Elsevier

Journal of Voice

Volume 37, Issue 4, July 2023, Pages 553-560
Journal of Voice

Effects of Sidetone Amplification on Vocal Function During Telecommunication,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2021.03.027Get rights and content

Summary

Purpose

Society has become increasingly dependent on telecommunication, which has been shown to negatively impact vocal function. This study explores the use of sidetone regulation during audio-visual communication as one potential technique to alleviate the effects of telecommunication on the voice.

Method

The speech acoustics of 18 participants with typical voices were measured during conversational tasks during three conditions of sidetone amplification: baseline (no sidetone amplification), low sidetone amplification, and high sidetone amplification. Vocal intensity, vocal quality (estimated using acoustic measures of the low-high ratio and the smoothed cepstral peak prominence), and self-perceived vocal effort were used to measure the impacts of sidetone amplification on vocal function.

Results

Compared to baseline, there were statistically significant decreases in vocal intensity and increases in low-high ratio in the high level of sidetone amplification condition. Changes in these measures were not significantly correlated. When asked to rank conditions based on their perceived vocal effort, participants most often ranked the high level of sidetone amplification as least effortful; however, the visual-analog ratings of vocal effort were not significantly different between conditions. The smoothed cepstral peak prominence did not change with varying levels of sidetone amplification.

Conclusions

Vocal intensity decreased with high levels of sidetone amplification. High levels of sidetone amplification also resulted in increases in the low-high ratio, which were shown to be more than just a byproduct of decreased vocal intensity. The impact of sidetone amplification on vocal effort was less clear, but results suggested that participants generally decreased their vocal effort with increased levels of sidetone amplification. This was a preliminary study and future work is warranted in a population of participants with voice complaints and in a more noisy, realistic environments.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

The use of technology to communicate remotely has become a new standard in various sectors of society, ranging from work and education to health and leisure. While there are benefits of convenience for this mode of communication, research has shown that frequent use of telecommunication impacts vocal function. Typical speakers report vocal symptoms such as increased vocal effort with increasing use of both audio and audiovisual telecommunication platforms for their work e.g., 1,2. Often, these

Participants

Eighteen cisgender, non-smoking, native speakers of English (eight males and ten females; Mage = 21.0 years SDage = 2.53 years) participated in the study. The participants self-reported no history of speech, language, hearing, or neurological disorders and provided written consent as per the Boston University Institutional Review Board. All participants passed a hearing screening at levels of 25 dB HL at the frequencies of 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 8000 Hz. Participants reported

RESULTS

Average values normalized per participant to the baseline condition for the four measured outcomes are shown in Figure 2. The results of the ANOVAs and associated effect sizes are listed in Table 1.

The results from the ANOVA indicated that condition was a statistically significant factor on vocal intensity with a large effect size (Table 1). The post-hoc analysis revealed a statistically significant decrease in vocal intensity between the high and low sidetone amplification (padj = 0.025) and

DISCUSSION

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of sidetone amplification on vocal function during telecommunication. We hypothesized that participants would decrease their vocal intensity with increasing levels of sidetone amplification. In terms of acoustic estimates of vocal quality, we hypothesized that participants’ LH ratios would increase and that their CPPS values would decrease with increased levels of sidetone amplification. Additionally, we hypothesized that participants would

CONCLUSIONS

This study explored the vocal effects of using sidetone amplification during audio-visual telecommunication. Sidetone amplification resulted in statistically significant decreases in vocal intensity and increases in LH ratio, an acoustic correlate of vocal quality. The impact of sidetone amplification on speakers’ perceptions of vocal effort was less clear, but overall suggested that participants experienced less vocal effort with increased levels of amplification. These findings are tempered

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants R01DC015570 (CES), P50-DC015446 (REH), and T32DC013017 (CAM). The authors thank Hasini Weerathunge for aiding in calibration efforts and providing experimental training.

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    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Nicole E. Tomassi, Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA

    Disclosure: Cara Stepp has received consulting fees from Altec, Inc./Delsys, Inc., companies focused on developing and commercializing technologies related to human movement. Stepp's interests were reviewed and are managed by Boston University in accordance with their conflict of interest policies. All other authors have declared that no competing interests existed at the time of publication.

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