The objectives of the proposed research are to quantify and classify vocal disorders caused by variations in laryngeal and oral tract function that may be brought about by a structural alteration to the speech production system by a pathology or changes in physiology. The proposed methodology for the research is to model vocal disorders with speech synthesizers that include both phonatory and resonance features, each capable of being separately controlled. Laboratory speech synthesizers are now able to generate exceptionally high quality, natural sounding speech through finely controlled software algorithms that may vary speech production features precisely in degrees, one at a time, to synthesize vocal disorders. This methodology is also able to provide auditory scientists and clinicians nev test signals that may be used to study auditory disorders. These test signals can be precisely controlled, repeated without variation and designed to the specification of the auditory researcher. The expected results would enhance the clinician's ability to identify, quantify, and rank order the most likely laryngeal (phonatory) and oral tract (resonance) characteristics that contribute to a specific vocal disorder, e.g., hoarseness. The study will model cause-and-effect relationships between voice production features and the acoustic signal. These relationships may lead to more quantitative descriptors (terminology) of voice disorders that might eventually be universal. The research is not directed to the diagnosis of disease based on acoustic factors, rather the purpose is to establish quantitative descriptors of the relationships between symptoms, pathology, physiology, and speech production characteristics.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC000577-03
Application #
3217142
Study Section
Sensory Disorders and Language Study Section (CMS)
Project Start
1989-04-01
Project End
1992-03-31
Budget Start
1991-04-01
Budget End
1992-03-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
1991
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Florida
Department
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
073130411
City
Gainesville
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32611
Formby, C; Childers, D G; Lalwani, A L (1996) Labelling and discrimination of a synthetic fricative continuum in noise: a study of absolute duration and relative onset time cues. J Speech Hear Res 39:4-18
Childers, D G; Ahn, C (1995) Modeling the glottal volume-velocity waveform for three voice types. J Acoust Soc Am 97:505-19
Childers, D G; Hu, H T (1994) Speech synthesis by glottal excited linear prediction. J Acoust Soc Am 96:2026-36
Childers, D G; Wong, C F (1994) Measuring and modeling vocal source-tract interaction. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 41:663-71
Childers, D G; Bae, K S (1992) Detection of laryngeal function using speech and electroglottographic data. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 39:19-25
Wu, K; Childers, D G (1991) Gender recognition from speech. Part I: Coarse analysis. J Acoust Soc Am 90:1828-40
Childers, D G; Lee, C K (1991) Vocal quality factors: analysis, synthesis, and perception. J Acoust Soc Am 90:2394-410
Childers, D G; Wu, K (1991) Gender recognition from speech. Part II: Fine analysis. J Acoust Soc Am 90:1841-56
Eskenazi, L; Childers, D G; Hicks, D M (1990) Acoustic correlates of vocal quality. J Speech Hear Res 33:298-306