Middle age, a key time point for changes in birdsong and human voice.

Abstract

Voice changes due to natural aging and neurodegenerative diseases are prevalent in the aging population and diminish quality of life. Most treatments involve behavioral interventions that target the larynx because of a limited understanding of central brain mechanisms. The songbird offers a unique entry-point into studying age-related changes in vocalizations because of a well-characterized neural circuitry for song that shares homology to human vocal control areas. Previously, we established a translational dictionary for evaluating acoustic features of birdsong in the context of human voice measurements. In the present study, we conduct extensive analyses of birdsongs from young, middle and old male zebra finches. Our findings show that birdsongs become louder with age and changes in periodic energy occur at middle age but are transient; songs appear to stabilize in old birds. Furthermore, faster songs are detected in finches at middle age compared to young and old finches. Vocal disorders in humans emerge at middle age, but the underlying brain pathologies are not wellidentified. The current findings will motivate future investigations using the songbird model to identify possible brain mechanisms involved in human vocal disorders of aging.

The Effects of Menopause on Neuromuscular Parameters of the Rat Vocal Folds

“…Therefore, the balance between estrogens and androgens is important for vocal fold structure and function, possibly explaining why middle age marks a key timepoint for changes to the human voice. 42 ERα were not found within the vocal fold. A caveat to this finding is that because we did not use a positive control in this methodology, our methodology may have lacked the sensitivity to detect ERα; however, cell nuclei were clearly visualized in our images with DAPI but lacked coexpression with ERα.…”

“…Although the outer connective layers of the vocal folds may be influenced by estrogen levels, the TA muscles may be more influenced by androgen levels. Therefore, the balance between estrogens and androgens is important for vocal fold structure and function, possibly explaining why middle age marks a key timepoint for changes to the human voice 42 …”

New Perspectives on Avian Models for Studies of Basic Aging Processes

“…Consequently, age-related changes in features of species-specific song have been proposed as a useful marker of functional senescence in wild bird populations, since the data required to monitor this would be relatively easy to collect [210]. Interestingly, the changes in song composition typical of an aging bird parallel those seen in the speech pattern of aging humans and are associated with altered vocal motor control [211][212][213][214][215].…”