The Acoustic Assessment of Voice in Continuous Speech

Abstract

Acoustic measures are an essential component in the assessment of voice disorders, but the value of these measures is dependent on their relationship to perceptual voice quality and the degree to which these measures reflect the typical speaking patterns of the individual being assessed. Therefore, acoustic measures that can be accurately and reliably derived from continuous speech contexts, which are more representative of every day speaking patterns than sustained vowels, are fundamental to the assessment of voice. In this article, I review the current findings on acoustic measures that are applicable to continuous speech. I will identify spectral- and cepstral-based measures that show strong relationships to perceptual ratings of overall voice severity or relate to particular dimensions of voice quality. I also will discuss the prominence of the cepstral peak as a measure that consistently shows strong predictive capacity for perceptually rated voice severity and provides excellent discrimination of dysphonic and normal voices.