Glottal Physiology and Gender Perception of Transgender Speakers

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究将阐明人类喉部的功能，并告知声音产生与感知之间的关系。本研究的长期目标是为变性人（TG）的语音护理提供信息和新的方向，从而改善变性人（TG）的生活，他们认为自己的声音是作为自己喜欢的性别生活的巨大障碍。不完整的性别表现会对TG个体的工作机会、人际关系和社会接受度产生负面影响。该项目的成果将促进性别转变的一个方面，这对被接受为一个人的首选性别和过上成功、健康的生活至关重要。关于男变女跨性别（MTF）喉如何克服生物解剖学的限制，以及哪些声音参数有助于听者对性别的感知，可以用来制定声音护理和女性化治疗的标准。和其他人群的语音治疗一样，TG语音治疗应该建立在对说话人发声机制的了解基础上。它不应像目前那样，完全根据两个性别群体的规范价值和假定的性别感知界限之间的差异来建立声学目标。与目前TG语音护理的想法相反，初步数据表明，MTF语音不一定是男性和女性语音的平均值，通过和不通过的MTF说话者之间存在生理差异。这些数据表明，临床决策时应考虑到那些冒充女性的MTF说话者使用了一种不同于非变性男性或女性的独特的声门管理技术。气流和卵子信号将同时被收集和排列，以确定通过MTF的声音是如何在生理上具有男性解剖结构的情况下实现女性声音的。首次将MTF语音生理通过的机制进行详细量化，并与非tg的男性和女性说话者，以及MTF没有达到女性发声的说话者进行比较。来自男女同性恋、双性恋和跨性别（LGBT）群体内外的100名听众将判断来自男性、女性和男对女（MTF）演讲者的重复演讲样本的性别。听者的感知将首先被用于将MTF组划分为女性和非女性，以便这两组的声门测量可以相互比较，并与非跨性别组的男性和女性进行比较。然后将感知等级与其他声学，发音和韵律变量（平均F0，频谱包络衰减，共振峰1-3，语调变化）一起输入回归模型，以便开发一个全面的模型，用于预测说话者将被视为他们首选性别的信心。据推测，虽然F0是一个强大的预测器，气流和声门

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This study will illuminate the capabilities of the human larynx and inform the relationship between voice production and perception. The long term goal of this research is to inform and provide new directions for transgender (TG) voice care, thereby improving the lives of TG people who feel their voice is a great obstacle to living as their preferred gender. Incomplete gender presentation can negatively impact the TG individual's job opportunities, relationships, and social acceptance. Results of this project will advance an aspect of gender transition vital to being accepted as one's preferred gender and living a successful, healthy life. Knowledge about how the male-to-female transgender (MTF) larynx overcomes constraints of biological anatomy, as well as which voice parameters contribute to listener's perceptions of gender, can be used to develop standards for voice care and feminization therapy. Like voice therapy for other populations, TG voice therapy should be grounded in knowledge of the vocal mechanism of the speaker. It should not resort, as it currently does, to establishing acoustic goals based exclusively on differences between normative values of two gender groups and assumed gender perception boundaries. Contrary to current thinking in TG voice care, preliminary data indicate that MTF voice is not necessarily an average of male and female voice, and there are physiological distinctions between passing and not-passing MTF speakers. These data suggest that clinical decision making should consider that MTF speakers who pass as female use a glottal management technique unique from non-transgender males or females. Airflow and EGG signals will be simultaneously collected and aligned to determine how the passing MTF voice achieves a female-sounding voice with biologically male anatomy. For the first time, the mechanism of passing MTF voice physiology will be quantified in detail and compared to non-TG male and female speakers, as well as MTF speakers who do not achieve female-sounding voice. One hundred listeners, from within and outside of the Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community, will judge the gender of reiterative speech samples from male, female, and male-to-female (MTF) speakers. The listener's perceptions will be used first to divide the MTF group into those who pass as female and those who do not so that glottal measures from these two groups can be compared to each other, and to the non-transgender groups of males and females. The perceptual ratings then will be entered in a regression model with other acoustic, articulatory and prosodic variables (Mean F0, spectral envelope decay, formants 1-3, intonation shifts) in order to develop a comprehensive model useful for predicting confidence that a speaker will be perceived as their preferred gender. It is hypothesized that while F0 is a strong predictor, airflow and glottal closure parameters will improve the fit of the model for gender perception.