Relative importance of speech and voice features in the classification of schizophrenia and depression.

Speech is a promising biomarker for schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). This proof of principle study investigates previously studied speech acoustics in combination with a novel application of voice pathology features as objective and reproducible classifiers for depression, schizophrenia, and healthy controls (HC). Speech and voice features for classification were calculated from recordings of picture descriptions from 240 speech samples (20 participants with SSD, 20 with MDD, and 20 HC each with 4 samples). Binary classification support vector machine (SVM) models classified the disorder groups and HC. For each feature, the permutation feature importance was calculated, and the top 25% most important features were used to compare differences between the disorder groups and HC including correlations between the important features and symptom severity scores. Multiple kernels for SVM were tested and the pairwise models with the best performing kernel (3-degree polynomial) were highly accurate for each classification: 0.947 for HC vs. SSD, 0.920 for HC vs. MDD, and 0.932 for SSD vs. MDD. The relatively most important features were measures of articulation coordination, number of pauses per minute, and speech variability. There were moderate correlations between important features and positive symptoms for SSD. The important features suggest that speech characteristics relating to psychomotor slowing, alogia, and flat affect differ between HC, SSD, and MDD.

Effects of warm-up exercises on self-assessed vocal effort.

PURPOSE: An elevated sense of vocal effort due to increased vocal demand is frequently reported by patients with voice disorders. However, effects of vocal warm-up on self-assessed vocal effort have not been thoroughly examined. A recently developed version of the Borg CR-10 Scale facilitates vocal effort assessments, following different vocal warm-up tasks. METHODS: Effects of a short (5 min) vocal warm-up on self-assessed vocal effort was evaluated using the Borg CR-10. Twenty-six vocally healthy participants (13F, 13M, mean age 22.6), in two randomised groups, underwent sessions of either reading aloud or semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTE). Vocal effort was evaluated at four times: pre to post vocal warm-up and two silence periods. Non-parametric analyses for repeated measures and calculations for within-subject standard deviation were applied in group comparisons. RESULTS: Following vocal warm-up, vocal effort ratings were increased to a statistically significant degree in both intervention groups compared to baseline ratings. After a 5-min rest in silence following completion of the vocal warm-up, vocal effort ratings returned to baseline levels in both groups. The drop in ratings immediately post warm-up compared to 5 min later was statistically significant for the SOVTE group. CONCLUSIONS: Five minutes of vocal warm-up caused increased self-perceived vocal effort in vocally healthy individuals. The increased sense of effort dissipated faster following warm-up for the SOVTE group. When using the Borg CR-10 scale to track vocal effort, it may be beneficial to apply experience-based anchors.

Sounds to Astound: An acoustics outreach show.

Sounds to Astound is an acoustics demonstration show, produced for the community twice yearly by the Brigham Young University Student Chapter of the Acoustical Society of America. The free, interactive demonstration show explores the science of sound for a target audience of fifth- to eighth-grade students. Introductory acoustics concepts, such as longitudinal wave motion, wave properties, propagation effects, and standing waves, are taught with live demonstrations, animations, and videos. The goal of this paper is to inspire and encourage readers in their outreach efforts by describing the purposes of Sounds to Astound and technical details of several entertaining and educational demonstrations. Lessons learned from a decade of these student-produced shows serve as an aid for future efforts and highlight the benefits of outreach efforts, particularly for the students involved.

Self-Perception of Vocal Effort in Response to Modeled Communication Demands.

OBJECTIVES: The optimization of vocal effort given a response to a voice demand is a common clinical and vocal performance goal. Increases in vocal effort are often in response to communication limitations from both the interlocutors and the communication environment. This study investigates the relationship between vocal effort and vocal demands from changes and limitations imposed by the communication environment. METHODS: Thirty-seven participants rated their vocal effort associated with a map description task in a range of communication demands. These demands included communication distance (from 1 m to 4 m), loudness goal (54 dB-66 dB), and excess background noise (53 dBA-71 dBA). The vocal effort ratings were compared across the different types and extents of vocal demand conditions. RESULTS: As would be expected, there were significant increases in vocal effort levels from the control condition to the extremes of the distance and loudness goal vocal demands. Each increase in background noise resulted in distinct increases in vocal effort level. Participants were able to use the vocal effort scale to efficiently quantify expected increases in vocal demands. CONCLUSIONS: Increases of vocal effort level accompany increases to vocal demands that exceed the habitual or expected communication. While voice training and vocal therapy are essential for reducing internal vocal demands, clients with a goal to reduce vocal effort should also consider external vocal demands such as communication distance and background noise.

A Semiautomated Protocol Towards Quantifying Vocal Effort in Relation to Vocal Performance During a Vocal Loading Task.

To increase the reliability and comparability of vocal loading studies, this paper proposes the use of a standardized approach with experiments that are [1] grounded on consistent definitions of terms related to vocal fatigue (vocal effort, vocal demand, and vocal demand response), and [2] designed to reduce uncertainty and increase repeatability. In the approach, a semi-automated vocal loading task that also increases efficiencies in collecting and preparing vocal samples for analysis was used to answer the following research question: To what extent is vocal effort and vocal demand response sensitive to changes in vocal demands (ie, noise only, noise plus duration)? Results indicate that the proposed protocol design consistently induced change in both vocal effort and vocal demand response, indicating vocal fatigue. The efficacy of future vocal loading studies would be improved by adopting a more consistent methodology for quantifying vocal fatigue, thus increasing interstudy comparability of results and conclusions.

Relationship Between Tasked Vocal Effort Levels and Measures of Vocal Intensity.

Purpose Patients with voice problems commonly report increased vocal effort, regardless of the underlying pathophysiology. Previous studies investigating vocal effort and voice production have used a range of methods to quantify vocal effort. The goals of the current study were to use the Borg CR100 effort scale to (a) demonstrate the relation between vocal intensity or vocal level (dB) and tasked vocal effort goals and (b) investigate the repeated measure reliability of vocal level at tasked effort level goals. Method Three types of speech (automatic, read, and structured spontaneous) were elicited at four vocal effort level goals on the Borg CR100 scale (2, 13, 25, and 50) from 20 participants (10 females and 10 males). Results Participants' vocal level reliably changed approximately 5 dB between the elicited effort level goals; this difference was statistically significant and repeatable. Biological females produced a voice with consistently less intensity for a vocal effort level goal compared to biological males. Conclusions The results indicate the utility of the Borg CR100 in tracking effort in voice production that is repeatable with respect to vocal level (dB). Future research will investigate other metrics of voice production with the goal of understanding the mechanisms underlying vocal effort and the external environmental influences on the perception of vocal effort.

Assessing the Acoustic Characteristics of Rooms: A Tutorial with Examples.

In both practicing audiology and speech language pathology, as well as in speech and hearing science research, the space where the work is done is an integral part of the function. Hence, for all of these endeavors it can be important to measure the acoustics of a room. This article provides a tutorial regarding the measurement of room reverberation and background noise, both of which are important when evaluating a space's strengths and limitations for speech communication. As the privacy of patients and research participants is a primary concern, the tutorial also describes a method for measuring the amount of acoustical insulation provided by a room's barriers. Several room measurement data sets - all obtained from the assessment of clinical and research spaces within our own department - are presented here as examples.

Talker age estimation using machine learning.

As a person ages, the acoustic characteristics of the voice change. Understanding how the sound of a voice changes with age may give insight into physiological changes related to vocal function. Previous work has shown changes in acoustical parameters with chronological age, as well as differences between listener-perceived age and chronological age. However, much of this previous work was done using cross-sectional speech samples, which will show changes with age but may average out important variability with regard to individual aging differences. The current study used a longitudinal recording sample gathered from a corpus of speeches from a single individual spanning about 50 years (48 to 97 years of age). This study investigates how the voice changes with age using both chronological age and perceived age as independent variables; perceived age data were obtained in a previous direct age estimation study. Using the longitudinal recordings, a range of voice and speech acoustic parameters were extracted. These parameters were fitted to a supervised learning model to predict chronological age and perceived age. Differences between the chronological age and perceived age models as well as the usefulness of the various acoustic parameters will be discussed.

Effects of voice-sparing cricotracheal resection on phonation in women.

INTRODUCTION: Individuals with idiopathic subglottic stenosis (SGS) are at risk for voice disorders prior to and following surgical management. This study examined the nature and severity of voice disorders in patients with SGS before and after a revised cricotracheal resection (CTR) procedure designed to minimize adverse effects on voice function. METHOD: Eleven women with idiopathic SGS provided presurgical and postsurgical audio recordings. Voice Handicap Index (VHI) scores were also collected. Cepstral, signal-to-noise, periodicity, and fundamental frequency (F0 ) analyses were undertaken for connected speech and sustained vowel samples. Listeners made auditory-perceptual ratings of overall quality and monotonicity. RESULTS: Paired samples statistical analyses revealed that mean F0 decreased from 215 Hz (standard deviation [SD] = 40 Hz) to 201 Hz (SD = 65 Hz) following surgery. In general, VHI scores decreased after surgery. Voice disorder severity based on the Cepstral Spectral Index of Dysphonia (KayPentax, Montvale, NJ) for sustained vowels decreased (improved) from 41 (SD = 41) to 25 (SD = 21) points; no change was observed for connected speech. Semitone SD (2.2 semitones) did not change from pre- to posttreatment. Auditory-perceptual ratings demonstrated similar results. CONCLUSION: These preliminary results indicate that this revised CTR procedure is promising in minimizing adverse voice effects while offering a longer-term surgical outcome for SGS. Further research is needed to determine causal factors for pretreatment voice disorders, as well as to optimize treatments in this population. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 127:2085-2092, 2017.

Spectral-normalization filter for subjective analysis of the aging voice.

Voice quality changes with age. In many cases, these voice changes result in a lower quality of life. Because one way of identifying these voice quality changes is through perceptually estimating talker age, correlations made between estimated talker age and acoustic analysis can provide insight to the possible physiological degeneration related to vocal function. While most perceptual studies investigating estimated talker age are cross-sectional, a longitudinal study of single speakers could provide additional details in the progressive degeneration of the voice quality. Nevertheless, one limitation of these studies is that perceptual ratings of voice quality or talker age in a longitudinal study could be biased by recording quality. Further, the spectral qualities of recordings from earlier decades are limited by the technology used. In this paper, a spectral-normalization filter was developed and applied to a corpus of recordings from an individual spanning about 50 years (1959 - 2007) to reduce this impact of these limitations. The filter was shown to be effective in normalizing the autospectra of the recordings and the fundamental frequency was unaffected by the filter. Preliminary subjective analysis suggests that the recording quality of all the files were perceptually similar.

Teachers and Teaching: Speech Production Accommodations Due to Changes in the Acoustic Environment.

School teachers have an elevated risk of voice problems due to the vocal demands in the workplace. This manuscript presents the results of three studies investigating teachers' voice use at work. In the first study, 57 teachers were observed for 2 weeks (waking hours) to compare how they used their voice in the school environment and in non-school environments. In a second study, 45 participants performed a short vocal task in two different rooms: a variable acoustic room and an anechoic chamber. Subjects were taken back and forth between the two rooms. Each time they entered the variable acoustics room, the reverberation time and/or the background noise condition had been modified. In this latter study, subjects responded to questions about their vocal comfort and their perception of changes in the acoustic environment. In a third study, 20 untrained vocalists performed a simple vocal task in the following conditions: with and without background babble and with and without transparent plexiglass shields to increase the first reflection. Relationships were examined between [1] the results for the room acoustic parameters; [2] the subjects' perception of the room; and [3] the recorded speech acoustic. Several differences between male and female subjects were found; some of those differences held for each room condition (at school vs. not at school, reverberation level, noise level, and early reflection).

Classroom acoustics for vocal health of elementary school teachers.

School teachers have an elevated risk of voice problems due to vocal demands in the workplace. ANSI SI2.60-2002 provides a standard for classroom acoustics, but it focuses primarily on students and unoccupied classroom settings. This presentation explores a preliminary study of six elementary school teachers that included measurements of architectural acoustics parameters and noise-levels of their classrooms, as well as their speech levels and fundamental frequencies over the course of a school day. The measurement methods and speech trends are discussed for the various cases, demonstrating that classroom acoustics standards may benefit from greater attention to teacher vocal health.

Development of hibernomas in rats dosed with phentolamine mesylate during the 24-month carcinogenicity study.

Phentolamine is a reversible competitive alpha-adrenergic antagonist with similar affinities for alphal and alpha2 receptors. It has a long history of safe clinical use, and was developed as a potential therapy for male erectile dysfunction because of its capacity to increase the arteriolar blood flow to the corpora cavernosa. Phentolamine mesylate was administered to rats by oral gavage at daily doses of 10, 50, and 150 mg/kg for 24 months. A dose-related increase in mortality, ascribed to an exaggerated pharmacologic effect, was seen at high doses. Systemic exposure as measured by plasma drug concentration increased with dose and duration of dosing and slight drug accumulation occurred, particularly in high-dose males. In the treated groups, 10 males and 1 female were diagnosed with hibernomas, neoplasms of brown adipose tissue, which appeared in the thoracic cavity or retroperitoneal area as circumscribed, tan to reddish-brown lobulated masses. Histologically, the masses were well circumscribed with variably sized lobules defined by a rich capillary network and consisted of closely apposed oval to polygonal cells with large amounts of cytoplasm and a centrally located nucleus. The cytoplasm's appearance varied from multivacuolated to univacuolated to granular eosinophilic. In a few cases, neoplastic emboli were observed in capsular vessels. Ultrastructurally, the neoplastic cells contained numerous mitochondria with transverse parallel cristae that occupied over 60% of the cytoplasm and lipid droplets. This study documents the previously unreported development of hibernomas in rats treated with phentolamine mesylate.