Application of the New Version of the Acoustic Voice Quality Index with Korean Speakers

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to compute the new version of Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) and compare with existing AVQI versions. Additionally, we also investigated the correlation between AVQI measurements and auditory-perceptual ratings, and confirmed the optimal cutoff value and diagnostic predictive power to distinguish between normal and pathological voice. Methods: Voice samples of 2,369 native Korean subjects with normal voices (N= 143) and with dysphonia (N= 2,226) were recorded through both 5 seconds of sustained vowel /a/ and connected speech (Korean text "Walk"). We used the Praat script to extract the voiced segments and measure the AVQI. Additionally, two auditory-perceptual ratings (grade in GRBAS and overall severity in CAPE-V) were used by five speech language pathologists to assess the voice disorder severity. Results: Overall AVQI measurements were higher in order of AVQIv2, AVQIv4-K and AVQIv3; and AVQIv3 was significantly lower than other AVQI measures. In each version, there was a significant difference between normal and pathological voice groups. The correlation between AVQI and auditory evaluation was above .82, and the correlation with AVQIv4-K was the highest. All versions of the AVQI showed an above .94 for AUC, above 9.5 for LR(+), and below .2 for LR(-). Conclusion: AVQIv4-K is considered to have a high level of diagnostic power comparable to the existing AVQI versions.