• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.12 no.11
• /
• pp.5541-5554
• /
• 2018

A voice is one of the most significant non-verbal elements for communication. Disorders in vocal organs, or habitual muscular setting for articulatory cause vocal disorders. Therefore, by analyzing the vocal disorders, it is possible to predicate vocal diseases. In this paper, a method of predicting vocal disorders using the jitter, shimmer, and harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR) extracted from vocal records is proposed. In order to extract jitter, shimmer, and HNR, one-second's voice signals are recorded in 44.1khz. In an experiment, 151 voice records are collected. The collected data set is clustered using cobweb clustering method. 21 classes with 12 leaves are resulted from the data set. According to the semantics of jitter, shimmer, and HNR, the class whose centroid has lowest jitter and shimmer, and highest HNR becomes the normal vocal group. The risk of vocal disorders can be predicted by measuring the distance and direction between the centroids.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.133-140
• /
• 2011

Muscle misuse dysphonia (MMD) is defined as a behavioral voice disorder resulting from inappropriate contractions of intrinsic and/or extrinsic laryngeal muscles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of motor learning guided laryngeal motor control therapy (MLG-LMCT) which is designed to improve an existing LMT and further the effective voice treatment on people with muscle misuse dysphonia. Forty-six people with MMD (M:F=16:30) participated in this study. The voice samples of the participants were recorded to investigate the effect of MLG-LMCT before and after the voice therapy. Voice samples were analyzed via electro-glotto-graph (EGG). Contact quotient (CQ), speed quotient (SQ), and waveform were reported. In addition, perceptual and acoustical evaluation were conducted to determine the change of voice improvement after treatment. The experimenter massaged the tensioned muscles around the neck. In order to find more proper phonation the experimenter showed the subjects their EGG wave forms as to whether or not they are moving the vocal folds to the appropriate position. Therefore, the EGG wave forms were used as a type of visual feedback. With the wave form, the experimenter helped subjects move the vocal folds and laryngeal muscles to find more proper voice production. The sensory stimuli from the experimenter gradually faded out. A paired dependent t- test revealed that there was significant differences in CQ between pre- and post-therapy. Perceptually, overall, rough, breathy, strain, and transition were significantly reduced. Acoustically, there were significant differences in Fo, jitter, shimmer, and NHR. After using MLG-LMCT, most of the subjects showed improvements in voice quality. The results from this study led us to the following conclusions: Motor learning guided laryngeal motor control therapy (MLG-LMCT) has reduces muscle misuse dysphonia. These results may occur because a visual feedback from EGG wave form can maintain the effect of the muscle tension reduction from laryngeal manual therapy. In case of people with MMD who reduced muscle tension from the therapy (LMT) but, not appropriately manipulating the location of larynx or adducting the vocal folds, MLG-LMCT might be an alternative therapy approach.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.225-236
• /
• 2007

Tic disorder show purposeless, repeated, unexpected, involuntary behavior and voice, can be divided into motor, vocal tic. this is about a patient who suffered from motor tic, tachycardia and other symptoms. We treated him with Sa-am acupuncture and other oriental medicine from the viewpoint of weak of kidney power. involuntary movement was estimated by doctor with Yale Global Tic Severity Scale(YGTSS). The patient's motor tic, tachycardia and other symptoms were improved and YGTSS also decresed.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.141-148
• /
• 2014

Voice is the most common means for communication, but some people have difficulties in generating voice due to their congenital or acquired disorders. Individuals with speech disorders might lose their speaking ability due to hearing impairment, encephalopathy or cerebral palsy accompanied by motor skill impairments, or autism caused by mental problems. However, they have needs for communication, so some of them use various types of AAC (Augmentative & Alternative Communication) devices in order to meet their communication needs. In this paper, a mobile application for literate people having speech disorder was designed and implemented by developing accurate and fast sentence-completion functions for efficient user interaction. From a user study and the previous study on Korean text-based communication for adults having difficulty in speech communication, we identified functionality and usability requirements. Specifically, the user interface with scanning features was designed by considering the users' motor skills in using the touch-screen of a mobile device. Finally, we conducted the usability test for the application. The results of the usability test show that the application is easy to learn and efficient to use in communication with people with speech disorders.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.146-151
• /
• 2005

Objectives: Prospective study of quality of life in patients underwent microlaryngeal surgery for dysphonia was performed. Materials and Methods : 51 patients with dysphonia took part in the study, and patients with malignancies or functional voice disorder were excluded. Patients were asked to complete the SF-36 questionnaire before surgery and within 6-12 months after surgery. Preoperative and postoperative SF-36 scores were compared with data on 46 age-matched healthy controls. Results The most of SF-36 subscale scores showed significantly improvement after surgery, except of PF (physical functioning) and MH (mental health). Preoperative scores had significantly poorer than the normal controls on 6 subscales, but there is no statistically significant differences between postoperative scores and normal controls on 5 subscales. Conclusion In the study, patients with organic voice disorder show improvement in quality of life after microlaryngeal surgery.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.9-14
• /
• 2021

Spasmodic dysphonia, essential tremor, and vocal tremor related with Parkinson's disease are different disorders showing fairly similar symptoms such as difficulty in the speech onset, and tremble in the voice. However, the cause and the resulting treatment of these diseases are different. Spasmodic dysphonia is a vocal disorder characterized by spasms of the laryngeal muscles during a speech, invoking broken, tense, forced, and strangled voice patterns. Such difficult-to-treat dysphonia disease is classified as central-origin-focal dystonia, of a yet unknown etiology. Its symptoms arise because of intermittent and involuntary muscle contractions during speech. Essential tremor, on the other hand, is characterized by a rhythmic laryngeal movement, resulting in alterations of rhythmic pitch and loudness during speech or even at rest. Severe cases of tremor may cause speech breaks like those of adductor spasmodic dysphonia. In the case of hyper-functional tension of vocal folds and accompanying tremors, it is necessary to distinguish these disorders from muscular dysfunction. A diversified assessment through the performance of specific speech tasks and a thorough understanding for the identification of the disorder is necessary for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of patients with vocal tremors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.40-46
• /
• 2011

Background and Objectives : Vocal fold bowing is an organic voice disorder that is associated with an abnormal structure of the vocal folds whereas vocal fold polyp is a functional voice disorder caused by an abnormal use of the vocal folds. Both types of vocal folds share a common property in that they make one's voice breathy or strained. The purpose of this study is to compare voice from two types of vocal folds and to offer information of clinical importance. Materials and Method: Vocal fold bowing and vocal fold polyp groups consisted of 7 male subjects, respectively. All subjects recorded /a/ in the state of measuring MPT (maximum phonation time), repeating 3 times, by a voice recorder (48 kHz sampling rate; 24 bit quantization). They answered the questions of K-VHI. Time domain parameters (such as perturbation parameters including HNR, Jitter, etc.) were calculated for the whole duration of /a/ and those of the frequency domain were measured in initial 40 ms and stable 40 ms of /a/, respectively. Mann-Whitney V-test was used for the time domain parameters and K-VHI survey, and Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied to the frequency domain parameters (H1, H2, H1-H2). Results: For K-VHI survey and the time domain analysis, there was no significant difference between bowing and polyp group. For frequency domain analysis, H1 and H2 showed a significantly different result between two groups. Vocal fold bowing group has longer duration and lower intensity than that of vocal fold polyp group in the 'aspirated interval', which could be observable prior to ordinary vowel oscillation. Conclusion: Both groups seem to show breathy voice. This could be referred on the basis of the value of H1-H2. The K-VHI survey says that subjects with vocal fold bowing feel more uncomfortable than subjects with vocal fold polyp.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.2 no.3
• /
• pp.165-170
• /
• 2010

In this study, the most stable portion was identified using 5% moving window during /a/ sustained phonation in normal and pathologic voice signals and the perturbation values were compared between normal and pathologic voices at the mid-point and at the most stable portion using moving window, respectively. The results revealed that some severe pathologic voice signals can be eligible for perturbation analysis by identifying the most stable portion with Err less than 10. In addition, the perturbation acoustic parameters did not differentiate the pathologic voice signals from the normal voice signals when the mid-point was selected to measure the perturbation analysis(p>0.05). However, significantly higher %shimmer and lower SNR values were observed in pathologic voices (p<0.05) when the most stable portion was selected by moving window. In conclusion, moving window could identify the most stable portion objectively which can allow toget the minimum perturbation values (%jitter, %shimmer) and maximum SNR values. Thus, moving window technique can be applicable for more reliable and accurate perturbation acoustic analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.146-148
• /
• 2006

Spasmodic dysphonia is a voice disorder characterized by involuntary voice breaks during speech. Adductor spasmodic dysphonia is most common and characterized by strained and strangled voice breaks. The current standard of treatment of therapy for adductor spasmodic dysphonia is chemodenervation of thyroarytenoid muscle with botulinum toxin(Botox). However, Botox is a temporary treatment with each injection lasting approximately 3 months on average and require repeated injections. In this study, we report our experience with surgical treatment for adductor spasmodic dysphonia. In this procedure, the thyroarytenoid branch and lateral cricoarytenoid branch of recurrent laryngeal nerve is selectively denervated unilaterally, and its distal nerve stump of thyroarytenoid branch is reinnervated with branch of the usa cervicalis nerve. And lateral cricoarytenoid muscle partial myotomy was done unilaterally. After 6 months of treatment, voice fluency had improved and no period of breathiness or dysphagia was noted.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.91-98
• /
• 2012

The purposes of this paper is to study the characteristics of compared to the speakers voice without depression and speakers with depression, and to propose a objective method for the measurement of the therapeutic effects as well as for diagnostics of depression based on the characteristics. The voice samples obtained from 11 female speakers with depression, aged from 20 to 40, diagnosed as having major depressive disorder by an psychiatrist were compared with those from 12 normal controls with matched sex, age, height, weight, education, smoking, and drinking. The voice samples are taken by a portable digital recorder(TASCAM DR-07, Japan) and analysed using the MDVP(Multi-Dimentional Voice Program) software module from CSL(Computerized Speech Lab, kay elemetrics, co, model 4100). The result of the investigation are as following. First, the average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range of the speakers with depression group was statistically significantly lower than that of the control group. The pitch range of the control group was rather higher than that of the speakers with depression group, but without statistical significance. Overall speech rates have no statistical difference between two groups. Second, the average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range have statistically significant negative correlation with Beck Depression Inventory, i. e. more severe depression exhibits lower average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range. Other vocal parameters such as pitch range and overall speech rate have no statistically meaningful correlations with Beck Depression Inventory.