these functions, through surgical flaps, obturator prostheses or both.

OBJECTIVES

The present study aims to present the impact of the use of the palatal obturator on the oropharyngeal geometry and on the voice of patients undergoing maxillectomies, after adaptation to trans-surgical palatine obturators (TPO).

METHODS

Twelve patients treated at a Cancer Hospital, submitted to maxillectomy and rehabilitated during surgery were evaluated. The oropharyngeal geometry was measured by acoustic pharyngometry and the vocal parameters were evaluated through auditory-perceptual and acoustic analyses. The comparison between the results with and without TPO was analyzed using the Wilcoxon test and the correlation between oropharyngeal measurements and acoustic parameters using Spearman's correlation coefficient, all with a significance level of 5%.

RESULTS

There was a decrease in the following oropharyngeal measurements with the use of TPO: length of the pharyngeal cavity and vocal tract, volume of the oral cavity, pharyngeal and vocal tract and area of ​​the oropharyngeal junction. There was no difference in the length of the oral cavity and in the glottic area between situations with and without TPO. In the vocal evaluation, changes in intelligibility and resonance were observed in the situation without TPO and, in only one case, mild hypernasality was detected in the situation with TPO.

CONCLUSIONS

It is concluded that the use of TPO brought the oropharyngeal measurements closer to normal values ​​and provided an improvement in speech intelligibility and vocal resonance in maxilectomized individuals.

Identifying Voice Individuality Unaffected by Age-Related Voice Changes during Adolescence

Identifying voice individuality is a key issue in the biometrics field. Previous studies have demonstrated that voice individuality is caused by differences in the shape and size of the vocal organs; however, these studies did not discuss voice individuality over a long term that includes periods of voice change. Therefore, we focus on adolescence (early teens to early twenties), which includes voice changes due to growth of vocal organs, and we reveal invariant voice individuality over a long period. In this study, the immature and mature periods during vocal organ development were defined as unstable and stable periods, respectively. We performed speaker verification tests across these two periods and evaluated voice features that are common to these periods using Fisher's F-ratio. The results of the speaker verification test demonstrated a verification accuracy of 60% or more in most cases, and the results of the evaluation using Fisher's F-ratio demonstrated that robust voice individuality existed in the frequency regions of 1-2 kHz and 4-6 kHz regardless of the period. These results suggest that voice individuality is unaffected by age-related changes over the long term, including adolescence.

Oropharyngeal Geometry and the Singing Voice: Immediate Effect of Two Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Exercises

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to verify the immediate effect of a flexible resonance tube in water and of lip trill on oropharyngeal geometry and vocal acoustic parameters of singers without vocal symptoms.

METHODS

Twenty-two adult singers participated in the study. They had an average age of 27 (±4.8) years. Participants were split into two groups: a group composed of 12 singers who performed the flexible resonance tube (FRT) exercise and a group of 10 singers who performed the Lip Trill technique (LTT). Acoustic pharyngometry and acoustic analysis of the voice were used to assess oropharyngeal geometry before and after the exercises.

RESULTS

After performing the techniques, the vocal tract length was longer in the group that performed the FRT, compared to the one that performed the LTT. In the acoustic evaluation, there was an improvement in the glottal to noise excitation ratio and a decrease in noise in the group of singers who performed the LTT. In the analysis by sex men had a longer oral cavity compared to women and after application of the techniques greater volume of the vocal tract.

CONCLUSION

There was variation in the oropharyngeal geometry with the FRT, while the LTT had a positive effect on the vocal acoustic parameters related to glottal noise.

Vocal Feminization for Transgender Women: Current Strategies and Patient Perspectives

Voice feminization for transgender women is a highly complicated comprehensive transition process. Voice feminization has been thought to be equal to pitch elevation. Thus, many surgical procedures have only focused on pitch raising for voice feminization. However, voice feminization should not only consider voice pitch but also consider gender differences in physical, neurophysiological, and acoustical characteristics of voice. That is why voice therapy has been the preferred choice for the feminization of the voice. Considering gender difference of phonatory system, the method for voice feminization consists of changing the following four critical elements: fundamental frequency, resonance frequency related to vocal tract volume and length, formant tuning, and phonatory pattern. Voice feminizing process can be generally divided into non-surgical feminization and surgical feminization. As a non-surgical procedure, feminization voice therapy consists of increasing fundamental frequency, improving oral and pharyngeal resonance, and behavioral therapy. Surgical feminization usually can be achieved by external approach or endoscopic approach. Based on three factors (length, tension and mass) of vocal fold for pitch modulation, surgical procedure can be classified as one-factor, two-factors and three-factors modification of vocal folds. Recent systematic reviews and meta-analysis studies have reported positive outcomes for both the voice therapy and voice feminization surgery. The benefits of voice therapy, as it is highly satisfactory, mostly increase vocal pitch, and are noninvasive. However, the surgical voice feminization of three-factors modification of vocal folds is also highly competent and provides a maximum absolute increase in vocal pitch. Voice feminization is a long transition journey for physical, neurophysiological, and psychosomatic changes that convert a male phonatory system to a female phonatory system. Therefore, strategies for voice feminization should be individualized according to the individual’s physical condition, the desired change in voice pitch, economic conditions, and social roles.

The Swallowing Profile of Healthy Aging Adults: Comparing Noninvasive Swallow Tests to Videofluoroscopic Measures of Safety and Efficiency

PURPOSE

It has been widely reported that a proportion of healthy, community-dwelling seniors will develop dysphagia in the absence of a known neurological, neuromuscular, or structural cause. Our objective was to test whether various feasible, noninvasive measures of swallowing could differentiate safe versus unsafe and efficient versus inefficient swallowing on videofluoroscopy (VF) in a sample of healthy seniors.

METHOD

VFs from 44 (21 male, 23 female) healthy community-dwelling seniors (> 65 years old) were compared with a series of feasible, noninvasive swallowing metrics: maximal tongue strength (anterior and posterior), hand grip strength, pharyngeal volume, age, body mass index, 3-oz water swallow challenge, the 10-item Eating Assessment Tool questionnaire, and the Frailty Index. The VF protocol included 9 liquid barium boluses (3 × 5 ml thin, 3 × 20 ml thin, and 3 × 5 ml nectar). Each swallow was rated (randomized and blind) for safety using the Penetration-Aspiration Scale score and for efficiency using the Normalized Residue Ratio Scale (NRRS). Participants were deemed "unsafe" if they had any single Penetration-Aspiration Scale scores ≥ 3 and "inefficient" if they had any NRRS valleculae score > 0.082 or NRRS pyriform sinus score > 0.067. Univariate analyses of variance were run for each continuous swallowing measure by swallowing safety and swallowing efficiency status. Pearson's chi-square analyses were used to compare binary outcomes by swallow safety and efficiency status. Bonferroni corrections were applied to control for multiple comparisons.

RESULTS

None of the swallowing measures significantly differentiated safe from unsafe swallows. Although several variables trended to distinguishing efficient from inefficient swallows (age, 10-item Eating Assessment Tool, 3-oz water swallow challenge), only one variable, pharyngeal volume, was significantly different between efficient and inefficient swallows (p = .002).

CONCLUSION

Our findings support the notion that larger pharyngeal volumes (measured using acoustic pharyngometry) are associated with worse swallowing efficiency, a finding we attribute to atrophy of the pharyngeal musculature in healthy aging.

The Reliability of Oral and Pharyngeal Dimensions Captured with Acoustic Pharyngometry

Acoustic Pharyngometry (APh) is a method for quantifying oropharyngeal tract configuration using sound wave reflection and is commonly used in diagnostics and research of sleep apnea. The standard preset output of APh (minimal cross-sectional area) has been established as reliable. However, by conducting post-processing measures on specific breathing tasks, APh data can also reveal oral length, oral volume, pharyngeal length, and pharyngeal volume. Given that these measures may have utility in dysphagia research, the reliability of these measures is unknown and is the focus of the current study. Ten young healthy female volunteers completed two sessions of APh data collection to obtain measures of oral length, oral volume, pharyngeal length, and pharyngeal volume 1 week apart. Two-way mixed intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to establish intra-rater reliability, inter-rater reliability, and test-retest reliability. Results revealed excellent levels of agreement within and across raters for all oropharyngeal tract parameters. Levels of test-retest agreement for oral length and oral volume indicated these parameters are appropriate for monitoring change within an individual. All parameters were deemed to have acceptable test-retest values as outcome measures in group-level analysis.

Protective buttressing of the hominin face

When humans fight hand-to-hand the face is usually the primary target and the bones that suffer the highest rates of fracture are the parts of the skull that exhibit the greatest increase in robusticity during the evolution of basal hominins. These bones are also the most sexually dimorphic parts of the skull in both australopiths and humans. In this review, we suggest that many of the facial features that characterize early hominins evolved to protect the face from injury during fighting with fists. Specifically, the trend towards a more orthognathic face; the bunodont form and expansion of the postcanine teeth; the increased robusticity of the orbit; the increased robusticity of the masticatory system, including the mandibular corpus and condyle, zygoma, and anterior pillars of the maxilla; and the enlarged jaw adductor musculature are traits that may represent protective buttressing of the face. If the protective buttressing hypothesis is correct, the primary differences in the face of robust versus gracile australopiths may be more a function of differences in mating system than differences in diet as is generally assumed. In this scenario, the evolution of reduced facial robusticity in Homo is associated with the evolution of reduced strength of the upper body and, therefore, with reduced striking power. The protective buttressing hypothesis provides a functional explanation for the puzzling observation that although humans do not fight by biting our species exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism in the strength and power of the jaw and neck musculature. The protective buttressing hypothesis is also consistent with observations that modern humans can accurately assess a male's strength and fighting ability from facial shape and voice quality.

Características da espectrografia de banda larga e estreita da emissão vocal de homens com laringe sem afecções

OBJETIVO: caracterizar as espectrografias vocais de um grupo de homens adultos jovens. MÉTODO : 25 homens adultos jovens, sem queixas vocais, com diagnóstico otorrinolaringológico de laringe sem afecção, realizaram a emissão sustentada da vogal [a] em pé e com frequência e intensidade habituais. As emissões foram analisadas pelo programa Real Time Spectrogram da Kay Pentax®, que originou um espectrograma de banda larga e outro de banda estreita para cada sujeito. Estes foram duplicados, para aumentar a fidedignidade do estudo, e enviados a três fonoaudiólogas juízas que realizaram o julgamento dos mesmos seguindo um protocolo. Os resultados foram analisados estatisticamente pelo Teste para Diferenças de Proporções com nível de significância de 5 %. RESULTADOS: na Espectrografia de Banda Larga, houve significância estatística para ruído muito presente nas frequências em torno de 3,2KHz, pouca definição do terceiro formante, pouca regularidade do traçado e anti-ressonância mediana. Na Espectrografia de Banda Estreita, houve fraca intensidade das frequências em torno de 3,2KHz e em todo espectro, ruído muito presente em todo espectro e nas frequências em torno de 3,2KHz, ruído mediano nas baixas frequências, pouca regularidade do traçado e anti-ressonância mediana. CONCLUSÃO: a análise espectrográfica dos homens adultos jovens, com laringe sem afecções e sem queixas vocais, revelou grande quantidade de ruído em todo o espectro e nas frequências em torno de 3,2KHz, terceiro formante pouco definido, ruído mediano nas baixas frequências, traçado pouco regular, anti-ressonância mediana, fraca intensidade em todo espectro e, em especial, nas frequências em torno de 3,2KHz.

Developmental sexual dimorphism of the oral and pharyngeal portions of the vocal tract: an imaging study

PURPOSE

The anatomic origin for prepubertal vowel acoustic differences between male and female subjects remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to examine developmental sex differences in vocal tract (VT) length and its oral and pharyngeal portions.

METHOD

Nine VT variables were measured from 605 imaging studies (magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography) of subjects between birth and age 19 years. Given sex differences in growth rate (Vorperian et al., 2009), assessment of sex differences was done through use of a localized comparison window of 60 months. Analysis entailed applying this comparison window first to 4 discrete age cohorts, followed by a progressive assessment in which this comparison window was moved in 1-month increments from birth across all ages.

RESULTS

Findings document significant postpubertal sex differences in both the oral and pharyngeal portions of the VT. They also document periods of significant prepubertal sex differences in the oral region first, followed by segments in the pharyngeal region.

CONCLUSIONS

Assessment of developmental sex differences using localized age ranges is effective in unveiling sex differences that growth rate differences may conceal. Findings on the presence of prepubertal sex differences in the oral region of the VT may clarify, in part, the anatomic basis of documented prepubertal acoustic differences.

Analysis of the upper airway by the acoustic reflection method in children with mucopolysaccharidosis

BACKGROUND

Upper airway obstruction is common in children with mucopolysaccharidosis. The acoustic reflection method is a noninvasive technique that can analyze the caliber of the upper airways. The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of the acoustic reflection method in children with mucopolysaccharidosis, and to compare the characteristics of the upper airways evaluated by the acoustic reflection method in patients with mucopolysaccharidosis to matched healthy counterparts.

METHODS

Open, single center, prospective, study.

RESULTS

Accurate acoustic reflection measurements could be obtained in 7 of 10 patients (mean age: 10.4 ± 3.9 years; mucopolysaccharidosis type II (n = 3); type IV (n = 2), type VI (n = 1), and fucosidosis (n = 1)). The mean minimum cross-sectional area was lower in mucopolysaccharidosis patients (1.6 ± 0.3 cm(2) ) as compared to 14 healthy counterparts (1.8 ± 0.3 cm(2); P = 0.03). The mean resistance of the airways was significantly higher in the MPS group (7.9 ± 1.8 cmH(2) O l(-1) sec) as compared to the controls (5.5 ± 1.2 cmH(2) O l(-1) sec; P = 0.006).

CONCLUSION

This study is the first to analyze the upper airways by the noninvasive acoustic reflection method in children with mucopolysaccharidosis. Due to a lack of cooperation, reliable measurements could only be obtained in 70% of a selected group of patients. Children with mucopolysaccharidosis have significant upper airway obstruction as assessed by the reduction of the minimal cross-sectional area of the upper airways and the increase in airway resistance.