Speaking Fundamental Frequency of Eight-Year-Old Girls

Purpose The goal of this study was to determine if differences in stress system activation lead to changes in speaking fundamental frequency, average oral airflow, and estimated subglottal pressure before and after an acute, psychosocial stressor. Method Eighteen vocally healthy adult females experienced the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to activate the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. The TSST includes public speaking and performing mental arithmetic in front of an audience. At seven time points, three before the stressor and four after the stressor, the participants produced /pa/ repetitions, read the Rainbow Passage, and provided a saliva sample. Measures included (a) salivary cortisol level, (b) oral airflow, (c) estimated subglottal pressure, and (d) speaking fundamental frequency from the second sentence of the Rainbow Passage. Results Ten of the 18 participants experienced a hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis response to stress as indicated by a 2.5-nmol/L increase in salivary cortisol from before the TSST to after the TSST. Those who experienced a response to stress had a significantly higher speaking fundamental frequency before and immediately after the stressor than later after the stressor. No other variable varied significantly due to the stressor. Conclusions This study suggests that the idiosyncratic and inconsistent voice changes reported in the literature may be explained by differences in stress system activation. In addition, laryngeal aerodynamic measures appear resilient to changes due to acute stress. Further work is needed to examine the influence of other stress systems and if these findings hold for dysphonic individuals.

Download Full-text

Speaking Fundamental Frequency Characteristics of Five- and Six-Year-Old Children with Mongolism

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.1302.418 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 418-425 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Bernd Weinberg ◽

Marsha Zlatin

Keyword(s):

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Trisomy 21 ◽

Clinical Observation ◽

Control Sample ◽

Frequency Standard ◽

Normal Children ◽

The Subject ◽

The Mean ◽

Voice Fundamental Frequency ◽

Speaking Fundamental Frequency

Spontaneous speech samples of 27 children with trisomy-21 type Down’s syndrome and 66 normal children were tape-recorded and analyzed for mean fundamental frequency, standard deviation, and range. Results indicate that the mean speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) level for the sample of children with mongolism was significantly higher than the mean SFF level for the control sample. Approximately 50% of the children with mongolism had mean SFF levels exceeding the highest mean SFF level of their matched controls. In only two cases did the mean SFF for a child with mongolism fall below the mean SFF level for control children of the same age and sex. No child with mongolism exhibited a mean SFF level below the lowest mean SFF for any control subject. The subject in question is the clinical observation that children with mongolism typically have low voice fundamental frequency levels.

Download Full-text

Clinical Utility of CAPE-V Sentences for Determination of Speaking Fundamental Frequency

Journal of Voice ◽

10.1016/j.jvoice.2014.09.005 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 441-445 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mary J. Sandage ◽

Laura W. Plexico ◽

Amy Schiwitz

Keyword(s):

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Clinical Utility ◽

Speaking Fundamental Frequency

Download Full-text

Comparison of speaking fundamental frequency in English and Mandarin

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.4730893 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 132 (2) ◽

pp. 1050-1060 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Patricia Keating ◽

Grace Kuo

Keyword(s):

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Speaking Fundamental Frequency

Download Full-text

Speaking Fundamental Frequency Characteristics of White, African American, and Hispanic Kindergartners

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.3903.573 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 573-577 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Shaheen N. Awan ◽

Peter B. Mueller

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Frequency Characteristics ◽

African American Children ◽

Racial Groups ◽

Hispanic Children ◽

Speech Language Pathologist ◽

American Children ◽

Speaking Fundamental Frequency

Speech samples from groups of White, African American, and Hispanic kindergarten-age children were compared on measures of mean speaking fundamental frequency (F o ), maximum and minimum speaking F o , pitch sigma, and speaking range (in semitones). Results indicate that there are significant differences between racial groups on measures of mean speaking F o and speaking range. In particular, the Hispanic children were observed to have increased mean speaking F O S in comparison with the African American children and reduced speaking ranges as compared to both African American and White racial groups. Results indicate that the speech-language pathologist must exercise discretion when assessing the speaking F o characteristics (particularly mean speaking F o and speaking range) of children from different racial groups.

Download Full-text

Associations Between Speaking Fundamental Frequency, Vowel Formant Frequencies, and Listener Perceptions of Speaker Gender and Vocal Femininity–Masculinity

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00747 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Yeptain Leung ◽

Jennifer Oates ◽

Siew-Pang Chan ◽

Viktória Papp

Keyword(s):

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Model Building ◽

Principal Component ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Formant Frequencies ◽

Vowel Formant ◽

Vowel Space ◽

Australian English ◽

Speaking Fundamental Frequency

Purpose The aim of the study was to examine associations between speaking fundamental frequency ( f os ), vowel formant frequencies ( F ), listener perceptions of speaker gender, and vocal femininity–masculinity. Method An exploratory study was undertaken to examine associations between f os , F 1 – F 3 , listener perceptions of speaker gender (nominal scale), and vocal femininity–masculinity (visual analog scale). For 379 speakers of Australian English aged 18–60 years, f os mode and F 1 – F 3 (12 monophthongs; total of 36 F s) were analyzed on a standard reading passage. Seventeen listeners rated speaker gender and vocal femininity–masculinity on randomized audio recordings of these speakers. Results Model building using principal component analysis suggested the 36 F s could be succinctly reduced to seven principal components (PCs). Generalized structural equation modeling (with the seven PCs of F and f os as predictors) suggested that only F 2 and f os predicted listener perceptions of speaker gender (male, female, unable to decide). However, listener perceptions of vocal femininity–masculinity behaved differently and were predicted by F 1 , F 3 , and the contrast between monophthongs at the extremities of the F 1 acoustic vowel space, in addition to F 2 and f os . Furthermore, listeners' perceptions of speaker gender also influenced ratings of vocal femininity–masculinity substantially. Conclusion Adjusted odds ratios highlighted the substantially larger contribution of F to listener perceptions of speaker gender and vocal femininity–masculinity relative to f os than has previously been reported.

Download Full-text