title: [The senile voice].
abstract: Involutive processes which characterize aging induce substantial morphological and functional alteration in the pneumo-phono-articulatory system and thus bring about numerous effects on vocal quality. Fundamental frequency (Fo) variation, whose values increase in males and decrease in females, are found in voice patterns. Moreover, in literature many authors have described vocal substain intensity and timbre deficit in the elderly. Vocal emission of elderly people can become so peculiar that it may be possible to identify approximately the age and the sex of the speaker by merely hearing the voice. The aim of this work was to identify specific parameters of the senile voice using spectroacoustic digital analysis. The following points were considered in this study: the psychoacoustic perceptive evaluation of vocal samples in subjects of different ages in order to identify the sex and age of the speaker; the spectroacoustic digital analysis of the same vocal samples; the morphofunctional observation of the phono-articulatory apparatus. Our results confirmed the presence of peculiar electroacoustic characteristics in the senile voice (mean pitch value variation in males and in females, vocal substain deficit, decrease in vocal intensity, senile tremolo, cycle-to-cycle alteration of Fo and mean amplitude) due to morphofunctional changes of the pneumo-phono-articulatory system. In all the subjects we observed anatomo-functional changes at the glottic level. The presence of specific vocal patterns and the quality of speech play an important role in the processes of senile voice identification.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Clinica ORL, Cattedra di Foniatria, Università di Catania.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biondi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zappalà
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Amato
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Consoli
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007828:Laryngoscopy; D007830:Larynx / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013018:Sound Spectrography / Q000295:instrumentation; D013637:Tape Recording; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*
vernacular_title: La voce senile.