Group differences in measures of voice production and revised values of maximum airflow declination rate

In previous reports, aerodynamic and acoustic measures of voice production were presented for groups of normal male and female speakers [Holmberg et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 84, 511-529 (1988); J. Voice 3, 294-305 (1989)] that were used as norms in studies of voice disorders [Hillman et al., J. Speech Hear. Res. 32, 373-392 (1989); J. Voice 4, 52-63 (1990)]. Several of the measures were extracted from glottal airflow waveforms that were derived by inverse filtering a high-time-resolution oral airflow signal. Recently, the methods have been updated and a new study of additional subjects has been conducted. This report presents previous (1988) and current (1993) group mean values of sound pressure level, fundamental frequency, maximum airflow declination rate, ac flow, peak flow, minimum flow, ac-dc ratio, inferred subglottal air pressure, average flow, and glottal resistance. Statistical tests indicate overall group differences and differences for values of several individual parameters between the 1988 and 1993 studies. Some inter-study differences in parameter values may be due to sampling effects and minor methodological differences; however, a comparative test of 1988 and 1993 inverse filtering algorithms shows that some lower 1988 values of maximum flow declination rate were due at least in part to excessive low-pass filtering in the 1988 algorithm. The observed differences should have had a negligible influence on the conclusions of our studies of voice disorders.