Angélique Remacle

The integration of mobile health (mHealth) applications into healthcare has grown rapidly in recent years [1–3]. Defined as the use of mobile electronic devices to deliver health-related services a...

Articulatory synthesis generates speech sounds by simulating the physical phenomena involved in speech production. The accuracy of the physical modelling is expected to affect the naturalness of the synthesis: the more realistic the description is, the greater the naturalness is expected to be. In this work, the accuracy of acoustic wave propagation in the vocal tract was evaluated with two perceptual experiments. Sustained vowels generated using a one-dimensional acoustic model, a three-dimensional acoustic model and an artificial bandwidth extension algorithm (without a physical basis) were compared. Since the difference between the acoustic methods tested affects mainly the frequencies above 4 kHz, we ensured that the low frequency part of the stimuli, up to 4 kHz, was similar. Thus, the participants' responses were based only on the differences at high frequency. The first experiment was a pair comparison, in which the participants had to select the more natural sounding stimuli. In the second experiment, the participants had to rate the naturalness of the stimuli on a linear scale. The results confirmed that a more accurate physical modeling leads to greater naturalness. However, this was limited to the phonemes /o/ and /u/, for which transverse resonances in the anterior vocal tract may play an important role that only a 3D acoustic simulation can accurately represent. It was also found that male stimuli were perceived as significantly more natural than female ones. However, voice quality did not affect naturalness.

Purpose: Background noise and voice problems among teachers can degrade listening conditions in classrooms. The aim of this literature review is to understand how these acoustic degradations affect spoken language processing in 6- to 18-year-old children.Method: In a narrative report and meta-analysis, we systematically review studies that examined the effects of noise and/or impaired voice on children's response accuracy and response time (RT) in listening tasks. We propose the Speech Processing under Acoustic DEgradations (SPADE) framework to classify relevant findings according to three processing dimensions—speech perception, listening comprehension, and auditory working memory—and highlight potential moderators.Results: Thirty-one studies are included in this systematic review. Our meta-analysis shows that noise can impede children's accuracy in listening tasks across all processing dimensions (Cohen'sdbetween −0.67 and −2.65, depending on signal-to-noise ratio) and that impaired voice lowers children's accuracy in listening comprehension tasks (d= −0.35). A handful of studies assessed RT, but results are inconclusive. The impact of noise and impaired voice can be moderated by listener, task, environmental, and exposure factors. The interaction between noise and impaired voice remains underinvestigated.Conclusions: Overall, this review suggests that children have more trouble perceiving speech, processing verbal messages, and recalling verbal information when listening to speech in noise or to a speaker with dysphonia. Impoverished speech input could impede pupils' motivation and academic performance at school.Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17139377

Purpose To identify the factors affecting teachers’ vocal acoustic parameters, with the aim of detecting individuals at risk of phonotrauma. Method The voicing time, voice sound pressure level [SPL] and fundamental frequency [f_o] of 87 teachers were measured during one workweek using a voice dosimeter. We retrospectively investigated the impact of 10 factors (gender, age, teaching experience, teaching level, tobacco, gastro-esophageal problems, nonoccupational voice activity, voice education, past voice problems, and biopsychosocial impact of voice problems measured using the Voice Handicap Index [VHI]) on each voice parameter. Results None of the above factors affected voicing time or SPL. f_o depended significantly on gender, teaching level, nonoccupational voice activity and VHI score. Specifically, f_o was higher in women (Δ = 69 Hz), in individuals without nonoccupational voice activities (Δ = 11 Hz), and in individuals with a lower VHI score (increase of 0.7 Hz for each additional point). For females, post hoc comparisons revealed a substantial impact of teaching level on f_o: university instructors had deeper voices than kindergarten (Δ = 66 Hz), elementary (Δ = 52 Hz), or secondary teachers (Δ = 41 Hz). Conclusions Since higher f_o increases the mechanical stress related to vocal fold vibration, the screening and prevention of phonotrauma should focus primarily on women, particularly those who teach at lower levels, and teachers with more self-rated voice problems. The lower f_o of teachers who engage in nonprofessional voice activities may suggest acute inflammation or muscle fatigue due to voice overload.

Purpose: Voice feminization for transgender women remains a challenge. The fundamental frequency of the voice (f_o) is one of the main parameters contributing to the perception of gender. One of the aims of voice therapy is to help transgender women acquire a new vocal motor behavior to increase their f_o. We hypothesized that ambulatory biofeedback could help extend the new vocal behavior to daily life. Materials and methods: This prospective case study assessed the impact of two weeks of ambulatory vibrotactile biofeedback (VTBF) applied to one transgender woman, following two weeks of voice therapy (three 60-minute sessions). The VTBF was activated when the participant’s voice was lower than 150 Hz for more than 500 ms and was accompanied by two 60-minute counseling sessions. Results: The results showed that mean f_o monitored in daily activities tended to increase following the two weeks of voice therapy (Δ = 8 Hz or 1 semitone) and then increased significantly immediately after the two weeks of VTBF (Δ = 13 Hz or 1.5 semitones). The increase in mean f_o from day to day and the decrease in the activation percentage from the first to the second week of VTBF (Δ = 6%) indicated a gradual integration of the motor behavior, making it possible to achieve the targeted female frequency. Conclusions: The results suggest that ambulatory VTBF helped the participant to generalize the techniques acquired during the voice therapy sessions to real-life communication situations. These results are promising for therapeutic programs that integrate tools that can be used outside the clinical context. Design: Prospective case study.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate children's processing of dysphonic speech in a realistic classroom setting, under the influence of added classroom noise. Method: Typically developing 6-year-old primary school children performed two listening tasks in their regular classrooms: a phoneme discrimination task to assess speech perception and a sentence–picture matching task to assess listening comprehension. Speech stimuli were played back in either a typical or an impaired voice quality. Children performed the tasks in the presence of induced classroom noise at signal-to-noise ratios between +2 and +9 dB. Results: Children's performance in the phoneme discrimination task decreased significantly when the speaker's voice was impaired. The effect of voice quality on sentence–picture matching depended on task demands: Easy sentences were processed more accurately in the impaired-voice condition than in the typical-voice condition. Signal-to-noise ratio effects are discussed in light of methodological constraints. Conclusions: Listening to a dysphonic teacher in a noisy classroom may impede children's perception of speech, particularly when phonological discrimination is needed to disambiguate the speech input. Future research regarding the interaction of voice quality and task demands is necessary.