Mapping 74 years in acoustic analysis of voice disorders: A bibliometric review and future research directions.
Ahmed M Yousef, Lady Catherine Cantor-Cutiva, Eric J Hunter
PMID 40712472WHAT IT FOUND
A bibliometric analysis of 1,253 studies shows acoustic voice assessment research has grown rapidly, driven by remote monitoring and machine learning.
While Parkinson's disease is heavily studied, voice changes in dementia, ALS, and depression remain under-researched despite their clinical relevance.
Key findings
01Research on acoustic voice assessment has expanded significantly, with 75% of the included papers published after 2007 and a sharp rise following 2020.
02The literature is dominated by studies on specific conditions like Parkinson's disease, while voice changes associated with dementia, Alzheimer's, ALS, and depression are less frequently explored.
03Machine learning and acoustic indices like AVQI are increasingly used, but current applications focus mostly on screening rather than tracking treatment outcomes or understanding physiological mechanisms.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is a bibliometric analysis, so it maps the literature but does not assess the quality or bias of the individual studies included. The search was limited to English, Spanish, and Portuguese, potentially excluding relevant research from other regions. Articles with conflicting screening decisions were excluded, which may have removed some potentially useful studies. Geographic attribution was based on the first author's affiliation, which may not fully reflect international collaborations.
Declared interests
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest in the work reported in this paper.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the growth in acoustic voice research as evidence that these tools are clinically validated for all voice disorders. The review explicitly notes a lack of reliability studies for acoustic metrics in remote settings and insufficient research on conditions like dementia and ALS, meaning current acoustic tools may not be ready for routine use in those populations.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →