Speech Production in Healthy Older Adults With or Without Amateur Singing Experience

Abstract

Purpose: Amateur singing is a universal, accessible, and enjoyable musical activity that may have positive impacts on human communication. However, evidence of an impact of singing on speech articulation is still scarce, yet understanding the effects of vocal training on speech production could provide a model for treating people with speech deficits. The aim of this study was to examine speech production in younger and older adults with or without amateur singing experience. Method: Thirty-eight amateur singers (aged 20–87 years, 23 women and 15 men) and 40 nonmusician active controls (aged 23–88 years, 19 women and 21 men) were recruited. A set of tasks were used to evaluate the oral motor sphere: two voice production tasks, a passage reading task, and a modified diadochokinetic (DDK) rates task performed at a natural rhythm and as quickly as possible. Results: Our results show that older age was associated with lower reading rate, lower articulation rate, and articulation rate variability in the DDK task, as well as reduced accuracy for the phonologically complex stimuli. Most importantly, our results show an advantage for singers over cognitively active nonsingers in terms of articulatory accuracy in the most challenging situations. Conclusion: This result suggests extended maximal performance capacities in amateur singers perhaps resulting from the articulatory efforts required during singing. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24274813