Gender-Affirming Voice Training for Trans Women: Acoustic Outcomes and Their Associations With Listener Perceptions Related to Gender.

Objectives: To investigate acoustic outcomes of gender-affirming voice training for trans women wanting to develop a female sounding voice and to describe what happens acoustically when male sounding voices become more female sounding.

Study Design: Prospective treatment study with repeated measures.

Methods: N = 74 trans women completed a voice training program of 8-12 sessions and had their voices audio recorded twice before and twice after training.

Fundamental frequency disturbances in female and male singers' pitch glides through long tube with varied resistances.

Source-filter interaction can disturb vocal fold vibration frequency. Resonance frequency/bandwidth ratios (Q-values) may affect such interaction. Occurrences of fundamental frequency (fo) disturbances were measured in ascending pitch glides produced by four female and five male singers phonating into a 70 cm long tube.

Long-Term Average Spectrum Characteristics of Portuguese Fado-Canção from Coimbra.

Descriptions of acoustical characteristics of Fado, a Portuguese urban style sung in Lisbon and Oporto, are scarce, particularly concerning Fado-Canção, a related style sung in Coimbra. The present study aims at describing long-term average spectrum (LTAS) parameters of 16 professional singers while singing and reading the lyrics of a typical Fado-Canção. LTAS parameters were investigated in terms of: (1) equivalent sound level (L); (2) spectral differences between 3 frequency bands 0-2, 2-5, and 5-8 kHz; and (3) quantification of spectral prominence between 2 and 4 kHz, calculated as the level difference between the peak in this frequency region and a reference trendline between 1 and 5 kHz, henceforth Formant Cluster Prominence (FCP).

Female Voice-Related Sexual Attractiveness to Males: Does it Vary With Different Degrees of Conception Likelihood?

Previous investigations have found that female voice-related attractiveness to males increases when both conception likelihood (CL) and voice fundamental frequency (f) are elevated. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a perceptual experiment where 78 heterosexual males rated sexual attractiveness of 9 female voice samples, recorded at menstrual, follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle under two double-blinded randomly allocated conditions: a natural menstrual cycle (placebo condition) and when using an oral contraceptive pill (OCP condition). The voice samples yielded a total of 54 stimuli that were visually sorted and rated using Visor software.

The Impact of Maxillary Advancement on Consonant Proficiency in Patients With Cleft Lip and Palate, Lay Listeners' Opinion, and Patients' Satisfaction With Speech.

Objective: This study investigates the impact of maxillary advancement (Le Fort I osteotomy) on consonant proficiency in patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) and explores how these patients and lay people perceive their speech 1 year post Le Fort I osteotomy.

Design: Retrospective group study before and after treatment.

Participants: All patients with CLP who had undergone Le Fort I osteotomy for maxillary retrognathia between 2007 and 2010 at Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden (n = 21).

Reliability of Hypernasality Rating: Comparison of 3 Different Methods for Perceptual Assessment.

Objective: To compare reliability in auditory-perceptual assessment of hypernasality for 3 different methods and to explore the influence of language background.

Design: Comparative methodological study.

Participants And Materials: Audio recordings of 5-year-old Swedish-speaking children with repaired cleft lip and palate consisting of 73 stimuli of 9 nonnasal single-word strings in 3 different randomized orders.

Tutorial and Guidelines on Measurement of Sound Pressure Level in Voice and Speech.

Purpose: Sound pressure level (SPL) measurement of voice and speech is often considered a trivial matter, but the measured levels are often reported incorrectly or incompletely, making them difficult to compare among various studies. This article aims at explaining the fundamental principles behind these measurements and providing guidelines to improve their accuracy and reproducibility.

Method: Basic information is put together from standards, technical, voice and speech literature, and practical experience of the authors and is explained for nontechnical readers.

Vocal Behavior in Environmental Noise: Comparisons Between Work and Leisure Conditions in Women With Work-related Voice Disorders and Matched Controls.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess vocal behavior in women with voice-intensive occupations to investigate differences between patients and controls and between work and leisure conditions with environmental noise level as an experimental factor.

Methods: Patients with work-related voice disorders, 10 with phonasthenia and 10 with vocal nodules, were matched regarding age, profession, and workplace with 20 vocally healthy colleagues. The sound pressure level of environmental noise and the speakers' voice, fundamental frequency, and phonation ratio were registered from morning to night during 1 week with a voice accumulator.

Resonance Tube Phonation in Water-the Effect of Tube Diameter and Water Depth on Back Pressure and Bubble Characteristics at Different Airflows.

Objectives: Resonance tube phonation with tube end in water is a voice therapy method in which the patient phonates through a glass tube, keeping the free end of the tube submerged in water, creating bubbles. The purpose of this experimental study was to determine flow-pressure relationship, flow thresholds between bubble types, and bubble frequency as a function of flow and back volume.

Methods: A flow-driven vocal tract simulator was used for recording the back pressure produced by resonance tubes with inner diameters of 8 and 9 mm submerged at water depths of 0-7 cm.

Long-Term Follow-Up of Patients with Spasmodic Dysphonia and Improved Voice despite Discontinuation of Treatment.

Objective: To evaluate voice function in patients with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (AdSD) who discontinued botulinum toxin (BTX) treatment because they felt that their voice had improved sufficiently.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-eight patients quit treatment in 2004, of whom 20 fulfilled the inclusion criteria for the study, with 3 subsequently excluded because of return of symptoms, leaving 17 patients (11 males, 6 females) included in this follow-up study. A questionnaire concerning current voice function and the Voice Handicap Index were completed.

Real-Time Visual Feedback of Airflow in Voice Training: Aerodynamic Properties of Two Flow Ball Devices.

Objectives: Flow ball devices have been used as teaching tools to provide visual real-time feedback of airflow during singing. This study aims at exploring static back pressure and ball height as function of flow for two devices, marketed as flow ball and floating ball game.

Study Design: This is a comparative descriptive study.

The Flow and Pressure Relationships in Different Tubes Commonly Used for Semi-occluded Vocal Tract Exercises.

This experimental study investigated the back pressure (P(back)) versus flow (U) relationship for 10 different tubes commonly used for semi-occluded vocal tract exercises, that is, eight straws of different lengths and diameters, a resonance tube, and a silicone tube similar to a Lax Vox tube. All tubes were assessed with the free end in air. The resonance tube and silicone tube were further assessed with the free end under water at the depths from 1 to 7 cm in steps of 1 cm.

The softest sound levels of the human voice in normal subjects.

Accurate measurement of the softest sound levels of phonation presents technical and methodological challenges. This study aimed at (1) reliably obtaining normative data on sustained softest sound levels for the vowel [a:] at comfortable pitch; (2) comparing the results for different frequency and time weighting methods; and (3) refining the Union of European Phoniatricians' recommendation on allowed background noise levels for scientific and equipment manufacturers' purposes. Eighty healthy untrained participants (40 females, 40 males) were investigated in quiet rooms using a head-mounted microphone and a sound level meter at 30 cm distance.

Toupet versus Dor as a procedure to prevent reflux after cardiomyotomy for achalasia: results of a randomised clinical trial.

Background: The optimal anti-reflux procedure after Heller cardiomyotomy for oesophageal achalasia remains unclear. The most commonly used procedure is the anterior partial fundoplication according to Dor, although during recent years the posterior counterpart (Toupet) has become popular.

Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed achalasia and referred for cardiomyotomy were randomised to receive either an anterior or partial posterior fundoplication following a classical cardiomyotomy.

Resonance tube phonation in water: High-speed imaging, electroglottographic and oral pressure observations of vocal fold vibrations--a pilot study.

Phonation into glass tubes ('resonance tubes'), keeping the free end of the tube in water, has been a frequently used voice therapy method in Finland and more recently also in other countries. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate what effects tube phonation with and without water has on the larynx. Two participants were included in the study.

Subglottal pressure oscillations accompanying phonation.

Acoustic and aerodynamic properties of the voice source and vocal tract have been extensively analyzed during the last half century. Corresponding investigations of the subglottal system are rare but can be assumed to be relevant to voice production. In the present exploratory study, subglottal pressure was recorded in a male adult subject by means of tracheal puncture.

Comparing closed quotient in children singers' voices as measured by high-speed-imaging, electroglottography, and inverse filtering.

The closed quotient, i.e., the ratio between the closed phase and the period, is commonly studied in voice research.

Guidelines for selecting microphones for human voice production research.

Purpose: This tutorial addresses fundamental characteristics of microphones (frequency response, frequency range, dynamic range, and directionality), which are important for accurate measurements of voice and speech.

Method: Technical and voice literature was reviewed and analyzed. The following recommendations on desirable microphone characteristics were formulated: The frequency response of microphones should be flat (i.

Comparison of wireless 48-h (Bravo) versus traditional ambulatory 24-h esophageal pH monitoring.

Objective: To compare wireless with catheter-based esophageal pH recordings.

Material And Methods: Forty-five patients with symptoms suggestive of gastroesophageal reflux disease and 47 healthy volunteers were investigated in a university-affiliated hospital; 48-h wireless esophageal pH recording was performed. During the first 24 h, simultaneous traditional pH recording by catheter was undertaken.

Child voice and noise: a pilot study of noise in day cares and the effects on 10 children's voice quality according to perceptual evaluation.

The purpose of this investigation was to study children's exposure to background noise at the ears during a normal day at the day care center and also to relate this to a perceptual evaluation of voice quality. Ten children, from three day care centers, with no history of hearing and speech problems or frequent infections were selected as subjects. A binaural recording technique was used with two microphones placed on both sides of the subject's head, at equal distance from the mouth.

High-speed registration of phonation-related glottal area variation during artificial lengthening of the vocal tract.

Vocal exercises that increase the vocal tract impedance are widely used in voice training and therapy. The present study applies a versatile methodology to investigate phonation during varying artificial extension of the vocal tract. Two males and one female phonated into a hard-walled plastic tube (phi 2 cm), whose physical length was randomly pair-wise changed between 30 cm, 60 cm and 100 cm.

Paranasal sinus ventilation by humming.

The gas nitric oxide (NO) is generated in the human paranasal sinuses and can be measured in nasally exhaled air. During humming, a marked increase in exhaled NO content has been observed. The acoustic phenomenon responsible for this evacuation of NO gas from the sinuses was analyzed.