Does the Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) Correlate with Perceived Creak and Strain in Normophonic Young Adult Finnish Females?

Abstract

<b><i>Background:</i></b> The Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) is a correlate of dysphonia. It has been found to differentiate between dysphonic and normophonic speakers and to indicate the effects of voice therapy. This study investigates how the AVQI reacts towards creak and strain, which are common in normophonic speakers. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> The material was obtained from an earlier study on 104 Finnish female university students (mean age 24.3 years, SD 6.3 years) with no known pathology of voice or hearing and a perceptually normal voice (G = 0 in GRBAS), who were recorded while reading aloud a standard text and sustaining the vowel [a:]. Perceptual analysis for the amount of creak and strain was carried out by 2 expert listeners. In this study, the AVQI v03.01 was analyzed and correlated with perceptual evaluations. Samples with low and high amounts of creak and strain were compared with <i>t</i> tests. <b><i>Results:</i></b> On average, the AVQI was below the threshold value of dysphonia in the Finnish population. The AVQI (ρ = 0.35, <i>p</i> = 0.000) and its subparameters, smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS; ρ = –0.35, <i>p</i> = 0.000) and harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR; ρ = –0.30, <i>p</i> = 0.002) showed low but significant correlations with creak. Strain had low but significant correlations with spectral Slope (ρ = 0.38, <i>p</i> = 0.000) and Tilt (ρ = –0.40, <i>p</i> = 0.009). The AVQI was lower (better) in samples that were evaluated as having a high amount of strain, but the difference was not significant. Only CPPS differentiated significantly between low and high amounts of creak. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> The AVQI does not seem to differentiate between high and low amounts of creak and strain in normophonic speakers.

Pareto-Optimized AVQI Assessment of Dysphonia: A Clinical Trial Using Various Smartphones

“…Moreover, AVQI has been shown to be useful in analyzing signals with greater degrees of aperiodicity, such as extreme hoarse voice quality [7]. The AVQI was lower (better) in samples with a high degree of strain for Finnish speakers, but the variation was not substantial [61]. Only CPPS distinguished between modest and large degrees of creak.…”

Voice Quality in Telephone Interviews: A preliminary Acoustic Investigation

“…Hence, scores below the pathological threshold predict a G0 rating. The most investigated among the two indexes, the AVQI, has also been used in studies on normophonic voices 65,74,75 and as a screening tool on slightly dysphonic voices. 76 In addition, pitch measures were also extracted in our study, 52,77 resulting in a total of 22 measures listed in Table 1.…”