Elicitation of maximum pitch and loudness in adults with healthy voices using vocal glide

Abstract

Elicitation of Maximum Pitch and Loudness in Adults with Healthy Voices Using Vocal Glide Objective: The present study aimed to determine whether a vocal glide task (VGT) could assess the phonatory capacity, in terms of maximum fundamental frequency and intensity, of an individual with similar results of the standard voice range profile (VRP) elicitation procedure. The findings should help to determine whether the lengthy VRP recording procedure could be replaced by a shorter vocal glide procedure when eliciting the upper voice range. It was hypothesized that the VGT could elicit maximum fundamental frequency and intensity reliably as with the standard VRP elicitation procedure. Methods: Thirty participants aged 18 to 45 years (mean = 28.6 years, SD = 7.3 years) with normal voice performed two tasks: 1) Standard VRP, which elicited minimum and maximum fundamental frequency and intensity range using discrete half-steps up and down the frequency range 2) VGT to elicit maximum fundamental frequency and intensity using a glissando. Results: Paired t-tests showed that the maximum fundamental frequency and intensity were not significantly different when elicited using the two procedures. Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between the maximum fundamental frequency and intensity elicited with the VRP and VGT. There was a strong positive correlation between the two tasks for maximum frequency (R=.71. p<0.001) as well as maximum intensity (R=.73. p<0.001). The test-retest reliability of the VGT was .904 for pitch and .645 for intensity with Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. Conclusion: The VRP and the VGT protocols elicited maximum fundamental frequency and intensity values with strong correlations and no significant difference. The findings provide support for the VGT to be an appropriate tool for eliciting the upper limits of vocal range in healthy adults. Further research is needed to identify the reliability of the VGT in dysphonic adults, as the VGT protocol may save valuable time and clinical resources.