Age-related changes in human vocal tract configurations and the effects on speakers' vowel formant frequencies: a pilot study

Abstract

The study aims to: (i) make accurate measurements of age-related changes in female speakers' vocal tract configurations with acoustic reflection technique (ART); (ii) obtain acoustic information of vowel formant frequency changes as a function of aging; and (iii) test the hypothesis that there are age-related vocal tract dimensional changes and concomitant decreases in all the vowel formant frequencies as people age. Preliminary findings indicate that older female subjects tend to have a more expanded pharyngeal lumen, but not longer vocal tract length, than their younger cohorts, and formant frequencies would not unanimously decrease as a function of aging. The study highlights the importance of larger-scale measurements of age-related vocal tract configuration changes and the necessity of developing new acoustic models that will delineate all the concomitant formant frequency and other acoustic changes as people age.