The Influence of Age, Gender, and Different Speech Tasks on CPP and CSID in Kannada Language: An Indian Normative...

The Cepstral Spectral Index of Dysphonia (CSID) is a multivariate index that represents a quantitative summary of dysphonia and is determined using a speech task. Since voice quality may depend on geographical and ethnic factors, it is necessary to establish regional normative CSID values if dysphonia needs to be accurately assessed. The present study aims to do this for Kannada-speaking normophonic individuals differing in age and gender, using a range of speech tasks.

A total of 360 normophonic adults, including 160 males and 160 females in the age range of 20-80 years, participated in the present study. The study included three types of speech stimuli: sustained phonation of the vowel /a/ lasting 3-5 sec. Four Kannada sentences from the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) protocol were designed to evaluate various voice qualities, and (3) the first paragraph of the Bengaluru passage, which contains all voiced phonemes. The speech samples were analyzed using ADSV software.

Age had no effect on the CSID_CAPE-V or CSID_Bengaluru tasks. Though age had an overall impact on the phonation task (CSID_a) specific age groups did not show significant differences on CSID_a. Significant gender effects were observed for all three CSID tasks. With respect to cepstral peak prominence (CPP), age had no impact on CPP, but different speech tasks and gender influenced the CPP.

The study provides the normative values for CPP and CSID parameters for Kannada-speaking individuals of different ages and gender to provide a basis for clinical and research involving voice assessment in this population.