Usu Comd 5070 Exam 2 Part 2

Front 1

What does measuring average F0 frequency reflect? How measure?

Back 1

F0 average reflects vocal quality. Measurements of F0 can help to provide objective measure as to whether or not client’s pitch is too high or low.
* A manual waveform inspection takes too much time. Software programs can automate estimates of F0 -- much faster. They use a Fundamental Detection Algorithm.

Front 2

You have to know the ______ _________ before you can measure the variability (perturbation) of the F0.

Back 2

fundamental frequency

Front 3

In order to get good measures of perturbation, we must know exactly what the_____ is for each cycle.

Back 3

period (frequency = 1/period)

Front 4

No voice is perfectly periodic. There is some VARIABILITY in the wave cycle from one cycle to the next, we refer to this as _________

Back 4

PERTURBATION. A voice that has lots of perturbation in it, will sound hoarse or rough.

Front 5

Explain F0 variability & Intonation

Back 5

The F0 rises and falls substantially in intonation. Low/flat SD= monotone voice.
* Increasing one's fundamental frequency variability can improve intonation. If someone can’t quite tell if you are making a statement or asking a question, it might be because the fundamental frequency variability is insufficient.

Front 6

Measuring a person's average F0 is not as relevant as measuring their ____________________,

Back 6

F0 variability. it's more common for a patient to have something wrong with their prosody/ F0 variability than it is for them to have an abnormal average F0 (usually due to neurological impairment).

Front 7

How do you measure F0 variability?

Back 7

Record patient reading a passage. Then you’ll look at the STANDARD DEVIATION (SD) -- the variability around the F0 mean

Front 8

If we measure the F0 variability, we can do what two things?

Back 8

o quantify how severe the disorder is
o track the progress of treatment.
* After treating clients with communication disorders, there are measurable and statistically significant increases in fundamental frequency variability.

Front 9

Why convert F0 to Semitones

Back 9

* To be able to make comparisons across speakers with different average fundamental frequencies, you can only do it very easily if they have the same mean fundamental frequency. This is because on average as the mean F0 rises, so will the SD (Standard Deviation) around that mean.
* Thus we need to convert the variability into semitones which are better scaled to reflect proportional changes in intonation.
* Converting the F0 variability into semitones allows us to compare like with like when: the mean F0 is different between two individuals.

Expressing a person’s F0 variability in semitones corresponds more closely with the way our pitch perception works because it’s not linear. A semitone is ALWAYS 1/12 of an octave, so if we convert a person’s F0 variability into semitones it doesn’t matter if you’re comparing across men and women (who are typically an octave apart). A person who is equally monotone of either gender will have a similar SD in semitones but not in HZ.

Front 10

how many semitones are in an octave, and what does an octave represents in terms of frequency in Hz.

Back 10

12; * To go up one octave you double the frequency in Hz. (100 to 200 Hz is an octave; 200 to 400 or from 400 to 800 is also one octave)
* Going down one octave means the frequency has been halved.

Front 11

what is acoustic power, what is it measured in

Back 11

acoustic power is energy transfer in a given amount of time. measured in watts

Front 12

what is intensity, how is it measured

Back 12

intensity is watts (acoustic power) divided by a unit area. INTENSITY can be measured as watts per unit area. DECIBELS are a logarithmic measure of intensity.

Front 13

what is the relationship between intensity and the radiation of sound

Back 13

Sound radiates out spherically from the source.
As the radius gets bigger, the intensity drops, in proportion to the SQUARE of the distance.

Front 14

WHAT IS THE INVERSE SQUARE LAW?

Back 14

The intensity diminishes in proportion to the square of the distance from the sound source.

If you double that distance from the sound source, the intensity will be1/4 (DIVIDE BY 2 SQUARED) of the original amount.
If you made the distance 3 times as far, the intensity will be 1/9 (DIVIDE BY 3 SQUARED) of the orginal amount.

Front 15

The range of a human’s voice from the very softest to the greatest intensity would be a range of

Back 15

0.0000000965 watts/cm2.

Front 16

Just as PITCH is the perceptual correlate of frequency, _____________is the perceptual correlate of intensity. There is a fairly strong association between _________and intensity.

Back 16

LOUDNESS ; loudness

Front 17

Loudness is judged by a human listener; it cannot be measured by equipment. Name 2 things that influence your perception of loudness:

Back 17

1. The FREQUENCY of a sound 2. Its SPECTRAL characteristics

Front 18

What things happen when we increase the loudness of our voice?

Back 18

1. subglottal pressure increases
2. vocal folds move further apart
3. more forceful collisions of the vocal folds
4. our articulators make larger movements
5. higher pressure in the mouth

Front 19

What is a Max Performance Test?

Back 19

"A max performance task is one where you have a person do something (e.g. phonate) as long as they can, or as loud as they can, or at as high a pitch as they can. It basically asks for the maximum of something they do."

Front 20

Measurements of mean F0 or semitone SD during speech, show us what the person’s _________behavior is like.

Back 20

habitual

Front 21

If you want to measure a person's F0 range, you use a ________________________.

Back 21

maximum performance task

Front 22

What is VRP? What are it's strengths and weaknesses?

Back 22

Vocal Range Profile;
-Good for voice disordered patients
-Motivation can play a role in performance
-careful not to do vocal damage
-time consuming

Front 23

How measure VRP

Back 23

1) find out their Minimum and Maximum F0
2) find 10 pts across that entire range (use either linear scale and spread them equally or semitones on a logrithmic scale)
3) At each note of F0 they sustained, patient gives min and max intensity while holding same frequency
4) Plot step 3 data on chart
5) Provides shape of overall VRP (vocal performance at different F0 levels)

Front 24

viewing vocal fold oscillation – what are the different ways to see ‘slow motion’

Back 24

1. laryngeal mirror, with light, have patient say /i/ while holding tongue
2. rigid endoscope, watch for gag reflex
1. Disadvantages: patient can only phonate a vowel, limits articulation
3. flexible scope: passed through nasa cavity, articulation and viewing is not limited

Front 25

When using a rigid oral endoscope or a flexible nasal endoscope, what 2 types of flash illumination can you use? What are the benefits of each?

Back 25

1. zenon light source -- for still shots to create simulated slow motion
2. halogen or continuous light -- to get a well-illuminated view of the larynx when phonation is very faint and disordered

Front 26

2 types of technology that can help us 'slow down' vocal fold movement:

Back 26

* High Speed Filming -- see motion for real
* Stroboscopy -- see simulated slow motion

Front 27

In the olden days they used ultra high-speed filming in pioneering work on laryngeal function. Ultra high speed filming is not really practical today because :

Back 27

1. so much film is involved
2. you end up with massive amounts of data
3. it would take you hours to watch it
4. expensive and complex

Front 28

A ________ relies essentially on optical illusion/ animation to provide slow motion. With stroboscopy, you capture ________ in very specific positions, so when you play it back you get a simulated ___________ movie. The timing of course is ________.

Back 28

A stroboscope relies essentially on optical illusion/ animation to provide slow motion. With stroboscopy, you capture still shots in very specific positions, so when you play it back you get a simulated slow motion movie. The timing of course is critical.

Front 29

In strobosopy, you are not watching true ______, but you are seeing a ______ of this.

Back 29

One interesting and very clinically applicable facet of stroboscopy is that you can actually be looking at a person’s vibrating vocal folds in real time, in apparent slow motion. In strobosopy, you are not watching true slow motion imaging of the vocal folds, but you are seeing a simulation of this.

Front 30

stroboscopy value

Back 30

you can actually be looking at a person’s vibrating vocal folds in real time, in apparent slow motion.

Front 31

What are 3 limitations of strobosopy?

Back 31

1. 'true' vocal fold motion is not seen/ it's an animation
2. F0 must be steady or flashes cannot synchronize
3. cannot use with severe dysphonia

Front 32

2 devices can we use to synchronize the flashes to the exact points needed in the glottal cycle?

Back 32

1. throat microphone: shows sound pressure
2. electroglottograph: shows electric signal in relation to vf contact/closure

Front 33

Where is a throat microphone placed? What does it do? Why is this of value?

Back 33

A throat microphone , as the name suggests, is held over the larynx. This allows the system to extract the fundamental frequency from the person’s phonation. Since the system then knows the person’s fundamental frequency, it can then predict where the vocal folds will be at any given moment in time, and produce flashes that will occur at very specifically timed intervals during the phonatory cycle.

Front 34

What is a common use of the electroglottograph for stroboscopy

Back 34

the electroglottograph that is also often used to synchronize the flashes in a stroboscopy system so that they will occur at just the right time relative to the movements of the vocal folds.

Front 35

What is an ELECTROGLOTTOGRAPH? How does it work? Where is it placed?

Back 35

An ELECTROGLOTTOGRAPH is a rather inauspicious looking black box, with a wire that comes out the front. It has 2 electrodes on the end of this wire that are placed on either side of the larynx on the surface of the neck, so that a current can be passed through from one side to the other. (Exact placement is important, directly on the lamina of the thyroid arytenoid)

Front 36

What is the electrical signal that comes out of an electroglottograph is referred to as?

Back 36

The electrical signal that comes out of an electroglottograph is referred to as a “record of the vocal fold contact area.”

Front 37

What does the “record of the vocal fold contact area" demonstrate/represent? How can this information be used?

Back 37

Vocal folds in contact = stronger signal, goes up in down with strength/contact
Important display of the vocal fold contact area, reflects quality of phonation
Does not represent open/closing of vocal folds
Can be used for comparing strength of vocal folds adduction over time

Front 38

How do a microphone signal and an EGG waveform compare in appearance? What are advantages of EGG?

Back 38

A sound pressure wave from the microphone is very complex. It repeats from cycle to cycle, but each cycle has many peaks and troughs in it.
The vocal fold contact area signal from the EGG is much simpler. It simply goes up and down once for each glottis cycle.

Advantageds: non-invasive, safe (low current), easy to use

Front 39

Define Perturbation

Back 39

Definition: rapid, random changes in either period or amplitude

Front 40

How should you measure perturbation (type of speech)?

Back 40

Measurement: use sustained vowel phonation, because connected speech is segmental and will make the signal irregular. Do test at comfortable intensity and have patient take modest breath and sustain vowel for 5 seconds. Analyze only few middle seconds. Always use same vowel and equipment and conditions for comparisons.

Front 41

How does perturbation sound?

Back 41

Sounds:
Rough, hoarse

Front 42

What is Jitter?

Back 42

Jitter = frequency perturbation, measure from one peak or trough to the next peak or trough (horizontal). JITTER is frequency perturbation, because the pitch period changes slightly from one cycle to the next.

Front 43

What is Shimmer?

Back 43

Shimmer = amplitude perturbation, measure height of each waveform

Front 44

Jitter and shimmer _________?

Back 44

Jitter and shimmer co-occur. You won’t find just one and not the other.

Front 45

How normal is jitter/shimmer?

Back 45

Even a voice that sounds perfectly clear and natural will still have a modest amount of perturbation in it. If you were to generate a synthetic voice with a total absence of jitter and shimmer it would sound rather artificial.

Front 46

Can jitter/shimmer be used for diagnosis?

Back 46

We can use jitter and shimmer as useful indices of how bad a voice is, but the number itself does not provide a diagnosis

Front 47

What is Modulation?

Back 47

Different from perturbation. Gradual increases and decreases over the course of many individual glottal cycles. Repeats in a rhythmic way; pattern. Gradual sloping up of the frequency or sloping down of the frequency.

Front 48

What causes perturbation?

Back 48

Causes:
Neurological Factors:
=Muscle contraction inherently unsmooth; individual motor neurons 'take turn's firing'; overall contraction net effect of many miniscule twitches (applause example); vocal fold tension not perfectly static (changes with increased loudness)

Airflow; can be intermittently turbulent; pathological vocal fold tissue changes (left/right assymetry, lesions (polyps, nodules), vocal fold swelling, tension abnormalities.
Airflow
Pathological (polyps, nodules)

Front 49

Difference between perturbation and modulation?

Back 49

Perturbation-RANDOM & RAPID from one cycle to next; Modulation-RHYTHMIC & GRADUAL over many cycles.

Front 50

What is tremor?

Back 50

Tremor is a rhythmic, predictable change in F0 and amplitude. Gradual increase and decrease pattern spread across many cycles. Only a few changes, a few oscillations F0 over the course of one sec.

Front 51

If the fundamental frequency that is being modulated we call it?

Back 51

Frequency Modulation

Front 52

If it is the amplitude that is being modulated we call it...

Back 52

Amplitude Modulation

Front 53

Difference between jitter and shimmer AND frequency modulation and amplitude modulation

Back 53

Perturbation of jitter and shimmer occurs very rapidly from one glottal cycle to the next.

Front 54

For female voice that is oscillating at 200 times per second you can have ____ different durations for the individual glottal cycles.

Back 54

200

Front 55

Type of modulation for a sine wave

Back 55

none; doesn't change in amp. or freqcy.

Front 56

Gets larger and smaller about three times over the course of the wave sample

Back 56

Amplitude Modulation (AM)

Front 57

Waveform is more compressed in some areas and more stretched in others; period is changing

Back 57

Pure frequency modulation (frequency changes with period)

Front 58

Just as jitter and shimmer can co-occur in vocal perturbation, you get both _______ and _________ modulation in a shaky human voice

Back 58

AM/FM

Front 59

When it comes to a shaky voice, if the amplitude is going up and down, typically so is the ....

Back 59

Frequency.
Most speakers F0 go up with intensity
Frequency and intensity modulations typically co-occur.

Front 60

Human perception of vocal tremor

Back 60

Voice sounds shaky, we can't separate AM from FM. As amplitude and frequency are modulated, we hear those individual pulses as shakiness.

Front 61

what is vocal tremor

Back 61

Vocal tremor is another form of modulation (involuntary, pathological, bad).

Front 62

What can airflow signal and EMG tell you about vocal tremor

Back 62

EMG shows that as the Thyroarytenoid muscle within vocal folds increases activity, the airflow decreases, because the TA adducts the vocal folds more.

Front 63

3 Different indices that we use to quantify vocal tremor

Back 63

1) Tremor Rate-how rapidly it occurs (5-7 Hz is a typical rate for most pathological vocal tremors)

2) Extend of the Tremor; % of fluctuation around the average frequency or amplitude

3) Steadiness; how does its modulation compare to a sine wave?

Front 64

Vibrato is ?

Back 64

one form of modulation (voluntary, artistic, good). very regular and of course artistic form of modulation. Involves modulation but no serious perturbation.

Front 65

Combos of vocal instability

Back 65

high/low perturbation and high/low modulation