An Auditory-Perceptual and Pupillometric Study of Vocal Strain and Listening Effort in Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia

Mojgan Farahani,Philip C Doyle,Mason Kadem,Ingrid Johnsrude,Björn Herrmann,Vijay Parsa

doi:10.3390/app10175907

Abstract

This study evaluated ratings of vocal strain and perceived listening effort by normal hearing participants while listening to speech samples produced by talkers with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (AdSD). In addition, objective listening effort was measured through concurrent pupillometry to determine whether listening to disordered voices changed arousal as a result of emotional state or cognitive load. Recordings of the second sentence of the “Rainbow Passage” produced by talkers with varying degrees of AdSD served as speech stimuli. Twenty naïve young adult listeners perceptually evaluated these stimuli on the dimensions of vocal strain and listening effort using two separate visual analogue scales. While making the auditory-perceptual judgments, listeners’ pupil characteristics were objectively measured in synchrony with the presentation of each voice stimulus. Data analyses revealed moderate-to-high inter- and intra-rater reliability. A significant positive correlation was found between the ratings of vocal strain and listening effort. In addition, listeners displayed greater peak pupil dilation (PPD) when listening to more strained and effortful voice samples. Findings from this study suggest that when combined with an auditory-perceptual task, non-volitional physiologic changes in pupil response may serve as an indicator of listening and cognitive effort or arousal.

Highlights

Dysphonia describes an impairment of the speaking voice [1] which may occur due to a variety of reasons including those secondary to neurological disorders of the central or peripheral nervous system
This paper focuses on pupil dilation when listening to speech samples produced by adductor spasmodic dysphonia (AdSD) talkers
The AdSD speech samples utilized in this study varied widely in severity in order to differential responses to the stimuli by listeners

Summary

Introduction

Dysphonia describes an impairment of the speaking voice [1] which may occur due to a variety of reasons including those secondary to neurological disorders of the central or peripheral nervous system. Spasmodic dysphonia is a neurogenic voice disorder characterized by sudden, involuntary spasms of laryngeal musculature, either adductory, abductory, or in combination. Adductor spasmodic dysphonia (AdSD) is the most common diagnostic subtype which involves abnormal adduction of the vocal folds during voicing that may result in intermittent phonatory breaks that negatively impact the. Sci. 2020, 10, 5907 perceived voice quality [2]. As such, evaluating the severity of AdSD and its impact on listeners’ perception are of significant clinical and research interest [3,4,5,6]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion