An Electroglottographic and Acoustic Study on Mandarin Speech in Male Heroin Users

Drug abuse can cause severe damage to the human speech organs. The vocal folds are one of the important speech organs that produce voice through vibration when airflow passes through. Previous studies have reported the negative effects of drugs on speech organs, including the vocal folds, but there is still limited research on relevant field. Therefore, the current study recruited 25 heroin users and 30 healthy controls with no history of drug use. Electroglottography and speech signals of 26 target sentences were collected from all participants. The results of the current study showed that the heroin group exhibited higher DFx1 and H1-A3, and lower DAx1 and jitter, and lower F1 frequency for /a/ and F2 frequency for /i/, but higher F2 frequency for /u/ compared to the no drug group. These findings suggested the presence of vocal hoarseness, frequency and amplitude distributions that differed from the norm, and a limited range of tongue movement in the heroin group. This study not only enhances the understanding of the effects of heroin on speech production but also has implications for detoxification treatment and speech rehabilitation for drug users.