Biomedical subjects

Jean Schoentgen

Publications and source records attributed to Jean Schoentgen.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Estimation of vocal dysperiodicities in disordered connected speech by means of distant-sample bidirectional linear predictive analysis.

The article presents an analysis of vocal dysperiodicities in connected speech produced by dysphonic speakers. The processing is based on a comparison of the present speech fragment with future and past fragments. The size of the dysperiodicity estimate is zero for periodic speech signals. A feeble increase of the vocal dysperiodicity is guaranteed to produce a feeble increase of the estimate. No spurious noise boosting occurs owing to cycle insertion and omission errors, or phonetic segment boundary artifacts. Additional objectives of the study have been investigating whether deviations from periodicity are larger or more commonplace in connected speech than in sustained vowels, and whether sentences that comprise frequent voice onsets and offsets are noisier than sentences that comprise few. The corpora contain sustained vowels as well as grammatically- and phonetically matched sentences. An acoustic marker that correlates with the perceived degree of hoarseness summarizes the size of the dysperiodicities. The marker values for sustained vowels have been highly correlated with those for connected speech, and the marker values for sentences that comprise few voiced/unvoiced transients have been highly correlated with the marker values for sentences that comprise many.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Spectral models of additive and modulation noise in speech and phonatory excitation signals.

The article presents spectral models of additive and modulation noise in speech. The purpose is to learn about the causes of noise in the spectra of normal and disordered voices and to gauge whether the spectral properties of the perturbations of the phonatory excitation signal can be inferred from the spectral properties of the speech signal. The approach to modeling consists of deducing the Fourier series of the perturbed speech, assuming that the Fourier series of the noise and of the clean monocycle-periodic excitation are known. The models explain published data, take into account the effects of supraglottal tremor, demonstrate the modulation distortion owing to vocal tract filtering, establish conditions under which noise cues of different speech signals may be compared, and predict the impossibility of inferring the spectral properties of the frequency modulating noise from the spectral properties of the frequency modulation noise (e.g., phonatory jitter and frequency tremor). The general conclusion is that only phonatory frequency modulation noise is spectrally relevant. Other types of noise in speech are either epiphenomenal, or their spectral effects are masked by the spectral effects of frequency modulation noise.

Fourier Analysis↗

PubMed2003

Shaping function models of the phonatory excitation signal.

The phonatory excitation signal is the acoustic signal that is generated at the glottis by the vibrating vocal folds and pulsatile airflow. A shaping function model is a nonlinear memoryless input-output characteristic that transforms a simple harmonic into the desired output. The model can be fitted linearly to observed or simulated template cycles. The instantaneous values of the excitation cycle centroid, amplitude as well as length, and the cues for phonatory identity are set via distinct parameters. The synthetic phonatory excitation signal is zero on average, as well as identically zero when the glottal airflow rate is constant.

Glottis↗

PubMed2002

Modulation frequency and modulation level owing to vocal microtremor.

Vocal microtremor designates a normal slow modulation of the vocal cycle lengths of speakers who do not suffer from pathological tremor of the limbs and whose voices are not perceived as tremulous. Vocal microtremor is therefore distinct from pathological vocal tremor. The objective is to report data about the modulation frequency and modulation level owing to vocal microtremor. The modulation data have been obtained for vowels [a], [i], and [u] sustained by normophonic and mildly dysphonic male and female speakers. The results are the following. First, modulation frequencies and relative modulation levels do not differ significantly for male and female speakers, normophonic and mildly dysphonic speakers, as well as for vowel timbres [a], [i], and [u]. Second, the typical interquartile intervals of the modulation frequency and modulation level are equal to 2.0-4.7 Hz and 0.4%-1.3%, respectively. Third, dissimilarities between data reported by different studies are due to different cutoff frequencies below which spectral peaks are considered not to contribute to vocal microtremor.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗