HONC measures in men and women: validity and variability

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Acoustic Analysis
• Speech Science

Background:

• Assessing nasal resonance is crucial for diagnosing speech disorders.
• Horii's Oral Nasal Coupling index (HONC) is a measure used in this assessment.
• Validating HONC procedures ensures accurate diagnosis of hypernasality and hyponasality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the procedures for assessing disordered nasal resonance using the Oral Nasal Coupling index (HONC).
• To investigate potential differences in HONC measures between men and women.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of different speech stimuli for HONC assessment.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Horii's Oral Nasal Coupling index (HONC) with 40 adults (20 women, 20 men) with normal speech.
• Collected data from sustained vowels ([i], [a]), single words ("baby", "mamie"), and nasal/non-nasal sentences.
• Analyzed correction factors and decibel levels during [m] calibration and speech productions.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in [m] calibration correction factors were observed between men and women.
• Women produced higher decibel levels during [m] calibration than men, with variations over time.
• A 13 dB difference in HONC effectively distinguished nasal from non-nasal sentences, supporting HONC validity.

Conclusions:

• The HONC measure is a valid tool for differentiating nasal from non-nasal speech.
• Sentence stimuli appear more effective than vowels or single words for demonstrating hyper- or hyponasality due to lower variability.
• Speech assessment procedures using HONC may require adjustments based on sex due to observed differences in calibration.