Classification of Dysphonic Voice: Acoustic and Auditory-Perceptual Measures

The purpose of this study was (1) to determine the relationship between acoustic measures and auditory-perceptual dimensions of overall voice severity and pleasantness and (2) to evaluate the ability of acoustic and auditory-perceptual measures to discriminate normal from dysphonic voices. Thirty adult dysphonic speakers and six, age-matched normal control speakers were asked to provide oral reading samples of the Rainbow Passage. Acoustic analysis of the speech samples was used to identify abnormal phonatory events associated with dysphonia. The acoustic program calculated long-term average spectral measures, glottal noise measures, and those measures based on linear prediction (LP) modeling. Twelve adult listeners judged overall voice severity and pleasantness from the connected speech samples using direct magnitude estimation (DME) procedures. The acoustic measures accounted for 48% of overall voice severity and 40% of voice pleasantness for dysphonic speakers. The classification performance of the acoustic measures and auditory-perceptual measures was quantified using logistic regression analysis. When acoustic measures or auditory-perceptual measures were considered in isolation, classification was generally accurate and similar across measures. Classification accuracy improved to 100% when acoustic and auditory-perceptual measures were combined. These data provide further support for use of both auditory-perceptual evaluation and acoustic analyses for classifying and evaluating dysphonia.