Department of Congenital and Developmental Disabilities, IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Via della Pisana 235, 00163 Rome, Italy.
Res Dev Disabil. 2010 Sep-Oct;31(5):995-1001. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2010.04.024. Epub 2010 May 20.
The voice quality of individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) is generally described as husky, monotonous and raucous. On the other hand, the voice of DS children is characterized by breathiness, roughness, and nasality and is typically low pitched. However, research on phonation and intonation in these participants is limited. The present study was designed to provide data from the spectral analysis of the human voice in DS people. A cross-sectional, observational design was applied. Thirty DS adults and 48 DS children were enrolled after clinical evaluation. Thirty men, 30 women and 46 children constituted the control group. The participants had to repeat a set of Italian words twice. The Real Time Pitch software manufactured by KayPENTAX recorded the voice. The following spectral descriptors were obtained for each word: Mean Frequency and standard deviation, Energy, Duration, Jitter and Shimmer. Test-retest performance was also checked. The voice of DS adults was characterized by a significantly higher Mean Frequency, particularly in males (p<0.0001), by a smaller variation (p=0.0044 in males and p=0.0046 in females) and by a significantly lower level of Energy (p=0.0037 in males and p=0.0025 females). Furthermore, limited to male adults, a shorter Duration (p=0.0156) and a smaller value of Shimmer (p=0.0014) was observed. The difference between DS children and age-matched controls was limited, reaching significance only for the Coefficient of Variation (CV) (p=0.031). The difference in Mean Frequency between adults and children was more evident in the control males than in all other groups. The lack of marked difference between voice characteristics of children with and without DS is outlined by findings. Pearson's correlation coefficients on repeated productions ranged from 0.23 (Jitter) to 0.86 (Mean Frequency) in children, and from 0.07 (Shimmer) to 0.86 (Mean Frequency) in adults. In the control group, all the coefficients ranged between 0.85 and 0.98. As expected, women had a higher Mean Frequency than men, but the CV was around 0.1 for both. By contrast, children had a significantly higher Mean Frequency and a lower CV. In conclusion, spectral analysis of the human voice is recommended in each laboratory of speech and language rehabilitation to exploit the accuracy of voice descriptors.
唐氏综合征（DS）个体的语音质量通常被描述为沙哑、单调和刺耳。另一方面，DS 儿童的声音特征是呼吸声、粗糙声和鼻音，且通常音域较低。然而，针对这些参与者的发声和语调的研究有限。本研究旨在提供 DS 人群人声的频谱分析数据。采用了横断面、观察性设计。在临床评估后，纳入了 30 名 DS 成年患者和 48 名 DS 儿童。30 名男性、30 名女性和 46 名儿童构成对照组。参与者必须重复一组意大利语单词两次。KayPENTAX 制造的 Real Time Pitch 软件记录了声音。为每个单词获得了以下频谱描述符：平均频率和标准差、能量、持续时间、抖动和晃动。还检查了测试-重测性能。DS 成年患者的语音特征是男性的平均频率明显更高（p<0.0001），尤其是男性（p<0.0001），变异较小（p=0.0044 男性和 p=0.0046 女性），能量水平明显降低（p=0.0037 男性和 p=0.0025 女性）。此外，仅限于男性成年人，观察到持续时间更短（p=0.0156）和晃动值更小（p=0.0014）。DS 儿童与年龄匹配对照组之间的差异有限，仅在变异系数（CV）上达到显著水平（p=0.031）。成人与儿童之间的平均频率差异在对照组男性中比在其他所有组中更为明显。发现，DS 儿童与无 DS 儿童的语音特征之间缺乏明显差异。在儿童中，重复产生的 Pearson 相关系数范围为 0.23（抖动）至 0.86（平均频率），在成人中为 0.07（晃动）至 0.86（平均频率）。在对照组中，所有系数均在 0.85 到 0.98 之间。正如预期的那样，女性的平均频率高于男性，但 CV 两者均接近 0.1。相比之下，儿童的平均频率明显更高，CV 更低。总之，建议在每个语音和语言康复实验室中进行人声的频谱分析，以利用语音描述符的准确性。
