Effect of Psychological Stress on Female Vocal Quality

Abstract

Psychological stress can influence vocal quality. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of stress on female vocal quality. In this experimental study 54 female voices were studied in a stress-inducing and a relaxed condition. In the stress-inducing condition the subjects were asked to read a passage while instructions were used to evoke stress. In the relaxed condition the same reading task but without specific instructions was used. Identical subjective and objective assessment techniques were used to determine vocal quality in the stressed and the relaxed conditions. In stress-inducing and challenging conditions the female voice is more breathy, strained and of a lower objective vocal quality characterized by lower fundamental frequency, lower frequency, intensity and aerodynamic capacity. This study indicates that stress-inducing and challenging conditions change vocal quality and vocal performance. Understanding of the effect of stress on voice production is relevant for clinical diagnostic situations, particularly in patients who present with a functional (nonorganic) voice disorder, as well as those patients who have some organic pathology but who also report exacerbation of symptoms during periods of increased life stress.

Voice analysis during bad news discussion in oncology: reduced pitch, decreased speaking rate, and nonverbal communication of empathy

“…Some of the voice changes, specifically lower pitch, that have been observed by others under experimental conditions of induced stress [20] are similar to those that we observed; it is conceivable, given the nature of the information to be discussed, that some of the health providers experienced a stress reaction that affected their nonverbal characteristics. No monitoring of provider's stress parameters was done for this study.…”

Investigating the Role of Salivary Cortisol on Vocal Symptoms

“…Studies investigating acute stress have shown both acoustic and perceptual effects of stress on the voice (Giddens, Barron, Byrd-Craven, Clark, & Winter, 2013;Mendoza & Carballo 1998;Mendoza & Carballo 1999;Schneider et al, 2006;Van Lierde, Van Heule, De Ley, Mertens & Claeys, 2009). The results vary and the individual differences of acoustic changes in the voice due to acute stress seem to be large.…”

Individual differences in cortisol stress response predict increases in voice pitch during exam stress

“…Indeed, an increase in voice pitch is the longest and most commonly reported finding in previous studies examining speech under stress (reviewed in Giddens et al, 2013;Kirchhübel et al, 2011). However, many studies have failed to replicate this finding (e.g., Dietrich and Abbott, 2012;Hecker et al, 1968;Johannes et al, 2000;Streeter et al, 1983;Tolkmitt and Scherer, 1986;Van Lierde et al, 2009). Others report an increase in minimum voice pitch or a decrease in its standard deviation (F0 sd), with no systematic change in mean pitch (Park et al, 2011;Tolkmitt and Scherer, 1986).…”