Routine acoustic voice analysis: time to think again?

Abstract

The validity of acoustic assessments in clinical applications remains unproven. Measurement reliability is still limited and might be greatly improved with relatively simple changes and consensus in measurement protocols and techniques. For instance, clinical assessment procedures and current normative values would have to be revised considering gender and vowel. Thus, future research might establish the validity and potential of clinical acoustic assessments.

Clinical relevance of speaking voice intensity effects on acoustic jitter and shimmer in children between 5;0 and 9;11 years

“…However, in adults and children the reliability and usefulness of jitter and shimmer measurements has been questioned for a number of reasons [20][21][22]: both parameters are significantly influenced by technical confounding factors such as microphone quality, the analysis software type or background noise. The analysis system and program may affect mean shimmer and jitter by factors ranging from 1.2 to 3.1 [23].…”

Performance of Phonatory Deviation Diagrams in Synthesized Voice Analysis

“…Other studies [10, 11] have already indicated that these measurements are valid for assessing voice quality deviations and that using combined measurements may improve the differentiation between signals with and without a voice deviation [23]. It is also noteworthy that studies must be performed to assess and develop voice assessment resources that enhance the capacity to differentiate between NVVQ and deviant signals, particularly considering that these resources should be useful in differentiating normal from deviant voice signals, even in the presence of high variability in the severity of voice disorder.…”

Parameters Acoustic and High-speed kymography identified effects of voiced vibration and vocal fry exercises

“…These two parameters have been described as robust measures of the biomechanical properties of the vocal folds in situations of vocal assessment, which compares the results of therapeutic interventions (10) . For this study, the algorithms developed to calculate the jitter and shimmer values were based on the proposal of Davis (17,18) .…”

“…The procedure was performed before and after the vocal exercises with the objective of promoting the same vibration conditions to the vocal folds and emissions. Therefore, it was possible to rule out the influences of these variables in the acoustic parameters and in video laryngoscopy (10) . The comfortable emission intensity and frequency of each subject was extracted during the first acoustic recording of the sustained vowel /ε/.…”

“…The acoustic analysis contributes with both quantitative and qualitative data. Even if the jitter and shimmer parameters are not so robust to assess very deviated voices, they have been very much used in studies in which the participants contribute with experimental and control data at the same time (10) . Another way of analyzing the voice is to assess laryngeal images.…”