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The central aim of this experiment was to compare the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of students with normal hearing (NH) and school aged children with hearing loss (HL), and to explore the articulatory-acoustic relations during the nasal finals. Fourteen HL and 10 control group were enrolled in this study, and the data of 4 HL students were removed because of their high pronunciation error rate. Data were collected using an electromagnetic articulography. The acoustic data and kinematics data of nasal finals were extracted by the phonetics and data processing software, and all data were analyzed by test and correlation analysis. The paper shows that, the difference was statistically significant ( <0.05 or <0.01) in different vowels under the first two formant frequencies (F1, F2), the tongue position and the articulatory-acoustic relations between HL and NH group. The HL group's vertical movement data-F1 relations in /en/ and /eng/ are same as NH group. The conclusion of this study about participants with HL can provide support for speech healing training at increasing pronunciation accuracy in HL participants.
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Objective To study the impact of changes in the pharynx on the vocal functions and resonance functions to evaluate the effects of UPPP on voice and in order to provide a reference for the selection of UPPP sur‐gery population .Methods The 30 male adult patients who underwent UPPP surgery were recorded pre-surgery ,1-week post-surgery and 3-month post-surgery speech .Then the multi-dimensional voice program (MDVP) , linear prediction coding (LPC) ,the Nasometer Ⅱ(model 6450) were used to evaluate the vocal functions ,the oral resonance functions and the nasal resonance function .Results F0 ,jitter ,shimmer ,and NHR were unchanged from the pre-surgery to the post-surgery condition .One week after the surgery ,F1 ,F2 of /a/,/i/and /u/were un‐changed (P>0 .05) .Three months after surgery ,F1 ,F2 of the vowel /a/and F1 of the vowel /u/were remained essentially unchanged (P>0 .05);while the frequency of F1 ,F2 of the vowel /a/and of F2 of the vowel /u/were significantly higher compared to pre-surgery values (P0 .05) .Three months after surgery ,the nasalance scores of the oral sentence and the oranasal sentence were unchanged (P>0 .05);while the nasalance scores of the nasal sentence were significantly higher compared to pre-surgery values (P<0 .05) .Conclu‐sion UPPP doses not affect the vocal function .But it might have a certain effect on resonance function ,demonstra‐ted by the change of several formant frequency and nasalance .UPPP in all professional voice users should be cau‐tious .Such patients who want to undergo UPPP must be informed of this potential modification of the voice after sursery .
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PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare men with women in terms of speech intelligibility, to investigate the validity of objective acoustic parameters related with speech intelligibility, and to try to set up the standard data for the future study in various field in prosthodontics. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty men and women were served as subjects in the present study. After recording of sample sounds, speech intelligibility tests by three speech pathologists and acoustic analyses were performed. Comparison of the speech intelligibility test scores and acoustic parameters such as fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency range, formant frequency, formant ranges, vowel working space area, and vowel dispersion were done between men and women. In addition, the correlations between the speech intelligibility values and acoustic variables were analyzed. RESULTS: Women showed significantly higher speech intelligibility scores than men and there were significant difference between men and women in most of acoustic parameters used in the present study. However, the correlations between the speech intelligibility scores and acoustic parameters were low. CONCLUSION: Speech intelligibility test and acoustic parameters used in the present study were effective in differentiating male voice from female voice and their values might be used in the future studies related patients involved with maxillofacial prosthodontics. However, further studies are needed on the correlation between speech intelligibility tests and objective acoustic parameters.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Male , Acoustics , Phonetics , Prosthodontics , Speech Intelligibility , VoiceABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of palatal height on Korean vowels and speech intelligibility in Korean adults and to produce baseline data for future prosthodontic treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty one healthy Korean men and women who had no problem in pronunciation, hearing, and communication and had no history of airway disease participated in this study. Subjects were classified into H, M, and L groups after clinical determination of palatal height with study casts. Seven Korean vowels were used as sample vowels and subjects' clear speech sounds were recorded using Multispeech software program on computer. The F1 and the F2 of 3 groupswere produced and they were compared. In addition, the vowel working spaces of 3 groups by /a/, /i/, and /u/ corner vowels were obtained and their areas were compared. Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whiteny U test were used as statistical methods and P < .05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in formant frequencies among 3 groups except for the F2 formant frequency between H and L group (P = .003). In the analysis of vowel working space areas of 3 groups, the vowel working spaces of 3 groups were similar in shape and no significant differences of their areas were found. CONCLUSION: The palatal height did not affect vowel frequencies in most of the vowels and speech intelligibility. The dynamics of tongue activity seems to compensate the morphological difference.
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Hearing , Phonetics , Prosthodontics , Speech Intelligibility , TongueABSTRACT
The purpose of the study was to investigate the characteristics of the pronunciation of Korean vowels in patients with class III malocclusion. 11 adult male patients with class III malocclusion(mean ages 22.3 years) and four adult males with normal occlusion(mean ages 26.5 years) were selected for the analysis of eight Korean monophthongs /i, e, e, a, eo, o, eu, u/. The values and relationships of F1, F2 and F3 were derived from the stable section of target vowel in each sentence, and the analysis using formant plots and vowel triangles' distance and area was conducted to find the features of two groups' vowel distributions. Consequently, it was identified that the pronunciation of males patients with class III malocclusion showed high values of F1 in the low vowels, high values of F2 in the back vowels, and remarkably low position of /a/. The vowel triangle suggested that the triangle areas of male patients with class III malocclusion were shown wider vertically and narrower horizontally than those of males with normal occlusion. These characteristics could reflect the structural features of class III malocclusion such as the prognathic mandible, low tongue position, and advancement of back position of the tongue.
Subject(s)
Adult , Humans , Male , Acoustics , Malocclusion , Mandible , TongueABSTRACT
Objective To investigate voicing changes of adult patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) before and after H-uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (H-UPPP). Methods 56 adult OSAHS pa-tients and 40 healthy people were included in the study. Acoustic parameters and formant frequencies were measured for each patient before and after H- UPPP, and also for the control group. Results Acoustic parameters: each group demonstrated no differences in all the parameters except for normalized noised energy (NNE). NNE increased after H-UPPP. Formant frequency: F1, B1, F2, B2, F3 of OSAHS patients were significantly lower than normal control. There was no significant difference in the formant frequency before operation and one week after; however, F1 and F2 were lower than the normal control one week after surgery. One month after surgery, F1 and F2 were ob-viously higher than that obtained in one week. All the other parameters compared with normal controls showed no significant discrepancies. Conclusion Acoustic characteristics of adult OSAHS patients were different from healthy person. After H-UPPP, the vocal tracts of patients changed, thus causing improvement to the acoustic parameters and voicing qualities, especially at the formant frequency. After the surgery, the formant frequencies of the patients increased gradually to the range of healthy people.
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Objective To establish an acoustic perceptual method analyzing the compensatory articulation errors in children with operated cleft palate via the formants of Chinese pure vowels. Methods The first three formants which represent vocal transmission character in Chinese pure vowels of 84 subjects with operated cleft palate, were measured by Computerized Speech Signal Processing System (CSSPS). The Chinese vowel graph of postoperative patients with cleft palate was stated by the first formant frequencies (F1) and the second formant frequencies (F2) of the Chinese pure vowels between the two groups. Results Values of F1 and F2 of vowels except [a] in the poor articulation group (Group A) were significantly different from those in the good articulation group (Group B) (P<0.05 or P<0.01). As compared with that in Group B, the vowel graph demonstrated the decreased perceptual distances in Group A. These findings indicated that there might still be the backward movements of tongue, perverted mandibular movements and disharmonious lip movements in addition to the velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) in Group A. Conclusion The speech articulation of children with repaired cleft palate should be gained by correcting the aberrant compensatory articulation errors in the condition of velopharyngeal competence. Computerized Speech Signal Processing System (CSSPS), which is regarded as the content of objective quantitative measurement, is a precise, simple, reliable and atroumatic technique for children with cleft palate to analyze pathological compensatory articulation errors.
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Objective: To establish an acoustic perceptual method analyzing the compensatory articulation errors in children with operated cleft palate via the formants of Chinese pure vowels. Methods: The first three formants which represent vocal transmission character in Chinese pure vowels of 84 subjects with operated cleft palate, were measured by Computerized Speech Signal Processing System (CSSPS). The Chinese vowel graph of postoperative patients with cleft palate was stated by the first formant frequencies (F1) and the second formant frequencies (F2) of the Chinese pure vowels between the two groups. Results: Values of F1 and F2 of vowels except [a] in the poor articulation group (Group A) were significantly different from those in the good articulation group (Group B) (P<0.05 or P< 0.01). As compared with that in Group B, the vowel graph demonstrated the decreased perceptual distances in Group A. These findings indicated that there might still be the backward movements of tongue, perverted mandibular movements and disharmonious lip movements in addition to the velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) in Group A. Conclusion: The speech articulation of children with repaired cleft palate should be gained by correcting the aberrant compensatory articulation errors in the condition of velopharyngeal competence. Computerized Speech Signal Processing System (CSSPS), which is regarded as the content of objective quantitative measurement, is a precise, simple, reliable and atroumatic technique for children with cleft palate to analyze pathological compensatory articulation errors.
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There have been some reports about acoustic analysis of nasality changes after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS), but no studies on the relationship between acoustic and volumetric changes of rhinosinus. The aims of this study were to measure and follow the postoperative course of nasal formant and spectral changes of nasal consonants and vowels, to evaluate the relationship between these acoustic and volumetric changes of rhinosinus, and to estimate the effect of rhinosinus as a nasal tract on nasal resonance after operation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The changes of formants and spectral pattern were evaluated in 30 patients before ESS, and one, three and 12 months after ESS. Axial CT planes of 10 patients taken before and one month after the surgery were used for measuring the resonant volume of rhinosinus. RESULTS: The first formant was decreased when ESS was carried out one month after the surgery. However, it almost recovered to the preoperative level within 3 postoperative months. Twelve months after the surgery, the first formant did not show statistically significant differences compared to those of the preoperative state and the postoperative 1 month. The increment of resonant volume in rhinosinus was not correlated with the degree of decrement of the first formant one month after the surgery. CONCLUSION: Having a proper nasal cavity and the sinuses are important for nasality since hypernasality observed in the postoperative 1 month is thought to be caused by significantly increased resonant volume of the nasal tract. Compensatory control of velopharyngeal port as well as the resonant volume of the nasal tract are important factors to changes in nasality.
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Humans , Acoustics , Nasal CavityABSTRACT
Objective The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between different types of partial laryngectomy and post-operative voice quality by investigating the preserved voice function and its change after the surgery.Methods The computer multimedia program of Dr.Speech science for Windows was used to obtain the acoustic parameters from 30 normal adults and 55 patients operated 5 years ago with partial laryngectomy: 20 cases of horizontal partial laryngectomy,18 cases of vertical partial laryngectomy,and 17 cases of extended partial laryngectomy.Within 5 years after operation,F0,jitter,shimmer,NNE,F1 and F2 were measured several times and were compared.Results For the patients the fundamental frequency was lower and jitters,shimmer,NNE were higher compared to the control group.The parameters of jitter,shimmer and NNE of patients with supraglottic horizontal laryngectomy were the lowest while for those with vertical partial laryngectomy they were the highest.Compared were the formant frequencies(F1)of vowels /a:/,/i:/,/u:/ in group supraglottic horizontal laryngectomy and the normal gruop.The former was significantly higher.Conclusion Close relationships were noted in the different surgery methods and the voice qualities after partial laryngectomy.The voice functions of horizontal partial laryngectomy were the best while vertical partial laryngectomy the worst.The acoustic analysis can be used to assess the postoperative voice quality,and the data can guide the rehabilitation and training in terms of the improvement of their quality of life(QOL) after surgery.