Huber Jessica E
Purdue University, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 1353 Heavilon Hall, 500 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038, United States.
Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2008 Dec 31;164(3):323-30. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2008.08.007. Epub 2008 Aug 28.
Age-related reductions in pulmonary elastic recoil and respiratory muscle strength can affect how older adults generate subglottal pressure required for speech production. The present study examined age-related changes in speech breathing by manipulating utterance length and loudness during a connected speech task (monologue). Twenty-three older adults and twenty-eight young adults produced a monologue at comfortable loudness and pitch and with multi-talker babble noise playing in the room to elicit louder speech. Dependent variables included sound pressure level, speech rate, and lung volume initiation, termination, and excursion. Older adults produced shorter utterances than young adults overall. Age-related effects were larger for longer utterances. Older adults demonstrated very different lung volume adjustments for loud speech than young adults. These results suggest that older adults have a more difficult time when the speech system is being taxed by both utterance length and loudness. The data were consistent with the hypothesis that both young and older adults use utterance length in premotor speech planning processes.
与年龄相关的肺弹性回缩和呼吸肌力量下降会影响老年人产生语音所需的声门下压力的方式。本研究通过在连贯言语任务（独白）中操纵话语长度和响度，研究了与年龄相关的言语呼吸变化。23名老年人和28名年轻人以舒适的响度和音高进行独白，同时房间里播放多说话者的嘈杂声以引出更大声的言语。因变量包括声压级、语速以及肺容积起始、终止和变化。总体而言，老年人说出的话语比年轻人短。对于更长的话语，与年龄相关的影响更大。与年轻人相比，老年人在大声说话时表现出非常不同的肺容积调整。这些结果表明，当言语系统因话语长度和响度而负担加重时，老年人会面临更大的困难。数据与以下假设一致，即年轻人和老年人在运动前言语规划过程中都会使用话语长度。
