Maintaining Professional Performance Viability With Age.

Some classically trained singers demonstrate great performance longevity. These singers continue to produce a professionally viable voice that belies their age. This study was designed to assess selected acoustic characteristics of 10 currently performing classical singers from 2 recordings; one early, and one recent.

Steam and/or Semi-occluded Vocal Tract Exercise as Morning Vocal Warm-up Strategy.

Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of either steam, semi-occluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises, or a combination of both as a speaking voice warm-up strategy to be used at the start of the day.

Methods/design: This prospective study assessed the impact of three different vocal warm-up conditions on phonatory threshold pressure (PTP). The three conditions were: (1) Steam - breathing steam for 3 minutes; (2) SOVT exercise - blowing bubbles through a straw into a cup of water while phonating /u/ for 3 minutes; and (3) Steam + SOVT - both conditions 1 and 2.

Aerobic Exercise as a Warm-up for Singing: Acoustic Impacts.

Objectives: In a previous work, it was found that a 30-minute aerobic workout significantly increased singers' sound pressure level and airflow during voicing, suggesting a shift to flow phonation. This companion study was designed to assess the impact of the same workout on pitch accuracy, vibrato rate, extent and regularity, and the singing power ratio.

Study Design: This study is a cohort experimental study.

Speech changes induced by deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson disease: involvement of the dentatorubrothalamic tract.

OBJECTIVE Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) who undergo subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) often develop a deterioration in speech performance, but there is no clear consensus on the specific effects seen or the mechanism involved and little description of the impact of DBS on conversational speech. Furthermore, there has been no fiber tract connectivity analysis to identify the structures potentially modulated by DBS to cause such deficits. The main objective of this study was to quantify spontaneous speech performance and identify potential involvement of the dentatorubrothalamic tract (DRTt) in patients who underwent STN DBS, because this tract has been implicated in speech deterioration.

Effects of Bel Canto Training on Acoustic and Aerodynamic Characteristics of the Singing Voice.

Objectives: This study was designed to assess the impact of 2 years of operatic training on acoustic and aerodynamic characteristics of the singing voice.

Study Design: This is a longitudinal study.

Methods: Participants were 21 graduate students and 16 undergraduate students.

Aerobic Exercise as a Warm-Up for Singing: Aerodynamic Changes.

Objectives: This study was designed to determine the impact of aerobic exercise on vocal warm-up.

Study Design: This is a cohort experimental study.

Methods: Sixteen graduate and six undergraduate students in an academic vocal performance program participated.

Vocal Assessment Before, After, and the Day After Opera Performance.

Objective: To explore aerodynamic, acoustic, and laryngeal changes surrounding opera performance.

Study Design: Prospective preperformance, postperformance, and day after performance.

Methods: The laryngeal and vocal function of five male and five female classically trained singers was assessed immediately before, immediately after, and 1 day after an actual operatic performance.

Brain-computer interfaces increase whole-brain signal to noise.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can convert mental states into signals to drive real-world devices, but it is not known if a given covert task is the same when performed with and without BCI-based control. Using a BCI likely involves additional cognitive processes, such as multitasking, attention, and conflict monitoring. In addition, it is challenging to measure the quality of covert task performance.

Singers' phonation threshold pressure and ratings of self-perceived effort on vocal tasks.

Objectives/hypothesis: This study was designed to determine if singers' self-ratings of vocal effort could predict phonation threshold pressure (PTP). It was hypothesized that effort ratings on the more complex task of singing "Happy Birthday" would best predict PTP.

Study Design: A multiple regression analysis was performed with PTP as the predicted variable and self-ratings on four phonatory tasks as the predictor variables.

Voice analysis during bad news discussion in oncology: reduced pitch, decreased speaking rate, and nonverbal communication of empathy.

Purpose: This study was designed to determine if differences exist in the speaking rate and pitch of healthcare providers when discussing bad news versus neutral topics, and to assess listeners' ability to perceive voice differences in the absence of speech content.

Methods: Participants were oncology healthcare providers seeing patients with cancer of unknown primary. The encounters were audio recorded; the information communicated by the oncologist to the patient was identified as neutral or bad news.

An exploration of listener variability in intelligibility judgments.

Purpose: This study was designed to assess potential contributors to listener variability in judgments of intelligibility.

Method: A total of 228 unfamiliar everyday listeners judged speech samples from 3 individuals with dysarthria. Samples were the single-word phonetic contrast test, the Sentence Intelligibility Test, an unpredictable sentence intelligibility test, and conversational speech.

Neurofeedback of two motor functions using supervised learning-based real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging.

This study examines the effects of neurofeedback provided by support vector machine (SVM) classification-based real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) during two types of motor tasks. This approach also enables the examination of the neural regions associated with predicting mental states in different domains of motor control, which is critical to further our understanding of normal and impaired function. Healthy volunteers (n = 13) performed both a simple button tapping task, and a covert rate-of-speech counting task.

The effect of specific versus combined warm-up strategies on the voice.

Although actors and singers typically warm-up the voice before performing, little is known about the effects of vocal warm-up on the voice. This study was designed to determine the relative effectiveness of specific versus combined warm-up strategies on the voice by group comparison. Twenty participants, 10 male and 10 female actors, completed two warm-up protocols, at least 1 week apart, in a counter-balanced order.

Pitch discrimination and pitch matching abilities of adults who sing inaccurately.

Past research regarding singing ability has provided evidence that both supports and refutes a relationship between pitch discrimination ability and pitch production ability. Researchers have suggested that these skills improve with age. Despite this suggestion, most investigators studying singing ability have included only children as participants.

The vocal health of auctioneers.

A questionnaire designed to assess vocal demands and vocal health was completed by 438 randomly selected auctioneers. Over 96% reported using amplification to auction the majority of the time. A greater proportion of individuals who auctioned in environments with poor air quality visited a physician for a voice problem than individuals who auctioned in environments with clean air.

The effect of pacing strategies on the variability of speech movement sequences in dysarthria.

There are many potential sources of variability in speech production, particularly in individuals with dysarthria. The degree and time course of stabilization of the speech production system during recovery from a neurological insult is not constant across individuals. Another source of variability in speech production is speaking rate.

The effect of botulinum toxin A on the vocal symptoms of spastic dysarthria: a case study.

The vocal symptoms of spastic dysarthria and spasmodic dysphonia have many similar features. Botulinum toxin has been used effectively to treat spasmodic dysphonia. This study was designed to determine what vocal changes occur in an individual with spastic dysarthria following Botulinum toxin A injection into the thyroarytenoid muscles.