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Mitigating Dysphonia, Pain, and Vocal Handicap after Violent Video Game Voice Overs: A Pilot Investigation into Vocal
Katelyn Reid1, Victoria S McKenna2, D'Arcy Smith3
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Objective:
to investigate how the Vocal Combat Technique (VCT) may mitigate vocal symptoms in voice over actors using vocal violence.
Methods:
Five voice over actors (3 male, 2 females, Mean = 29.6 years) completed two study sessions of 45 minutes-to-1 hour of vocally violent voice over work held approximately 4 weeks apart. During session one, participants completed voice over work as they typically would, whereas they received 3-hours of VCT training to improve/assist in healthy vocal techniques prior to session two. Pre- and post-session measures for both sessions included self-perceptual ratings of vocal symptoms, auditory-perceptual evaluation, and traditional acoustic measures of frequency and perturbation.
Results:
Participants showed substantial mitigating effects of VCT training on acoustic perturbation measures (jitter, shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio), and self-ratings of vocal symptoms (Vocal-Handicap Index-10, McGill Pain Scale for vocal discomfort, and Evaluation of the Ability to Sing Easily) with calculated medium to large effect sizes (d = 0.61-1.95). There were no changes in auditory perceptual ratings across sessions.
Conclusion:
Our pilot investigation yielded positive improvements in vocal symptomology in five voice over actors who were trained in VCT. Next steps should include a larger enrollment of voice actors to determine optimal preventative and recovery techniques.
