Shimmer Change According to Fundamental Frequency Variation of Korean Normal Adults

The present study was performed to investigate change in shimmer according to $F_{0}$ variation precisely, and to offer suggestions for a clinical application. The analysis for the present study was done by the fundamental frequency ($F_{0}$) and shimmer measurement results of the previous 120 Korean normal adults' voice study of Pyo et al. (2002), used three vowels, /i/, /a/, /and /u/. Through the analysis of 60 female samples from the previous study, we found that $F_{0}$ of the vowels was the highest in /u/, and the lowest in /a/, but, on the contrary, shimmer was highest in /a/and lowest in /u/. Thirty of 60 subjects showed such an inverse relationship between $F_{0}$ and shimmer, as a whole. In the vowel /a/, 47 of 60 subjects showed the increased $F_{0}$ and decreased shimmer, in /i/, 32 subjects, and in /u/, 33 subjects showed the same results. The decrease in shimmer means the improvement of voice quality, so by these results, we expect to answer the question why the patients with spasmodic dysphonia can improve their voice quality with increased pitched voice production.