Quantitative Assessment of Learning and Retention in Virtual Vocal Function Exercises.

Area of Science:

• Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Motor Learning
• Voice Disorders

Background:

• Voice therapy necessitates learning new vocal behaviors for successful rehabilitation.
• Understanding the mechanisms of vocal motor skill acquisition and retention is crucial for effective treatment.
• Current methods for quantifying vocal motor learning in a clinical context are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a virtual task based on Vocal Function Exercises for quantitatively assessing vocal motor learning.
• To characterize the motor learning process, including skill improvement and retention, in individuals with and without vocal hyperfunction.
• To evaluate the task's potential for enhancing clinical assessment and voice control treatments.

Main Methods:

• A virtual floating ball task was designed, requiring participants to control airflow (L/s) and intensity (dB-C) to maintain a normative vocal ratio.
• Two participants, one healthy and one with vocal hyperfunction, practiced the task for 11 days.
• Motor learning was quantified using distributional variability (tolerance cost, noise cost) and temporal variability (detrended fluctuation analysis).

Main Results:

• Both participants demonstrated significant error reduction during practice and retained performance at 1 and 6 months post-intervention.
• Tolerance cost and noise cost correlated with error reduction in early and late practice, respectively.
• Extended practice led to the modulation of temporal variability, aligning with the task's solution manifold.

Conclusions:

• The virtual floating ball task effectively generates quantitative measures of vocal motor learning in both healthy individuals and those with vocal hyperfunction.
• The findings suggest the task's utility in characterizing the learning process and its potential for clinical application in voice therapy.
• Further research is warranted to explore the task's full potential in improving clinical assessment and voice control interventions.