Adequate sample size for representation of speaking fundamental frequency and its standard deviation in subjects with vocal pathology

Purpose This study examined differences in selected acoustic measures of speech and voice according to age and sex and across families. Method Participants included 169 individuals, 79 men and 90 women, from 18 families, ranging in age from 17 to 87 years. Participants reported no history of articulation disorders, stroke or active neurologic disease, or severe-to-profound hearing loss. They read aloud two passages to facilitate examination of the following speech and voice acoustic parameters: fricative spectral moments (center of gravity, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis), the proportion of time spent speaking, mean speaking fundamental frequency, semitone standard deviation (STSD), and cepstral peak prominence smoothed. Results The results indicated a significant age effect for fricative spectral center of gravity, spectral skewness, and speaking STSD. There was a significant sex effect for spectral center of gravity, spectral kurtosis, and mean fundamental frequency. Familial relationship was significant for spectral skewness, STSD, and cepstral peak prominence smoothed. Conclusions These findings revealed that certain speech and voice features change with age and some change differently for men and women. Additionally, speakers from the same family units may demonstrate similar patterns for prosody, voicing, and articulatory behavior. The results also demonstrated normal differences in speech and voice variation across age, sex, and family unit. Understanding patterns and differences across these demographic variables in healthy speakers is important to distinguishing more confidently between normal and disordered speech and voice patterns clinically.

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Aerodynamic and Acoustic Voice Measures Before and After an Acute Public Speaking Stressor

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00252 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (10) ◽

pp. 3311-3325

Author(s):

Brittany L. Perrine ◽

Ronald C. Scherer

Keyword(s):

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Salivary Cortisol ◽

Public Speaking ◽

Stress System ◽

Before And After ◽

Subglottal Pressure ◽

Response To Stress ◽

System Activation ◽

Speaking Fundamental Frequency ◽

Pituitary Adrenal Axis

Purpose The goal of this study was to determine if differences in stress system activation lead to changes in speaking fundamental frequency, average oral airflow, and estimated subglottal pressure before and after an acute, psychosocial stressor. Method Eighteen vocally healthy adult females experienced the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to activate the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. The TSST includes public speaking and performing mental arithmetic in front of an audience. At seven time points, three before the stressor and four after the stressor, the participants produced /pa/ repetitions, read the Rainbow Passage, and provided a saliva sample. Measures included (a) salivary cortisol level, (b) oral airflow, (c) estimated subglottal pressure, and (d) speaking fundamental frequency from the second sentence of the Rainbow Passage. Results Ten of the 18 participants experienced a hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis response to stress as indicated by a 2.5-nmol/L increase in salivary cortisol from before the TSST to after the TSST. Those who experienced a response to stress had a significantly higher speaking fundamental frequency before and immediately after the stressor than later after the stressor. No other variable varied significantly due to the stressor. Conclusions This study suggests that the idiosyncratic and inconsistent voice changes reported in the literature may be explained by differences in stress system activation. In addition, laryngeal aerodynamic measures appear resilient to changes due to acute stress. Further work is needed to examine the influence of other stress systems and if these findings hold for dysphonic individuals.

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Acoustical Effects of Endotracheal Intubation

Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders ◽

10.1044/jshd.5503.427 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 427-433 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Tracey A. Yonick ◽

Alan R. Reich ◽

Fred D. Minifie ◽

B. Raymond Fink

Keyword(s):

Standard Deviation ◽

Endotracheal Intubation ◽

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Sound Pressure Level ◽

Sound Pressure ◽

Cardiovascular Surgery ◽

Pressure Level ◽

Laryngeal Trauma

Certain acoustical consequences of endotracheal intubation were examined in 13 male cardiovascular-surgery patients. Each subject recorded three tokens of a sustained vowel 1 day before intubation, 1 day after, upon discharge, and during a follow-up visit. Eight acoustical measures were obtained from the audio-recorded vowels: (a) mean fundamental frequency (Fo), (b) Fostandard deviation, (c) Foperturbation quotient, (d) mean sound pressure level (SPL), (e) SPL standard deviation, (f) SPL perturbation quotient, (g) spectral flatness of the residue signal, and (h) coefficient of excess. Mean Fo, Fostandard deviation, mean SPL, SPL standard deviation, and coefficient of excess did not differ significantly across recording sessions, although certain predictable trends were apparent. Foperturbation quotient, SPL perturbation quotient, and spectral flatness of the residue signal varied significantly across sessions, implying that these acoustical measures may be useful in the identification and monitoring of even minor intubation-related laryngeal trauma.

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Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

Excel 2010 for Health Services Management Statistics ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-05260-1_1 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Thomas J. Quirk ◽

Simone Cummings

Keyword(s):

Standard Deviation ◽

Sample Size ◽

Standard Error ◽

The Mean

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Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

Excel 2016 for Social Work Statistics ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-66221-3_1 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 1-20

Author(s):

Thomas J. Quirk ◽

Simone Cummings

Keyword(s):

Standard Deviation ◽

Sample Size ◽

Standard Error ◽

The Mean

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Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

Excel 2016 for Health Services Management Statistics ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-40066-2_1 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 1-20

Author(s):

Thomas J. Quirk ◽

Simone M. Cummings

Keyword(s):

Standard Deviation ◽

Sample Size ◽

Standard Error ◽

The Mean

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The Development of Fundamental Frequency in 6- to 10-Year Old Children: A Brief Study

Journal of the International Phonetic Association ◽

10.1017/s0025100300006241 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 28 (1-2) ◽

pp. 55-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

S. P. Whiteside ◽

C. Hodgson

Keyword(s):

Standard Deviation ◽

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Picture Naming ◽

Age Groups ◽

Naming Task ◽

Final Position ◽

The Mean ◽

Age And Sex

This brief study investigates the development of fundamental frequency (FO) in pre-adolescent children as a function of age and sex. The children who took part in the study were divided into three age groups: 6, 8 and 10 years. Each group consisted of three males and three females. Each subject produced nine target phrases with [] in phrase-final position, which were elicited via a picture-naming task. FO was estimated for the nine target utterances and the following FO parameters were derived: mean FO for the whole phrase; FO range for the whole phrase; standard deviation values of FO for the whole phrase and mean FO for the phrase-final vowel [α:]. Results indicated that FO parameters generally decreased with age, and by age 10 years the males had lower values than the females for all four parameters. Results also indicated that the mean standard deviation of FO across the phrase was significantly higher for the females compared to that for the males.

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Speaking Fundamental Frequency Characteristics of Five- and Six-Year-Old Children with Mongolism

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.1302.418 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 418-425 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Bernd Weinberg ◽

Marsha Zlatin

Keyword(s):

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Trisomy 21 ◽

Clinical Observation ◽

Control Sample ◽

Frequency Standard ◽

Normal Children ◽

The Subject ◽

The Mean ◽

Voice Fundamental Frequency ◽

Speaking Fundamental Frequency

Spontaneous speech samples of 27 children with trisomy-21 type Down’s syndrome and 66 normal children were tape-recorded and analyzed for mean fundamental frequency, standard deviation, and range. Results indicate that the mean speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) level for the sample of children with mongolism was significantly higher than the mean SFF level for the control sample. Approximately 50% of the children with mongolism had mean SFF levels exceeding the highest mean SFF level of their matched controls. In only two cases did the mean SFF for a child with mongolism fall below the mean SFF level for control children of the same age and sex. No child with mongolism exhibited a mean SFF level below the lowest mean SFF for any control subject. The subject in question is the clinical observation that children with mongolism typically have low voice fundamental frequency levels.

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