Abstract
PurposeThe goal of this study was to employ frequently used analysis methods and tasks to identify values for cepstral peak prominence (CPP) that can aid clinical voice evaluation. Experiment 1 identified CPP values to distinguish speakers with and without voice disorders. Experiment 2 was an initial attempt to estimate auditory-perceptual ratings of overall dysphonia severity using CPP values.MethodCPP was computed using the Analysis of Dysphonia in Speech and Voice (ADSV) program and Praat. Experiment 1 included recordings from 295 patients with medically diagnosed voice disorders and 50 vocally healthy control speakers. Speakers produced sustained /a/ vowels and the English language Rainbow Passage. CPP cutoff values that best distinguished patient and control speakers were identified. Experiment 2 analyzed recordings from 32 English speakers with varying dysphonia severity and provided preliminary validation of the Experiment 1 cutoffs. Speakers sustained the /a/ vowel and read four sentences from the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice protocol. Trained listeners provided auditory-perceptual ratings of overall dysphonia for the recordings, which were estimated using CPP values in a linear regression model whose performance was evaluated using the coefficient of determination (r 2).ResultsExperiment 1 identified CPP cutoff values of 11.46 dB (ADSV) and 14.45 dB (Praat) for the sustained /a/ vowels and 6.11 dB (ADSV) and 9.33 dB (Praat) for the Rainbow Passage. CPP values below those thresholds indicated the presence of a voice disorder with up to 94.5% accuracy. In Experiment 2, CPP values estimated ratings of overall dysphonia with r 2 values up to .74.ConclusionsThe CPP cutoff values identified in Experiment 1 provide normative reference points for clinical voice evaluation based on sustained /a/ vowels and the Rainbow Passage. Experiment 2 provides an initial predictive framework that can be used to relate CPP values to the auditory perception of overall dysphonia severity based on sustained /a/ vowels and Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice sentences.
Highlights
The goal of this study was to employ frequently used analysis methods and tasks to identify values for cepstral peak prominence (CPP) that can aid clinical voice evaluation
In Experiment 1, we investigate CPP as a screening tool to predict the presence of a voice disorder using a voice database (Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary [ MEEI ], 1994) that has been analyzed in many other studies
In Experiment 2, we evaluate the performance of CPP to predict the auditory perception of dysphonia severity using a smaller data set of acoustic recordings that has been rigorously evaluated by trained listeners using American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)’s recommended protocol for the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V; Kempster et al, 2009)
Summary
The goal of this study was to employ frequently used analysis methods and tasks to identify values for cepstral peak prominence (CPP) that can aid clinical voice evaluation. Conclusions: The CPP cutoff values identified in Experiment 1 provide normative reference points for clinical voice evaluation based on sustained /a/ vowels and the Rainbow Passage. Experiment 2 provides an initial predictive framework that can be used to relate CPP values to the auditory perception of overall dysphonia severity based on sustained /a/ vowels and Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice sentences. A growing body of work has demonstrated CPP’s ability to differentiate perceptually dysphonic and nondysphonic voices across languages, disorder types, and speaking tasks Many of these findings in English speakers are reviewed by Fraile and Godino-Llorente (2014), which provides an overview of the algorithms underlying CPP computation. These studies find that lower CPP values are well correlated with increases in dysphonia severity based on auditory-perceptual judgments
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