Gender, but not speech material, affects extended high-frequencylevels in the speech spectrum

Abstract

Current evidence suggests extended high-frequency (EHF) speech cues support speech perception. Audibility of these cues likely depends on speech spectral levels at EHFs. These levels may vary across genders and different speech materials. In this study, we investigated the effect of talker gender and speech materials on EHF levels in speech. A group of 30 (15female) native speakers of American-English was recruited to participate in this study. A three-minute spontaneous narrative was recorded for each participant along with a subset of the Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB) sentences. An ERB-scaled long-term average speech spectrum was calculated for the narrative and for the BKB sentences for each subject. Linear mixed-effects models were used to test intersubject and intrasubject variability in 8 EHF ERB bands. There was a significant effect of gender with female EHF levels ∼4 dB higher than male EHF levels. Within-subjects comparison of BKB sentences and narratives revealed no significant difference in EHF levels between speech materials. These findings highlight the possibility that EHFs could play a more prominent role in female speech perception than male speech perception, and suggest that EHF levels are relatively stable across speech materials for a given talker. [Work supported by NIH under Grant No. R01-DC019745.]