Zhang Zhaoyan, Zhang Jason, Kreiman Jody
Department of Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, Los Angles.
Interspeech. 2022 Sep;2022:1856-1860. doi: 10.21437/interspeech.2022-10815.
This study aims to identify laryngeal manipulations that would allow a male to approximate a female-sounding voice, and that can be targeted in voice feminization surgery or therapy. Synthetic voices were generated using a three-dimensional vocal fold model with parametric variations in vocal fold geometry, stiffness, adduction, and subglottal pressure. The vocal tract was kept constant in order to focus on the contribution of laryngeal manipulations. Listening subjects were asked to judge if a voice sounded male or female, or if they were unsure. Results showed the expected large effect of the fundamental frequency (F0) and a moderate effect of spectral shape on gender perception. A mismatch between F0 and spectral shape cues (e.g., low F0 paired with high H1-H2) contributed to ambiguity in gender perception, particularly for voices with F0 in the intermediate range between those of typical adult males and females. Physiologically, the results showed that a female-sounding voice can be produced by decreasing vocal fold thickness and increasing vocal fold transverse stiffness in the coronal plane, changes in which modified both F0 and spectral shape. In contrast, laryngeal manipulations with limited impact on F0 or spectral shape were shown to be less effective in modifying gender perception.
本研究旨在确定能让男性发出近似女性声音的喉部操作，这些操作可作为嗓音女性化手术或治疗的目标。使用三维声带模型生成合成语音，该模型在声带几何形状、硬度、内收和声门下压力方面具有参数变化。为了专注于喉部操作的作用，声道保持不变。要求听力受试者判断一个声音听起来是男性还是女性，或者他们是否不确定。结果显示，基频（F0）有预期的显著影响，频谱形状对性别感知有中等影响。F0与频谱形状线索之间的不匹配（例如，低F0与高H1-H2配对）导致性别感知的模糊性，特别是对于F0处于典型成年男性和女性之间中间范围的声音。从生理角度来看，结果表明，通过在冠状平面上减小声带厚度并增加声带横向硬度，可以产生听起来像女性的声音，这些变化同时改变了F0和频谱形状。相比之下，对F0或频谱形状影响有限的喉部操作在改变性别感知方面效果较差。
