A Comprehensive Psychoacoustic Approach to Voice Quality Perception

项目摘要/摘要 语音障碍通常会导致患者、临床医生和对话注意到的语音质量改变 合伙人。语音质量的评估对于诊断是必不可少的，而语音质量的改善是至关重要的 治疗结果。然而，我们对语音质量如何感知的了解是有限的，而且 对临床结果的强有力的衡量甚至更加有限。这限制了我们准确地 量化或描述质量上的变化，如因疾病而下降或因 治疗。这个延续项目结合了语音科学、语音科学、 听力科学和工程学来解决这些问题。对建议的 研究同时涵盖了VQ的三个主要维度，拥抱了它们的协方差，改善了 测量方法，并通过连接语音评估扩展生态效度。这项研究 首先在实验室中获得高精度的语音质量感知测量。这些数据 然后用来开发准确反映听众数据的语音质量感知的数学模型。 为了在人类对声音质量的判断和模型输出之间获得紧密的匹配，听觉模型 处理用于获得语音声音信号的内部表示。具体措施有 然后从该内部听觉表示中捕获，并用于对语音质量的感知进行建模。在……里面 拟议的工作，这些方法将被用来建立一个全面的框架，以了解和 测量声音质量感知并使其能够转化为临床实践。这一行动的具体目标 项目的目的是：(1)发展对VQ协方差性质的更全面的理解(在呼吸之间， 粗暴和紧张)使用自然发声困难的声音；(2)在微观(分段)评估连接语音中的VQ 和宏观(完整话语)级别，以更好地捕捉快速和复杂过渡的影响， 发音和韵律变化，以及与特定病理相关的独特的VQ特征；(3)结合 将所有这些组件整合到一种简单、直观、高效的新型三维VQ缩放程序中 足以用于临床，并具有比率水平的测量特性；(4)使用高度预测性 克服声学分析和感知评估的许多局限性的计算模型；以及 (5)评估在测试设计和评估中考虑的所有心理测量学特性，包括信度； 效度、敏感性和特异度。也许最重要的是，目标是制定一项评估， 准确地指示对变化的反应(例如，疾病进展、治疗)。这些参数是 被认为是纵向评估和结果衡量的关键。使用这些工具的可行性 定期临床评估中的模型和指标将通过 临床现场试验，并由临床医生和实验室受试者进行协调的离线评估。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Voice disorders often lead to changes in voice quality noticed by patients, clinicians, and conversation partners. Assessment of voice quality is essential for diagnosis, and improvement in voice quality is a critical outcome of treatment. However, our knowledge of how voice quality is perceived is limited and the availability of robust measures of clinical outcome is even more limited. This has restricted our ability to accurately quantify or describe changes in quality, such as declines due to a disease or improvements resulting from treatment. This continuation project combines concepts and techniques from voice science, speech science, hearing science, and engineering to address these problems. The comprehensive approach to the proposed research simultaneously envelops the three primary VQ dimensions, embraces their covariance, improves measurement methods, and expands ecological validity through connected speech evaluation. The research proceeds by first obtaining high-precision measures of voice quality perception in the laboratory. These data are then used to develop mathematical models of voice quality perception that accurately reflect listeners’ data. To obtain a close match between human judgments of voice quality and model output, models of auditory processing are used to obtain an internal representation of the voice acoustic signal. Specific measures are then captured from this internal auditory representation and used to model the perception of voice quality. In the proposed work, these methods will be used to establish a comprehensive framework for understanding and measuring voice quality perception and to enable translation to clinical practice. The specific goals of this project are to: (1) develop a more complete understanding of the nature of VQ covariance (among breathy, rough, and strain) using natural dysphonic voices; (2) assess VQ in connected speech at micro (segmental) and macro (whole utterance) levels to better capture the impacts of rapid and complex transitions, co- articulatory and prosodic variations, and unique VQ signatures related to specific pathologies; (3) incorporate all of these components into a novel, three-dimensional VQ scaling procedure that is simple, intuitive, efficient enough to be used clinically, and has ratio-level measurement properties; (4) use highly-predictive computational models to overcome many of the limitations of acoustic analyses and perceptual evaluation; and (5) evaluate full range of psychometric properties considered in test design and evaluation including reliability, validity, sensitivity, and specificity. Perhaps most importantly, the goal is to develop an assessment that accurately indicates responsiveness to change (i.e., disorder progression, treatment). These parameters are considered essential for longitudinal assessment and outcome measurement. The feasibility of using these models and metrics in regular clinical assessment will be evaluated in multiple voice pathologies through a clinical field-trial and coordinated offline assessments by clinicians and laboratory subjects.