Effects of Fundamental Frequency and Vocal Tract Resonance on Sentence Recognition in Noise
Jing Yang, Xianhui Wang, Victoria Costa, Li Xu · Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research · 2025
Purpose: This study examined the effects of change in a talker's sex-related acoustic properties (fundamental frequency [ F 0] and vocal tract resonance [VTR]) on speech recognition in noise. Method: The stimuli were Hearing in Noise Test sentences, with the F 0 and VTR of the original male talker manipulated into four conditions: low F 0 and low VTR (L F 0 L VTR ; i.e., the original recordings), low F 0 and high VTR (L F 0 H VTR ), high F 0 and high VTR (H F 0 H VTR ), and high F 0 and low VTR (H F 0 L VTR ). The listeners were 42 English-speaking, normal-hearing adults (21–31 years old). The sentences mixed with speech spectrum–shaped noise at various signal-to-noise ratios (i.e., −10, −5, 0, and +5 dB) were presented to the listeners for recognition. Results: The results revealed no significant differences between the H F 0 H VTR and L F 0 L VTR conditions in sentence recognition performance and the estimated speech reception thresholds (SRTs). However, in the H F 0 L VTR and L F 0 H VTR conditions, the recognition performance was reduced, and the listeners showed significantly higher SRTs relative to those in the H F 0 H VTR and L F 0 L VTR conditions. Conclusion: These findings indicate that male and female voices with matched F 0 and VTR (e.g., L F 0 L VTR and H F 0 H VTR ) yield equivalent speech recognition in noise, whereas voices with mismatched F 0 and VTR may reduce intelligibility in noisy environments. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29052305