Exploring Objective Correlates to Perceived Severity in the Covarying Breathy, Rough, and Strained Voice Qualities of Dysphonic Voices.
Shaheen N Awan, Yeonggwang Park, Supraja Anand and 2 others
PMID 40750447WHAT IT FOUND
No single objective measure captures all voice qualities.
Pitch strength best tracked breathiness and strain, while temporal envelope measures and cepstral peak prominence were needed to accurately rank roughness.
Key findings
01Pitch strength was the strongest correlate for breathiness and strain, but not for roughness.
02Roughness severity was best predicted by temporal envelope standard deviation and Cepstral Peak Prominence (ADSV), which did not correlate with other qualities.
03Overall dysphonia severity was most strongly correlated with Pitch Strength, followed by Cepstral Peak Prominence.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used only sustained vowel samples, so results may not apply to continuous speech. The sample size was small (26 stimuli), preventing multivariate analysis. The stimuli were selected from databases, so they may not represent the full continuum of clinical dysphonia. Inter-rater reliability for roughness and strain was lower than for breathiness.
Declared interests
None declared in the text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a high Pitch Strength score means the voice is free of roughness. The study showed Pitch Strength had no significant correlation with roughness severity, meaning a voice can be very rough while still having a strong pitch perception.