title: Cepstral, Spectral and Time-Based Analysis of Voices of Esophageal Speakers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate esophageal speech quality in patients after total laryngectomy using cepstral, spectral and time-based measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects were all males and included 20 total laryngectomy patients and 20 age-matched normal controls. The sustained vowel /a/ was measured using the tools of MDVP (Multi-Dimensional Voice Program) and ADSV (Analysis of Dysphonia in Speech and Voice).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to normal controls, esophageal speakers showed significantly lower values for cepstral peak prominence (CPP) and a low- to high-frequency spectral energy (L/H) ratio, but their mean CPP fundamental frequency (CPP F0) was higher. Highly negative correlations were found between CPP and jitter (percent jitter), shimmer (percent shimmer) and noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR). Positive correlations were also found between L/H ratio and CPP. CPP F0 showed a positive correlation with F0, shimmer and NHR. In addition, CPP and L/H ratio parameters indicated an area under the curve of 0.93 or higher compared to that for time-based measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that cepstral and spectral analyses are more effective than time-based analysis in examining the voice quality of alaryngeal speakers. The present findings are expected to contribute to establishing the baseline for voice quality characteristics in total laryngectomy patients.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Speech and Language Pathology, Hallym University, Chuncheon, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hee-Jeong
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Shim
authors.forename: Hyo Ryung
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Hee Baek
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Do-Heung
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Ko
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D007825:Laryngectomy; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation; D010700:Phonetics; D012016:Reference Values; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013072:Speech, Esophageal; D014833:Voice Quality