Spectral and Cepstral Based Acoustic Features of Voices with Muscle Tension Dysphonia

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the cepstral and spectral acoustic features of patients with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD). Methods: A total of 30 patients with MTD and 30 healthy women (control group) were enrolled. All participants were asked to vocalize a sustained vowel /a/ for more than 3 seconds, which was recorded and analyzed using the Analysis of Dysphonia in Speech and Voice program. Results: Compared with the control group, patients with MTD had significantly lower cepstral peak prominence (CPP) and CPP F0, and significantly higher cepstral and spectral index of dysphonia (CSID) and a low- to high-frequency spectral energy ratio. Additionally, in patients with MTD, there was a high correlation between CPP and perceptual parameters such as grade, roughness, breathiness and strain. Receiver operating characteristic analysis found that a threshold of 11.815 for CSID achieved a good classification for MTD, with 73.3% sensitivity and specificity. Conclusions: By applying cepstral and spectral analysis and identifying the acoustic features of patients with MTD, this study demonstrated the feasibility and usefulness of cepstral parameters in clinical practice. Keywords: Voice; Muscle tension dysphonia; Acoustic analysis; Cepstral analysis; CSID