Electroglottographic analysis of phonatory dynamics and states

The human voice is a product of an intricate biophysical system. The complexity of this system enables a rich variety of possible sounds, but at the same time poses great challenges for quantitative voice analysis. For example, the vocal folds can vibrate in several different ways, leading to variations in the acoustic output. Because the vocal folds are relatively inaccessible, such variations are often difficult to account for. This work proposes a novel method for extracting non-invasively information on the vibratory state of the human vocal folds. Such information is important for creating a more complete voice analysis scheme. Invasive methods are undesirable because they often disturb the subjects and/or the studied phenomena, and they are also impractical in terms of accessibility and cost. A useful frame of reference for voice analysis is the Voice Range Profile (VRP). The 3 dimensional form of the VRP can be used to depict any phonatory metric over the 2 dimensional plane defined by the fundamental frequency of phonation (x-axis) and the sound pressure level (y-axis). The primary goal of this work was to incorporate information on the vibratory state of the vocal folds into the Voice Range Profile (e.g., as a color change). For this purpose, a novel method of analysis of the electroglottogram (EGG) was developed, using techniques from machine learning (clustering) and nonlinear time series analysis (sample entropy estimation). The analysis makes no prior assumptions on the nature of the EGG signal and does not rely on its absolute amplitude or frequency. Unlike time-domain methods, which typically define thresholds for quantifying EGG cycle metrics, the proposed method uses information from the entire cycle of each period. The analysis was applied in a variety of experimental conditions (constant vowel with different vibratory states, constant vibratory state and different vowels, constant vowel and vibratory state with varying lung volume) and the magnitude of effect on the EGG short-term spectrum was estimated for each of these conditions. It was found that the short-term spectrum of the EGG signal sufficed to discriminate between different phonatory configurations, such as modal and falsetto voice. It was found also that even supposedly purely articulatory changes could be traced in the spectrum of the EGG signal. Finally, possible pedagogical and clinical applications of the method are discussed.QC 20140609FonaDy