Kandsberger Jacqueline, Rogers Simon N, Zhou Yuefang, Humphris Gerry
Medical School, University of St. Andrews, KY16 9TF, UK.
Merseyside Regional Head & Neck Cancer Centre, Aintree Hospital, Liverpool, L9 7AL, UK.
Patient Educ Couns. 2016 Dec;99(12):1971-1977. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2016.08.003. Epub 2016 Aug 2.
Emotions, are in part conveyed by varying levels of fundamental frequency of voice pitch (f0). This study tests the hypothesis that patients display heightened levels of emotional arousal (f0) during Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences (VR-CoDES) cues and concerns versus during neutral statements.
The audio recordings of sixteen head and neck cancer survivors' follow-up consultations were coded for patients' emotional distress. Pitch (f0) of coded cues and concerns, including neutral statements was extracted. These were compared using a hierarchical linear model, nested for patient and pitch range, controlling for statement speech length. Utterance content was also explored.
Clustering by patient explained 30% of the variance in utterances f0. Cues and concerns were on average 13.07Hz higher than neutral statements (p=0.02). Cues and concerns in these consultations contained content with a high proportion of recurrence fears.
The present study highlights the benefits and challenges of adding f0 and potential other prosodic features to the toolkit of coding emotional distress in the health communication setting.
The assessment of f0 during clinical conversations can provide additional information for research into emotional expression.
情绪部分通过不同水平的嗓音基频（f0）来传达。本研究检验以下假设：在维罗纳情绪序列编码定义（VR-CoDES）提示和担忧期间，与在中性陈述期间相比，患者表现出更高水平的情绪唤起（f0）。
对头颈癌幸存者16次随访咨询的录音进行编码，以确定患者的情绪困扰。提取编码提示和担忧（包括中性陈述）的音高（f0）。使用分层线性模型进行比较，该模型嵌套患者和音高范围，并控制陈述的语音长度。还对话语内容进行了探究。
按患者聚类解释了话语f0中30%的方差。提示和担忧的平均音高比中性陈述高13.07Hz（p = 0.02）。这些咨询中的提示和担忧包含了大量对复发恐惧的内容。
本研究强调了在健康沟通环境中，将f0和其他潜在韵律特征添加到情绪困扰编码工具包中的益处和挑战。
临床对话中对f0的评估可为情绪表达研究提供额外信息。
