Stochastic models of jitter

This study presents stochastic models of jitter. Jitter designates small, random, involuntary perturbations of the glottal cycle lengths. Jitter is a base-line phenomenon that may be observed in all voiced speech sounds. Knowledge of its properties is therefore relevant to the acoustic modeling, analysis, and synthesis of voice quality. Also, models of jitter are conceptual frameworks that enable experimenters and clinicians to distinguish jitter in particular from aperiodic cycle length patterns in general. Vocal jitter is modeled by means of the ribbon model of the glottal vibration combined with stochastic models of the disturbances of the instantaneous frequency. The disturbance model comprises correlation-free noise and vocal microtremor. Properties of jitter that are simulated are the stochasticity, stationarity, and normality of the decorrelated cycle length perturbations, the size of decorrelated jitter, the correlation between the perturbations of neighboring glottal cycles, the modulation level and modulation frequency owing to microtremor, the asynchrony between external disturbances and glottal cycles, the dependence of the size of jitter on the average glottal cycle length, and the relation between jitter and laryngeal pathologies. Modeled jitter is discussed in the light of measured jitter, as well as the physiological and statistical plausibility of the model parameters.