Glottal airflow and transglottal air pressure measurements for male and female speakers in soft, normal, and loud voice

Abstract

Measurements on the inverse filtered airflow waveform (the "glottal waveform") and of estimated average transglottal pressure and glottal airflow were made from noninvasive recordings of productions of syllable sequences in soft, normal, and loud voice for 25 male and 20 female speakers. Statistical analyses showed that with change from normal to loud voice, both males and females produced loud voice with increased pressure, accompanied by increased ac flow and increased maximum airflow declination rate. With change from normal voice, soft voice was produced with decreased pressure, ac flow and maximum airflow declination rate, and increased dc and average flow. Within the loudness conditions, there was no significant male-female difference in air pressure. Several glottal waveform parameters separated males and females in normal and loud voice. The data indicate higher ac flow and higher maximum airflow declination rate for males. In soft voice, the male and female glottal waveforms were more alike, and there was no significant difference in maximum airflow declination rate. The dc flow did not differ significantly between males and females. Possible relevance to biomechanical differences and differences in voice source characteristics between males and females and across loudness conditions is discussed.

Effect of Age, Gender, and Repeated Measures on Intraoral Air Pressure in Normal Adults

“…Holmberg and colleagues 4 reported P 0 mean values of 5.91 and 6.09 cm H 2 0, for young males and females, respectively. Mean P 0 values of 5.81, 6.51, 7.99, and 6.35 cm H 2 0 for young males and females and elderly males and females, respectively, were reported by Higgins and Saxman.…”

“…Specifically, P 0 has been reported to vary as a function of vocal intensity. [1][2][3][4][5][6] That is, P 0 increases with increases in vocal intensity. In addition to intensity, P 0 varies as a function of presence or absence of voicing.…”

Comparison of Two Inverse Filtering Methods in Parameterization of the Glottal Closing Phase Characteristics in Different Phonation Types

“…These results might be explained by the subjects' inconsistent voicing strategies, a large within-speaker variation, and the acoustic effects of the flow mask. Studies by Hillman et al 10 and Holmberg et al 7 argue that the flow mask offers a noninvasive possibility to measure air flow. However, if voice measurements are to become a new routine as a part of occupational voice research, the psychological effect of the mask should also be taken into consideration.…”

“…[7][8][9][10][11][12] The amplitudebased parameters typically extracted are minimum flow (also called the dc offset), the ac flow, and the negative peak amplitude of the flow derivative (d min ), also called maximum airflow declination rate. 7,10,[12][13][14] It is also possible to define time-based parameters from amplitude measures by using, for example, the amplitude quotient (AQ) and its normalized version, the normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ). 15 The frequency-domain methods measure the spectral decay of the voice source and typically exploit information located at harmonics of the glottal flow spectrum.…”

Metabolic Mechanisms of Vocal Fatigue

“…For the vocal efficiency test, all participants were asked to produce a standardized repeated consonant-vowel (/pi/) string at comfortable pitch and loudness using the PAS6600 mask (Holmberg, Hillman, & Perkell, 1988); (dB SPL/cm H2O x cc/sec). Each participant produced three repetitions of 5 strings of /pi/.…”