Analysis of age-related changes in the acoustic characteristics of the voice

Abstract

The subjects were 262 healthy volunteers: 200 young and 62 elderly. Age-related changes in voice profile after adolescence were acoustically analyzed using the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP) produced by KayPENTAX. The results were as follows: 1. Age-related changes in the voice profiles of the male subjects were as follows: fundamental frequency information measurements showed that To shortened and Fo increased; frequency perturbation measurements demonstrated that Jitt, RAP and PPQ increased; amplitude perturbation measurements showed that all parameters, including Shim and APQ, increased; noise-related measurements indicated that SPI increased; and tremor-related measurements demonstrated that ATRI increased. 2. Age-related changes in the voice profiles of the female participants were as follows: fundamental frequency information measurements demonstrated that To elongated and F0 decreased; frequency and amplitude perturbation measurements were mostly unchanged; noise-related measurements indicated that NHR increased and VTI decreased; and tremor-related measurements showed that ATRI increased. The above findings indicated that the normal range for each acoustic parameter needs to be set for each gender and age group. The data obtained from the present study and the data related to normal ranges are clinically significant for differentiating between normal age-related physiological changes in the voice and pathological voice.