Contribution of vocal fold thickness to gender perception

Abstract

Male vocal folds are often longer and thicker than female vocal folds. The length difference is generally considered responsible for the notable difference in fundamental frequency between men and women, which plays an important role in gender perception. The role of the thickness difference in gender perception is less clear, although our recent studies demonstrated an important role of thickness in the control of voice quality. The goal of this study is to investigate the contribution of changes in vocal fold thickness and stiffness to gender perception. Synthetic voices were generated using a three-dimensional vocal fold model with parametric variations in vocal fold geometry, stiffness, adduction, and subglottal pressure. The vocal tract was kept constant in order to focus on the contribution of the voice source. Listening subjects were asked to judge speaker gender in a multiple choice task. Preliminary results showed a significant effect of vocal fold thickness and transverse stiffness on gender perception, with voices produced by thicker vocal folds and lower transverse stiffnesses more likely to be judged as male. Acoustically, gender perception scores were correlated with the fundamental frequency and spectral shape. [Work supported by NIH.]