title: Acoustic markers to differentiate gender in prepubescent children's speaking and singing voice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Investigation sought to determine whether there is any acoustic variable to objectively differentiate gender in children with normal voices.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 30 children, 15 boys and 15 girls, with perceptually normal voices were examined. They were between 7 and 10 years old (mean: 8.1, SD: 0.7 years). Subjects were required to perform the following phonatory tasks: (1) to phonate sustained vowels [a:], [i:], [u:], (2) to read a phonetically balanced text, and (3) to sing a song. Acoustic analysis included long-term average spectrum (LTAS), fundamental frequency (F0), speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), equivalent continuous sound level (Leq), linear predictive code (LPC) to obtain formant frequencies, perturbation measures, harmonic to noise ratio (HNR), and Cepstral peak prominence (CPP). Auditory perceptual analysis was performed by four blinded judges to determine gender.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant gender-related differences were found for most acoustic variables. Perceptual assessment showed good intra and inter rater reliability for gender. Cepstrum for [a:], alpha ratio in text, shimmer for [i:], F3 in [a:], and F3 in [i:], were the parameters that composed the multivariate logistic regression model to best differentiate male and female children's voices.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Since perceptual assessment reliably detected gender, it is likely that other acoustic markers (not evaluated in the present study) are able to make clearer gender differences. For example, gender-specific patterns of intonation may be a more accurate feature for differentiating gender in children's voices.
authors.affiliation: School of Communication Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile; Department of Otolaryngology, Voice Center, Las Condes Clinic, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: guzmanvoz@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guzman
authors.affiliation: Barros Luco-Trudeau Hospital, Department of Network Management, Av. José Miguel Carrera 3604, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.affiliation: Del Salvador Hospital, Department of Otolaryngology, Avenida Salvador 364, Providencia, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vivero
authors.affiliation: Andres Bello National University, Fernandez Concha 700, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Marín
authors.affiliation: Andres Bello National University, Fernandez Concha 700, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Mirta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramírez
authors.affiliation: Andres Bello National University, Fernandez Concha 700, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: María Trinidad
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.affiliation: Andres Bello National University, Fernandez Concha 700, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gerhard
authors.affiliation: Andres Bello National University, Fernandez Concha 700, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Catalina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: González
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D063346:Singing; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D014831:Voice
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Acoustic analysis; Children; Gender; Perceptual analysis; Singing voice; Speaking voice