Acoustic analysis of vocal instability in cerebellar dysfunctions.
Acoustic analysis of vocal instability during the production of isolated vowels, including computation of mean fundamental frequency (F0), period-to-period variability (jitter), pitch fluctuations, and between-trial variation of F0, was performed in 20 patients with cerebellar cortical dysfunction. Eleven subjects suffered from purely cerebellar atrophy (CA). In the remaining 9 patients olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA) had been diagnosed. A subgroup of both the CA and OPCA subjects presented with enlarged pitch fluctuations and/or increased jitter values. It is conceivable that asymmetrically distributed motor deficits at the laryngeal level and altered gain settings of laryngeal and/or respiratory reflexes account for the observed phonatory instability. Moreover, 5 of the 20 cerebellar patients had a pitch level exceeding the upper limit of the normal range. Presumably, this deviation reflects increased vocal effort.
Ackermann
H
H
Department of Neurology, University of Tübingen, Germany.
Ziegler
W
W
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002524:Cerebellar Ataxia / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D014833:Voice Quality