Toward standardizing perceptual voice quality measures

描述（由申请人提供）：病理声音质量的感知在临床声音评估中非常重要，但充分量化一个人的声音仍然存在问题。在上一个供资期间完成的研究数据表明，当前话音质量度量的许多困难源于定义和度量质量的方式。我们建议开发一个整体语音质量的心理声学模型，作为传统评级和声学分析协议的替代方案。这个心理声学模型将指定一组感知上重要的声学参数，这些参数组合起来复制并因此量化声音的整体整体质量。我们将首先确定产生任何声音合成副本所需的最小声学参数集，以便听众判断合成副本与原始声音的质量相匹配。这一套将构成一个初步的声音质量心理声学模型。然后，我们将通过仅使用这些模型参数合成自然声音的副本来完善和验证这个心理声学模型。在某种程度上，听众判断自然和合成的符号完全匹配，心理声学模型将被认为是有效的。将分析不匹配，以确定应该向模型中添加或从模型中减去哪些参数。我们将评估声学值的变化与声音偏离正常程度的变化之间的关系。这将提供一个解释性模型，说明声学参数如何在感知上组合和相互作用，以确定任何声音样本沿着从“更好”到“更差”的连续体的位置。最后，我们将研究感知上重要的声学、频谱变化与声门结构相关变化之间的联系。这些知识可以确定在治疗期间最有可能产生声音改善的修复目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Perception of pathological voice quality is centrally important in clinical voice evaluation, but adequately quantifying the sound of a person's voice remains problematic. Data from studies completed during the previous funding period indicate that many difficulties associated with current measures of voice quality derive from the way in which quality is defined and measured. We propose the development of a psychoacoustic model of overall voice quality as an alternative to traditional ratings and acoustic analysis protocols. This psychoacoustic model will specify a set of perceptually-important acoustic parameters that combine to replicate and thereby quantify the overall, integral quality of a voice. We will first determine the minimal set of acoustic parameters required to produce a synthetic copy of any voice, such that listeners judge that the synthetic copy matches the quality of the original voice. This set will constitute a preliminary psychoacoustic model of voice quality. We will then refine and validate this psychoacoustic model by synthesizing copies of natural voices using only these model parameters. To the extent that listeners judge that the natural and synthetic tokens match exactly, the psychoacoustic model will be considered valid. Mismatches will be analyzed to determine what parameters should be added to or subtracted from the model. We will assess the relationship between changes in acoustic values and changes in the extent to which a voice deviates from normal. This will provide an explanatory model specifying how acoustic parameters combine and interact perceptually to determine the location of any voice sample along a continuum from "better" to "worse." Finally, we will investigate the link between perceptually-important acoustic, spectral changes and the associated alterations in glottal configuration. Such knowledge could identify targets for remediation that have the highest likelihood of producing vocal improvement during treatment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Measurement of voice quality is a prime concern in management of patients with voice disorders, but problems of reliability and validity persist for existing procedures for gathering such measures. The proposed research will establish a valid, reliable, theoretically-motivated alternative to current systems for measuring voice quality. By using confirmatory methods to establish causal links between acoustic variables and perceived voice quality, the proposed studies will enhance our understanding of the relationship between a voice signal and the perceptual response it evokes, leading to a standardized, perceptually-validated, objective protocol for clinical use. Further, these measures will enable us to generate and test preliminary hypotheses regarding the changes in glottal configuration that cause perceptually-important changes in vocal acoustics, thus providing some of the first experimental evidence linking perception to production. By establishing links among physiology, acoustics, and perception, this research may significantly advance clinical practice.