Cepstral Analysis of Voice in Healthy Aged Individuals

Abstract

Introduction: The anatomical and physiological changes in the phonatory system due to aging have a major impact on voice. Widely researched parameters of voice such as fundamental frequency and the perturbation measures depend on the location of the exact pitch pulses, and it may yield unreliable results in case of a severely aperiodic voice. Aim of the Study: The present study focused on determining the cepstral characteristics of voice in healthy aging individuals. Methods: All the participants among the young adults, middle-aged adults, and old adults were required to sustain the vowel/a/. Voice samples were analyzed using Hillenbrand's Z tool software to obtain the cepstral measures. Results: Results showed that there was an increase in the cepstral measures with aging, thus suggesting that the harmonic structure of voice is not affected in healthy aged individuals. Gender also influences the cepstral measures in healthy aging population. Conclusion: The results of the present study could be used by the voice clinicians while assessing adults with voice disorders. It will also help the clinicians in delineating the age and gender differences in the vocal parameters.