Associations of Vocal Features, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Cognitive Functions in Schizophrenia

This study explored the use of advanced computational techniques in vocal analysis to improve the assessment of psychiatric symptoms and cognitive functions in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that digital signal processing techniques, such as mel spectrogram and mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC), could be used for objective evaluation of psychiatric symptoms and cognitive functions based on the analysis of alterations in the vocal characteristics.

Voice samples from 14 participants diagnosed with schizophrenia (92.9% female) were collected using a microphone array, and vocal features were extracted from the samples using mel spectrogram and MFCC techniques. Psychiatric symptoms and cognitive functions were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the computer-based tool Cognitrax.

We found significant negative correlations between specific vocal features (mel spectrogram and MFCC) and cognitive functions, particularly working memory (β = -0.645, p = 0.023) and sustained attention (β = -0.626, p = 0.029). No direct correlations were found between vocal features and psychiatric symptoms, as measured by PANSS scores. However, the correlations between cognitive functions and PANSS total scores were significant (β = -0.604, p = 0.037), suggesting that cognitive functions may mediate the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and vocal characteristics.

This study underscores the potential of vocal analysis as a non-invasive tool for assessing cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Future research should focus on expanding the sample size and including diverse populations to enhance the generalizability of these findings.