Low-frequency vocal modulations in vowels produced by Parkinsonian subjects

Low-frequency vocal modulations here designate slow disturbances of the phonatory frequency F"0. They are present in all voiced speech sounds, but their properties may be affected by neurological disease. An analysis method, based on continuous wavelet transforms, is proposed to extract the phonatory frequency trace and low-frequency vocal modulation in sustained speech sounds. The method is used to analyze a corpus of vowels uttered by male and female speakers, some of whom are healthy and some of whom suffer from Parkinson's disease. The latter present general speech problems but their voice is not perceived as tremulous. The objective is to discover differences between speaker groups in F"0 low-frequency modulations. Results show that Parkinson's disease has different effects on the voice of male and female speakers. The average phonatory frequency is significantly higher for male Parkinsonian speakers. The modulation amplitude is significantly higher for female Parkinsonian speakers. The modulation frequency is significantly higher and the ratio between the modulation energies in the frequency bands [3Hz,7Hz] and [7Hz,15Hz] is significantly lower for Parkinsonian speakers of both genders.

[1]  Martin J. Ball,et al.  Voice Quality Measurement , 1999 .

[2]  Bruno Torrésani,et al.  Characterization of signals by the ridges of their wavelet transforms , 1997, IEEE Trans. Signal Process..

[3]  Jean Schoentgen,et al.  Fundamental frequency estimation and vocal tremor analysis by means of Morlet wavelet transforms , 2005, Proceedings. (ICASSP '05). IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2005..

[4]  Nancy L. Leech,et al.  IBM SPSS for Intermediate Statistics: Use and Interpretation, Fifth Edition , 2014 .

[5]  Lise Crevier-Buchman,et al.  Les troubles de la parole et de la déglutition dans la maladie de Parkinson , 2000 .

[6]  Soo-Ngee Koh,et al.  Fundamental frequency determination based on instantaneous frequency estimation , 1995, Signal Process..

[7]  W S Winholtz,et al.  Vocal tremor analysis with the Vocal Demodulator. , 1992, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[8]  Paul Boersma,et al.  Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer , 2002 .

[9]  J. Jiang,et al.  Vocal fold physiology. , 2000, Otolaryngologic clinics of North America.

[10]  S. Mallat.  A wavelet tour of signal processing , 1998 .

[11]  Norman J. Lass,et al.  Speech and Language: Advances in Basic Research and Practice , 1979 .

[12]  J A Molina,et al.  Acoustic voice analysis in untreated patients with Parkinson's disease. , 1997, Parkinsonism & related disorders.

[13]  Paul Boersma,et al.  Praat: doing phonetics by computer , 2003 .

[14]  Stefan Todorov Hadjitodorov,et al.  Fundamental frequency estimation of voice of patients with laryngeal disorders , 2003, Inf. Sci..

[15]  F. Eustache,et al.  [Clinical assessment of dysarthria: presentation and validation of a method]. , 1998, Revue neurologique.

[16]  Wolfgang Hess,et al.  Pitch Determination of Speech Signals , 1983 .

[17]  L. Ramig,et al.  The Parkinson larynx: tremor and videostroboscopic findings. , 1996, Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice Foundation.

[18]  Boualem Boashash,et al.  Estimating and interpreting the instantaneous frequency of a signal. I. Fundamentals , 1992, Proc. IEEE.

[19]  R. Orlikoff,et al.  Fundamental frequency modulation of the human voice by the heartbeat: preliminary results and possible mechanisms. , 1989, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[20]  I. Gath,et al.  On the use of pitch power spectrum in the evaluation of vocal tremor , 1988, Proc. IEEE.

[21]  Roy D. Patterson,et al.  Fixed point analysis of frequency to instantaneous frequency mapping for accurate estimation of F0 and periodicity , 1999, EUROSPEECH.

[22]  Donald Fucci,et al.  The Practical Applications of Neuroanatomy for the Speech–Language Pathologist , 1984 .

[23]  J. Logemann,et al.  Frequency and cooccurrence of vocal tract dysfunctions in the speech of a large sample of Parkinson patients. , 1978, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[24]  Raymond D. Kent,et al.  Laryngeal dysfunction in neurological disease : amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, parkinson disease, and stroke , 1994 .

[25]  Eyal Yair,et al.  Super resolution pitch determination of speech signals , 1991, IEEE Trans. Signal Process..

[26]  Jean Schoentgen,et al.  Modulation frequency and modulation level owing to vocal microtremor. , 2002, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[27]  T. Irino,et al.  Robust and accurate fundamental frequency estimation based on dominant harmonic components. , 2004, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[28]  J. Liljencrants,et al.  Dept. for Speech, Music and Hearing Quarterly Progress and Status Report a Four-parameter Model of Glottal Flow , 2022 .

[29]  H. Freund,et al.  Central Rhythmicities in Motor Control and Its Perturbances , 1987 .

[30]  Shubha Kadambe,et al.  Application of the wavelet transform for pitch detection of speech signals , 1992, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory.

[31]  A. Hughes,et al.  Voice characteristics in the progression of Parkinson's disease. , 2000, International journal of language & communication disorders.

[32]  B. Gerratt,et al.  Cinegraphic observations of laryngeal function in parkinson's disease , 1984, The Laryngoscope.

[33]  Paul S. Addison,et al.  The Illustrated Wavelet Transform Handbook Introductory Theory And Applications In Science , 2002 .

[34]  T Murry,et al.  Phonatory function of neurologically impaired patients. , 1991, Journal of communication disorders.

[35]  Ronald W. Schafer,et al.  Digital Processing of Speech Signals , 1978 .

[36]  M. Mackey,et al.  Temporal Disorder in Human Oscillatory Systems , 1987 .

[37]  Michael R. Chernick,et al.  Wavelet Methods for Time Series Analysis , 2001, Technometrics.

[38]  Stéphane Mallat,et al.  A Wavelet Tour of Signal Processing, 2nd Edition , 1999 .

[39]  J. Kingsbury.  The Illustrated Wavelet Transform Handbook: Introductory Theory and Applications in Science, Engineering, Medicine and Finance , 2004 .

[40]  P. Zwirner,et al.  Vocal tract steadiness: a measure of phonatory and upper airway motor control during phonation in dysarthria. , 1992, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[41]  T. Le-Tien.  Some issues of wavelet functions for instantaneous frequency extraction in speech signals , 1997, TENCON '97 Brisbane - Australia. Proceedings of IEEE TENCON '97. IEEE Region 10 Annual Conference. Speech and Image Technologies for Computing and Telecommunications (Cat. No.97CH36162).

[42]  Tt Le.  Some issues of Wavelet functions for instantaneous frequency extraction in speech signals , 1997 .

[43]  Gilles Fenelon.  La maladie de Parkinson , 2007 .

[44]  L. Hartelius,et al.  Speech and swallowing symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis: a survey. , 1994, Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica : official organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics.