• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.85-92
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• 2015

This study aimed to establish characteristics related to voice and speech through the natural base frequency analysis of esophagus vocalization. In the study, 8 subjects were selected for esophagus vocals, and 10 other subjects were selected for a control group. MDVP(Multi-dimensional Voice Program, Model 4800, USA, 2001), Multi Speech(Model 3700, Kaypantax, USA, 2008) were used as experiment equipment. The speech samples selected for evaluation were vowels and sentences (both declarative and interrogative). For acoustic analysis, the intonation form of fo, jitter, energy, shimmer, HNR, and intonation patterns of the speech sample were measured. The results were as follows: First, the natural intrinsic frequency of extended vowels in the esophagus vocal group was lower than the frequency in the normal vocal group. In particular, the intrinsic frequency difference for high vowel /i/ was much greater than the frequency difference for low vowel /a/. Second, the jitter values of the esophagus vocal group were higher than the control group. In particular, there was a large difference between the jitter values for /a/ and /i/, with the jitter values being highest for /i/. Third, there was no significant difference in vocal strength between the esophagus vocal patient group and the control group. Fourth, the shimmer values of the voices in the esophagus vocal group were higher than shimmer values in the control group. In particular, there was a large difference in shimmer values for low vowel /a/. Fifth, the HNR values of the esophagus vocal group were showed significantly lower than the control group. In particular, the largest difference in HNR values between the two groups was for high vowel /i/. Sixth, the pitch contours of interrogative and declarative sentences of the esophagus vocal patient group showed a different form or only had with small differences compared to the pitch contours of the normal vocal group, thus presenting an inconsistent pattern.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.135-146
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• 2018

The Modified Voiced Lip Trill (MVoLT) training is a variant of voiced lip-till training characterized by increased loudness, lowered laryngeal position, and lip contact facilitated with fingers. The purpose of the current study was to assess the effect of the MVoLT training program on vocal changes of musical singing theater students. A total of 32 musical theater students (17 males and 15 females, age ranging from 18 to 29) participated in the study. For about three months, each participant was tutored using a systematic program focussing on the MVoLT training, accompanied by certain facilitating strategies. Pre- & post-training multi-dimensional vocal characteristics were assesed and compared. Results showed that cepstral peak prominence during vowel phonation increased after training, while its standard deviation and Cepstral Spectral Index of Dysphonia decreased. When an aerodynamic assessment was performed, maximum phonation time, subglottal pressure, mean airflow rate increased, while electroglottographic measures did not change. In addition, decreased psychometric measures, higher maximum pitch, and increased vocal range were noted after training. In conclusion, the MVoLT was proven to have a potential as an effective and safe training method for musical theater singing.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.69-76
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• 2019

This study aimed to investigate the effects of vocal aerobic treatment (VAT) on the improvement of voice in patients with voice disorders. Twenty patients (13 males, 7 females) were diagnosed with voice disorders on the basis of videostroboscopy and voice evaluations. Acoustic evaluation was performed with the Multidimensional voice program (MDVP) and Voice Range Profile (VRP) of Computerized Speech Lab (CSL), and aerodynamic evaluation with PAS (Phonatory Aerodynamic System). The changes in F0, Jitter, Shimmer, and NHR before and after treatment were measured by MDVP. F0 range and Energy range were measured with VRP before and after treatment, and the changes in Expiratory Volume (FVC), Phonation Time (PHOT), Mean Expiratory Airflow (MEAF), Mean Peak Air Pressure (MPAP), and Aerodynamic Efficiency (AEFF) with PAS. Videostroboscopy was performed to evaluate the regularity, symmetry, mucosal wave, and amplitude changes of both vocal cords before and after treatment. Voice therapy was performed once a week for each patient using the VAT program in a holistic voice therapy approach. The average number of treatments per patient was 6.5. In the MDVP, Jitter, Shimmer, and NHR showed statistically significant decreases (p < .001, p < .01, p < .05). VRP results showed that Hz and semitones in the frequency range improved significantly after treatment (p < .01, p < .05), as did PAS, FVC, and PHOT (p < .01, p < .001). The results for videostroboscopy, functional voice disorder, laryngopharyngeal reflux, and benign vocal fold lesions were normal. Thus, the VAT program was found to be effective in improving the acoustic and aerodynamic aspects of the voice of patients with voice disorders. In future studies, the effect of VAT on the same group of voice disorders should be studied. It is also necessary to investigate subjective voice improvement and objective voice improvement. Furthermore, it is necessary to examine the effects of VAT in professional voice users.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2003

Background and Objectives : Laryngeal cancer discrimination using voice signals is a non-invasive method that can carry out the examination rapidly and simply without giving discomfort to the patients. n appropriate analysis parameters and classifiers are developed, this method can be used effectively in various applications including telemedicine. This study examines voice analysis parameters used for laryngeal disease discrimination to help discriminate laryngeal diseases by voice signal analysis. The study also estimates the laryngeal cancer discrimination activity of the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) classifier based on the statistical modelling of voice analysis parameters. Materials and Methods : The Multi-dimensional voice program (MDVP) parameters, which have been widely used for the analysis of laryngeal cancer voice, sometimes fail to analyze the voice of a laryngeal cancer patient whose cycle is seriously damaged. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a new method that enables an analysis of high reliability for the voice signals that cannot be analyzed by the MDVP. To conduct the experiments of laryngeal cancer discrimination, the authors used three types of voices collected at the Department of Otorhinorlaryngology, Pusan National University Hospital. 50 normal males voice data, 50 voices of males with benign laryngeal diseases and 105 voices of males laryngeal cancer. In addition, the experiment also included 11 voices data of males with laryngeal cancer that cannot be analyzed by the MDVP, Only monosyllabic vowel /a/ was used as voice data. Since there were only 11 voices of laryngeal cancer patients that cannot be analyzed by the MDVP, those voices were used only for discrimination. This study examined the linear predictive cepstral coefficients (LPCC) and the met-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) that are the two major cepstrum analysis methods in the area of acoustic recognition. Results : The results showed that this met frequency scaling process was effective in acoustic recognition but not useful for laryngeal cancer discrimination. Accordingly, the linear frequency cepstral coefficients (LFCC) that excluded the met frequency scaling from the MFCC was introduced. The LFCC showed more excellent discrimination activity rather than the MFCC in predictability of laryngeal cancer. Conclusion : In conclusion, the parameters applied in this study could discriminate accurately even the terminal laryngeal cancer whose periodicity is disturbed. Also it is thought that future studies on various classification algorithms and parameters representing pathophysiology of vocal cords will make it possible to discriminate benign laryngeal diseases as well, in addition to laryngeal cancer.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.97-107
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• 2000

Motor aphasia is an affection frequently caused by insult of the left middle cerebral artery and usually accompanied by a large lesion involving the Broca's area and the adjacent motor and premotor areas. Therefore, a patient with motor aphasia commonly shows articulatory disturbances due to failure of the motor programing of speech sound. Objective assessment and treatment of phonologic programing is one of the important aspects of speech therapy in aphasic patients. We analyzed the speech disorders acompanied with motor aphasia in a 45-year-old man using a computerized sound spectrograph, Visi-$Pitch{\circledR}$, and Multi-Dimensional Voice $Program{\circledR}$. We concluded that a computerized speech analysis system is a useful tool to visualize and quantitatively analyse the severity and progression of dysarthria, and the effect of speech therapy.

• Proceedings of the KSLP Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.149-149
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• 2003

후두질환 감별용 음성 분석방법인 multi-dimensional voice program (MDVP)으로 분석이 불가능할 정도로 주기성이 크게 훼손된 후두암 말기의 음성 에 대하여 효과적인 감별을 하기 위하여, 몇 가지 켑스트럼(cepstrum) 파라미터를 비롯하여, 주기성 및 그 동요 정도, 영교차율(zero-crossing rate, ZCR), 스텍트럼 중심 (spectral centroid, SC) 등 다양한 특징 파라미터를 이용한 감별 실험을 수행하였다. 후두암 감별 실험을 위해 부산대학교 병원 이비인후과에서 수집한 정상 남자 음성 데이터 50개, 양성 후두질환 남자 음성 데이터 50개 및 남성 후두암 환자 음성 데이터 105개를 사용하였다. 음성 데이터는 단모음 /아/ 발성만을 사용하였고, 정상인과 양성후두질환 환자, 그리고 MDVP 분석이 가능한 후두암 환자 음성 데이터 중 2/3는 학습에, 나머지 113은 감별실험에 사용하였다. 후두암 감별을 위한 분류기로는 Gaussian Mixture Model(GMM) 분류기를 사용하였으며, 이때 모델의 복잡도를 표현하는 mixture 수는 1에서 10까지 가변시키면서 가장 좋은 성능을 나타내는 값으로 결정하였다. 또한 모든 실험에서 켑스트럼 분석의 차수는 동일하게 12차로 고정시켰다. (중략)

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.16-23
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects postural changes on respiratory muscles and acoustic parameters of the children with spastic cerebral palsy. Nine children with spastic cerebral palsy who required assistance when walking were selected. The ages of the children ranged from 6 to 9 years old. The phonation of the sustained vowel /a/ and the voice qualities of each child such as fundamental frequency($F_0$; Hz), pitch variation (Jitter; %), amplitude variation (Shimmer; %) and noise to harmonic ratio (NHR) were analyzed by Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP). The muscle activity of three major respiratory muscles: pectoralis major muscle, upper trapezius muscle and rectus abdorminalis muscle, were measured by examining the root mean square (RMS) of the surface EMG to investigate the impact of changes in the adjusted sitting posture of each subject. However, the RMS of pectoralis major muscle showed a significant differences (p<.05). Secondly, there were no significant differences in $F_0$, Jitter and Shimmer between pre and post posture change, but there was a significant difference in NHR (p<.05). The data were collected in each individual; once prior and once after the sitting posture change. The data were analyzed by Wilcoxon signed ranks-test using SPSS version 14.0 for Windows. The findings of this study were as follows; Firstly, the RMS of upper trapezius and rectus abdorminalis muscle were not significant different between pre and post sitting posture changes. From the result, it is concluded that changes in the adjusted sitting posture decreases the abnormal respiratory patterns in the children with spastic cerebral palsy which is characterized by the hyperactivity of the respiratory muscles in breathing. Also, there is increased on the voice qualities in children with spastic cerebral palsy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.100-105
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• 2017

Background and Objectives : Adductor type spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) is neurogenic disorder and focal laryngeal dystonia, while muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is caused by functional voice disorder. Both ADSD and MTD may be associated with excessive supraglottic contraction and compensation, resulting in a strained voice quality with spastic voice breaks. The aim of this study was to determine the utility of spectrogram analysis in the differentiation of ADSD from MTD. Materials and Methods : From 2015 through 2017, 17 patients of ADSD and 20 of MTD, underwent acoustic recording and phonatory function studies, were enrolled. Jitter (frequency perturbation), Shimmer (amplitude perturbation) were obtained using MDVP (Multi-dimensional Voice Program) and GRBAS scale was used for perceptual evaluation. The two speech therapist evaluated a wide band (11,250 Hz) spectrogram by blind test using 4 scales (0-3 point) for four spectral findings, abrupt voice breaks, irregular wide spaced vertical striations, well defined formants and high frequency spectral noise. Results : Jitter, Shimmer and GRBAS were not found different between two groups with no significant correlation (p>0.05). Abrupt voice breaks and irregular wide spaced vertical striations of ADSD were significantly higher than those of MTD with strong correlation (p<0.01). High frequency spectral noise of MTD were higher than those of ADSD with strong correlation (p<0.01). Well defined formants were not found different between two groups. Conclusion : The wide band spectrograms provided visual perceptual information can differentiate ADSD from MTD. Spectrogram analysis is a useful diagnostic tool for differentiating ADSD from MTD where perceptual analysis and clinical evaluation alone are insufficient.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.269-274
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• 2017

This study aimed to investigate the acoustic differences that occur in diverse sections of sustained vowel phonation, which is often used in an objective speech analysis of voice disorder patients. The subjects included 17 voice disorder patients (vocal nodules) and 12 normal individuals without any voice disorder. The participants' sustained vowel phonation of /a/ was divided into onset, middle, and offset, and the jitter, shimmer, and NHR in each section were analyzed using the MDVP(Multi-Dimensional Voice Program). The Friedman test and post hoc analysis were used. In the vocal nodules group, the jitter, shimmer and NHR were significantly higher in the off section of sustained vowel phonation than in the middle section, and there were no significant differences between the beginning and middle sections. In contrast, in the group of normal individuals, there were no significant differences between any of the sections. The values of the acoustic parameters according to the section of analysis in the sustained vowel phonation are different and the vocal in the end section is significantly more unstable than that in the middle section. The results of this study will be useful for selecting the sections to be analyzed in sustained vowel phonation and interpreting the results of the analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.172-178
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• 2022

Background and Objectives Injection laryngoplasty is a common method for treatment of unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Unilateral vocal fold paralysis has various causes, including idiopathic, infection, stroke, neurologic condition, surgery and nerve invasion by cancer. To the knowledge of the authors, there was no study on the relationship between the causes of vocal cord paralysis and the outcome of injection laryngoplasty. Therefore, we tried to investigate the difference in the outcomes of injection laryngoplasty between vocal cord paralysis after surgery group and nerve invasion by cancer group. Materials and Method A retrospective analysis was performed for 24 patients who underwent vocal cord injection due to unilateral vocal cord paralysis caused by surgery or nerve invasion by cancer. The objective quality of the voice was assessed by acoustic voice analysis with the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program. Results Both group showed an improvement of fundamental frequemcy (F0), jitter percent, shimmer (percent), and noise to hearmonic ratio (NHR) after injection laryngoplasty. The vocal cord paralysis due to nerve invasion group showed more improvement in both the mean and median value of F0, shimmer percent and NHR than the vocal cord paralysis due to surgery group, but there was not statistically significant. Conclusion Our study did not show a statistically significant difference in outcome between vocal cord paralysis due to cancer invasion group and surgery group, but statistically tendency was suggested. The vocal cord paralysis due to nerve invasion group showed more improvement in both the mean and median value of acoustic voice analysis than surgery group.