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Davatz GC, Yamasaki R, Hachiya A, Tsuji DH, Montagnoli AN. Source and Filter Acoustic Measures of Young, Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults for Application in Vowel Synthesis. J Voice 2024; 38:253-263. [PMID: 34756498 DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2021.08.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Revised: 08/28/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The output sound has important changes throughout life due to anatomical and physiological modifications in the larynx and vocal tract. Understanding the young adult to the elderly speech acoustic characteristics may assist in the synthesis of representative voices of men and women of different age groups. OBJECTIVE To obtain the fundamental frequency (f0), formant frequencies (F1, F2, F3, F4), and bandwidth (B1, B2, B3, B4) values extracted from the sustained vowel /a/ of young, middle-aged, and elderly adults who are Brazilian Portuguese speakers; to present the application of these parameters in vowel synthesis. STUDY DESIGN Prospective study. METHODS The acoustic analysis of tokens of the 162 sustained vowel /a/ produced by vocally healthy adults, men, and women, between 18 and 80 years old, was performed. The adults were divided into three groups: young adults (18 to 44 years old); middle-aged adults (45 to 59 years old) and, elderly adults (60 to 80 years old). The f0, F1, F2, F3, F4, B1, B2, B3, B4 were extracted from the audio signals. Their average values were applied to a source-filter mathematical model to perform vowel synthesis in each age group both men and woman. RESULTS Young women had higher f0 than middle-aged and elderly women. Elderly women had lower F1 than middle-aged women. Young women had higher F2 than elderly women. For the men's output sound, the source-filter acoustic measures were statistically equivalent among the age groups. Average values of the f0, F1, F2, F3, F4, B1, and B2 were higher in women. The sound waves distance in signals, the position of formant frequencies and the dimension of the bandwidths visible in spectra of the synthesized sounds represent the average values extracted from the volunteers' emissions for the sustained vowel /a/ in Brazilian Portuguese. CONCLUSION Sustained vowel /a/ produced by women presented different values of f0,F1 and F2 between age groups, which was not observed for men. In addition to the f0 and the formant frequencies, the bandwidths were also different between women and men. The synthetic vowels available represent the acoustic changes found for each sex as a function of age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giovanna Castilho Davatz
- Interunit Graduate Program in Bioengineering, Programa de Pós-Graduação Interunidades em Bioengenharia da EESC/IQSC/FMRP - USP - University of São Paulo - Av. Trabalhador São-carlense, 400, São Carlos/SP, Brazil, Zip Code: 13566-590
| | - Rosiane Yamasaki
- Federal University of São Paulo, Universidade Federal de São Paulo - UNIFESP - Department of Speech-Language Pathology - R. Botucatu, 802 - Vila Clementino - São Paulo/SP, Brazil, Zip Code: 04023-062.
| | - Adriana Hachiya
- Department of Otolaryngology of Clinical Hospital of University of São Paulo - Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP) - Rua, Av. Dr. Enéas Carvalho de Aguiar, 255, São Paulo/SP, Brazil, Zip Code: 05403-000
| | - Domingos Hiroshi Tsuji
- Department of Otolaryngology of Clinical Hospital of University of São Paulo - Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP) - Rua, Av. Dr. Enéas Carvalho de Aguiar, 255, São Paulo/SP, Brazil, Zip Code: 05403-000
| | - Arlindo Neto Montagnoli
- Federal University of São Carlos, Universidade Federal de São Carlos - UFSCar- Department of Electrical Engineering - Rodovia Washington Luís, km 235 - São Carlos/SP, Brazil, Zip Code: 13565-905
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Kim JA, Jang H, Choi Y, Min YG, Hong YH, Sung JJ, Choi SJ. Subclinical articulatory changes of vowel parameters in Korean amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients with perceptually normal voices. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0292460. [PMID: 37831677 PMCID: PMC10575489 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The available quantitative methods for evaluating bulbar dysfunction in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are limited. We aimed to characterize vowel properties in Korean ALS patients, investigate associations between vowel parameters and clinical features of ALS, and analyze subclinical articulatory changes of vowel parameters in those with perceptually normal voices. Forty-three patients with ALS (27 with dysarthria and 16 without dysarthria) and 20 healthy controls were prospectively collected in the study. Dysarthria was assessed using the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R) speech subscores, with any loss of 4 points indicating the presence of dysarthria. The structured speech samples were recorded and analyzed using Praat software. For three corner vowels (/a/, /i/, and /u/), data on the vowel duration, fundamental frequency, frequencies of the first two formants (F1 and F2), harmonics-to-noise ratio, vowel space area (VSA), and vowel articulation index (VAI) were extracted from the speech samples. Corner vowel durations were significantly longer in ALS patients with dysarthria than in healthy controls. The F1 frequency of /a/, F2 frequencies of /i/ and /u/, the VSA, and the VAI showed significant differences between ALS patients with dysarthria and healthy controls. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.912. The F1 frequency of /a/ and the VSA were the major determinants for differentiating ALS patients who had not yet developed apparent dysarthria from healthy controls (AUC 0.887). In linear regression analyses, as the ALSFRS-R speech subscore decreased, both the VSA and VAI were reduced. In contrast, vowel durations were found to be rather prolonged. The analyses of vowel parameters provided a useful metric correlated with disease severity for detecting subclinical bulbar dysfunction in ALS patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin-Ah Kim
- Department of Neurology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Translational Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Genomic Medicine Institute, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hayeun Jang
- Division of English, Busan University of Foreign Studies, Busan, Republic of Korea
| | - Yoonji Choi
- Department of Korean Language and Literature, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Young Gi Min
- Department of Neurology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Translational Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Yoon-Ho Hong
- Department of Neurology, Seoul Metropolitan Government-Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jung-Joon Sung
- Department of Neurology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Neuroscience Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Seok-Jin Choi
- Department of Neurology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Center for Hospital Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Skrabal D, Rusz J, Novotny M, Sonka K, Ruzicka E, Dusek P, Tykalova T. Articulatory undershoot of vowels in isolated REM sleep behavior disorder and early Parkinson's disease. NPJ Parkinsons Dis 2022; 8:137. [PMID: 36266347 PMCID: PMC9584921 DOI: 10.1038/s41531-022-00407-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Imprecise vowels represent a common deficit associated with hypokinetic dysarthria resulting from a reduced articulatory range of motion in Parkinson's disease (PD). It is not yet unknown whether the vowel articulation impairment is already evident in the prodromal stages of synucleinopathy. We aimed to assess whether vowel articulation abnormalities are present in isolated rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) and early-stage PD. A total of 180 male participants, including 60 iRBD, 60 de-novo PD and 60 age-matched healthy controls performed reading of a standardized passage. The first and second formant frequencies of the corner vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ extracted from predefined words, were utilized to construct articulatory-acoustic measures of Vowel Space Area (VSA) and Vowel Articulation Index (VAI). Compared to controls, VSA was smaller in both iRBD (p = 0.01) and PD (p = 0.001) while VAI was lower only in PD (p = 0.002). iRBD subgroup with abnormal olfactory function had smaller VSA compared to iRBD subgroup with preserved olfactory function (p = 0.02). In PD patients, the extent of bradykinesia and rigidity correlated with VSA (r = -0.33, p = 0.01), while no correlation between axial gait symptoms or tremor and vowel articulation was detected. Vowel articulation impairment represents an early prodromal symptom in the disease process of synucleinopathy. Acoustic assessment of vowel articulation may provide a surrogate marker of synucleinopathy in scenarios where a single robust feature to monitor the dysarthria progression is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominik Skrabal
- grid.411798.20000 0000 9100 9940Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Rusz
- grid.411798.20000 0000 9100 9940Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic ,grid.6652.70000000121738213Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic ,grid.5734.50000 0001 0726 5157Department of Neurology & ARTORG Center, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Michal Novotny
- grid.6652.70000000121738213Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Karel Sonka
- grid.411798.20000 0000 9100 9940Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Evzen Ruzicka
- grid.411798.20000 0000 9100 9940Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Dusek
- grid.411798.20000 0000 9100 9940Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Tereza Tykalova
- grid.6652.70000000121738213Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
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Krumpholz C, Quigley C, Ameen K, Reuter C, Fusani L, Leder H. The Effects of Pitch Manipulation on Male Ratings of Female Speakers and Their Voices. Front Psychol 2022; 13:911854. [PMID: 35874336 PMCID: PMC9302589 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.911854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Vocal and facial cues typically co-occur in natural settings, and multisensory processing of voice and face relies on their synchronous presentation. Psychological research has examined various facial and vocal cues to attractiveness as well as to judgements of sexual dimorphism, health, and age. However, few studies have investigated the interaction of vocal and facial cues in attractiveness judgments under naturalistic conditions using dynamic, ecologically valid stimuli. Here, we used short videos or audio tracks of females speaking full sentences and used a manipulation of voice pitch to investigate cross-modal interactions of voice pitch on facial attractiveness and related ratings. Male participants had to rate attractiveness, femininity, age, and health of synchronized audio-video recordings or voices only, with either original or modified voice pitch. We expected audio stimuli with increased voice pitch to be rated as more attractive, more feminine, healthier, and younger. If auditory judgements cross-modally influence judgements of facial attributes, we additionally expected the voice pitch manipulation to affect ratings of audiovisual stimulus material. We tested 106 male participants in a within-subject design in two sessions. Analyses revealed that voice recordings with increased voice pitch were perceived to be more feminine and younger, but not more attractive or healthier. When coupled with video recordings, increased pitch lowered perceived age of faces, but did not significantly influence perceived attractiveness, femininity, or health. Our results suggest that our manipulation of voice pitch has a measurable impact on judgements of femininity and age, but does not measurably influence vocal and facial attractiveness in naturalistic conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Krumpholz
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
- *Correspondence: Christina Krumpholz,
| | - Cliodhna Quigley
- Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Karsan Ameen
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Christoph Reuter
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Musicology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Leonida Fusani
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Helmut Leder
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Exploring the Age Effects on European Portuguese Vowel Production: An Ultrasound Study. APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/app12031396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
For aging speech, there is limited knowledge regarding the articulatory adjustments underlying the acoustic findings observed in previous studies. In order to investigate the age-related articulatory differences in European Portuguese (EP) vowels, the present study analyzes the tongue configuration of the nine EP oral vowels (isolated context and pseudoword context) produced by 10 female speakers of two different age groups (young and old). From the tongue contours automatically segmented from the US images and manually revised, the parameters (tongue height and tongue advancement) were extracted. The results suggest that the tongue tends to be higher and more advanced for the older females compared to the younger ones for almost all vowels. Thus, the vowel articulatory space tends to be higher, advanced, and bigger with age. For older females, unlike younger females that presented a sharp reduction in the articulatory vowel space in disyllabic sequences, the vowel space tends to be more advanced for isolated vowels compared with vowels produced in disyllabic sequences. This study extends our pilot research by reporting articulatory data from more speakers based on an improved automatic method of tongue contours tracing, and it performs an inter-speaker comparison through the application of a novel normalization procedure.
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Distinct patterns of speech disorder in early-onset and late-onset de-novo Parkinson's disease. NPJ Parkinsons Dis 2021; 7:98. [PMID: 34764299 PMCID: PMC8585880 DOI: 10.1038/s41531-021-00243-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Substantial variability and severity of dysarthric patterns across Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients may reflect distinct phenotypic differences. We aimed to compare patterns of speech disorder in early-onset PD (EOPD) and late-onset PD (LOPD) in drug-naive patients at early stages of disease. Speech samples were acquired from a total of 96 participants, including two subgroups of 24 de-novo PD patients and two subgroups of 24 age- and sex-matched young and old healthy controls. The EOPD group included patients with age at onset below 51 (mean 42.6, standard deviation 6.1) years and LOPD group patients with age at onset above 69 (mean 73.9, standard deviation 3.0) years. Quantitative acoustic vocal assessment of 10 unique speech dimensions related to respiration, phonation, articulation, prosody, and speech timing was performed. Despite similar perceptual dysarthria severity in both PD subgroups, EOPD showed weaker inspirations (p = 0.03), while LOPD was characterized by decreased voice quality (p = 0.02) and imprecise consonant articulation (p = 0.03). In addition, age-independent occurrence of monopitch (p < 0.001), monoloudness (p = 0.008), and articulatory decay (p = 0.04) was observed in both PD subgroups. The worsening of consonant articulation was correlated with the severity of axial gait symptoms (r = 0.38, p = 0.008). Speech abnormalities in EOPD and LOPD share common features but also show phenotype-specific characteristics, likely reflecting the influence of aging on the process of neurodegeneration. The distinct pattern of imprecise consonant articulation can be interpreted as an axial motor symptom of PD.
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Eravci FC, Yildiz BD, Özcan KM, Moran M, Çolak M, Karakurt SE, Karakuş MF, Ikinciogullari A. Acoustic parameter changes after bariatric surgery. LOGOP PHONIATR VOCO 2021; 47:256-261. [PMID: 34213387 DOI: 10.1080/14015439.2021.1945676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To investigate the acoustic parameter changes after weight loss in bariatric surgery patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS This prospective, longitudinal study was conducted with 15 patients with planned bariatric surgery, who were evaluated pre-operatively and at 6 months post-operatively. Fundamental frequency (F0), Formant frequency (F1, F2, F3, and F4), Frequency perturbation (Jitter), Amplitude perturbation (Shimmer) and Noise-to-Harmonics Ratio (NHR) parameters were evaluated for /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ vowels. Changes in the acoustic analysis parameters for each vowel were compared. The study group was separated into two groups according to whether the Mallampati score had not changed (Group 1) or had decreased (Group 2) and changes in the formant frequencies were compared between these groups. RESULTS A total of 15 patients with a median age of 40 ± 11 years completed the study. The median weight of the patients was 122 ± 14 kg pre-operatively and 80 ± 15 kg, post-operatively. BMI declined from 46 ± 4 to 31 ± 5 kg/m2. The Mallampati score decreased by one point in six patients and remained stable in nine. Of the acoustic voice analysis parameters of vowels, in general, fundamental frequency tended to decrease, and shimmer and jitter values tended to increase. Some of the formant frequencies were specifically affected by the weight loss and this showed statistical significance between Group 1 and Group 2. CONCLUSION The present study reveals that some specific voice characteristics might be affected by successful weight loss after bariatric surgery.HighlightsObesity reduces the size of the pharyngeal lumen at different levels.The supralaryngeal vocal tract size and configuration is a determinative factor in the features of the voice.Changes in the length and shape of the vocal tract, or height and position of the tongue can result in changes especially in formant frequencies in acoustic analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fakih Cihat Eravci
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Meram Medical Faculty, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey
| | - Barış Doğu Yildiz
- Department of General Surgery, University of Health Science, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Kürşat Murat Özcan
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Health Science, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Münevver Moran
- Department of General Surgery, University of Health Science, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of General Surgery, Liv Hospital Ankara, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Mustafa Çolak
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Health Science, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Süleyman Emre Karakurt
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Health Science, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Mehmet Fatih Karakuş
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Health Science, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Aykut Ikinciogullari
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Health Science, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
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