Imitating dysphonic voice: a suitable technique to create speech stimuli for spoken language processing tasks?

Area of Science:

• Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Voice Disorders Research
• Acoustic Phonetics

Background:

• Dysphonia significantly impacts communication.
• Research on dysphonic speech processing requires realistic voice samples.
• The authenticity of imitated dysphonic voices for research is not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the suitability of imitated dysphonic voice samples for listening tasks.
• To investigate the impact of voice quality on spoken language processing.
• To validate imitated dysphonic voices for research applications.

Main Methods:

• A voice expert recorded normal and imitated dysphonic speech samples (vowels, connected speech).
• Acoustic analysis included Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI), jitter, shimmer, and harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR).
• Perceptual evaluation used the GRBAS scale and ratings of consistency and authenticity by speech-language pathologists.

Main Results:

• Imitated dysphonic voices showed moderate to severe impairment, with roughness and asthenia as primary features.
• Acoustic and perceptual assessments confirmed high consistency and acceptable authenticity.
• The imitated voice quality closely resembled typical characteristics of dysphonic patients.

Conclusions:

• Imitated dysphonic voice samples are suitable for use in listening experiments.
• These validated samples can advance research into the processing of dysphonic speech.
• The findings support the use of imitated voices to study the effects of voice quality on spoken language processing.