Comparing Vocal Fold Contact Criteria Derived From Audio and Electroglottographic Signals

Laura Enflo, Christian T. Herbst, Johan Sundberg, Anita McAllister

Collision threshold pressure (CTP), that is, the lowest subglottal pressure facilitating vocal fold contact during phonation, is likely to reflect relevant vocal fold properties. The amplitude of an electroglottographic (EGG) signal or the amplitude of its first derivative (dEGG) has been used as criterion of such contact. Manual measurement of CTP is time consuming, making the development of a simpler, alternative method desirable. In this investigation, we compare CTP values measured manually to values automatically derived from dEGG and to values derived from a set of alternative parameters, some obtained from audio and some from EGG signals. One of the parameters was the novel EGG wavegram, which visualizes sequences of EGG or dEGG cycles, normalized with respect to period and amplitude. Raters with and without previous acquaintance with EGG analysis marked the disappearance of vocal fold contact in dEGG and in wavegram displays of /pa:/-sequences produced with continuously decreasing vocal loudness by seven singer subjects. Vocal fold contact was mostly identified accurately in displays of both dEGG amplitude and wavegram. Automatically derived CTP values showed high correlation with those measured manually and with those derived from the ratings of the visual displays. Seven other parameters were tested as criteria of such contact. Mainly, because of noise in the EGG signal, most of them yielded CTP values differing considerably from those derived from the manual and the automatic methods, although the EGG spectrum slope showed a high correlation. The possibility of measuring CTP automatically seems promising for future investigations.