Crowdsourced Perceptual Ratings of Voice Quality in People With Parkinson's Disease Before and After Intensive Voice and Articulation Therapies: Secondary Outcome of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose: Limited research has examined the suitability of crowdsourced ratings to measure treatment effects in speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD), particularly for constructs such as voice quality. This study obtained measures of reliability and validity for crowdsourced listeners' ratings of voice quality in speech samples from a published study. We also investigated whether aggregated listener ratings would replicate the original study's findings of treatment effects based on the Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) measure.

Using Crowdsourced Listeners' Ratings to Measure Speech Changes in Hypokinetic Dysarthria: A Proof-of-Concept Study.

Purpose Interventions for speech disorders aim to produce changes that are not only acoustically measurable or perceptible to trained professionals but are also apparent to naive listeners. Due to challenges associated with obtaining ratings from suitably large listener samples, however, few studies currently evaluate speech interventions by this criterion. Online crowdsourcing technologies could enhance the measurement of intervention effects by making it easier to obtain real-world listeners' ratings.

The impact of extended voice use on the acoustic characteristics of phonation after training and performance of actors from the La MaMa Experimental Theater club.

Purposes: To test the hypothesis that extensive use of La MaMa vocal technique may result in symptoms of vocal abuse, an evaluation of the acoustic and perceptual characteristics of voice for eight performers from the Great Jones Repertory Company of the La MaMa Experimental Theater was conducted. This vocal technique includes wide ranges of frequency from 46 to 2003 Hz and vocal intensity that is sustained at 90-108 dB sound pressure level with a mouth-to-microphone distance of 30 cm for 3-4 hours per performance.

Methods: The actors rehearsed for 4 hours per day, 5 days per week for 14 weeks before the series of performances.

Speech treatment for Parkinson's disease.

Researchers estimate that 89% of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) have a speech or voice disorder including disorders of laryngeal, respiratory, and articulatory function. Despite the high incidence of speech and voice impairment, studies suggest that only 3-4% of people with PD receive speech treatment. The authors review the literature on the characteristics and features of speech and voice disorders in people with PD, the types of treatment techniques available, including medical, surgical, and behavioral therapies, and provide recommendations for the current efficacy of treatment interventions and directions of future research.

Fragments of a Greek Trilogy: impact on phonation.

This study documents the vocal characteristics of an actor before and after a series of eight performances involving extended voice use. The hypothesis was that this type of extended voice use would result in symptoms of vocal abuse and that damage to the actor's voice would be evident in measures made after the performance series. Three pre-performance and three post-performance speech samples were gathered and analyzed using the CSL and Visipitch II.

Parkinson's disease: speech and voice disorders and their treatment with the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment.

Speech and voice disorders are very common among individuals suffering from idiopathic Parkinson's disease. In this article we review evidence for laryngeal, respiratory, articulatory, and velopharyngeal disorders in this population. We present the essential concepts and outcome data for the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, a behavioral treatment program that has yielded significant long-term improvement in speech and voice functions in individuals with idiopathic Parkinson's disease.