ACOUSTIC MEASURES OF DYSPHONIC SEVERITY ACROSS AND WITHIN VOICE TYPES

The purpose of the study was to explore an interaction between patholo gic voice type and the acoustic prediction of dysphonic severity. One hundred and two phonatory samples, representing a wide range of laryng eal conditons, were categorized by listeners into three voice types: b reathy, rough, and hoarse. A second group of trained listeners rated t he severity of the samples on a 7-point scale. Twenty-five frequency-a nd time-domain measures were used to predict perceptual severity. Mult iple regression analyses showed that the most useful measure for the p rediction of severity across voice types was noise-to-harmonic ratio ( NHR). The severity of individual voice types was predicted with differ ential results on the basis of both short- and long-term measures of p erturbation.