Summary
Objectives/Hypothesis
The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among cognitive loading,
autonomic arousal, and acoustic measures of voice in healthy older adults.
Study Design
Prospective and observational.
Methods
Twelve healthy older adults (six females) produced a sentence containing an embedded
Stroop task in each of two cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. Three
physiologic measures of autonomic arousal (pulse volume amplitude, pulse period, and
skin conductance response amplitude) and four acoustic measures of voice (cepstral
peak prominence, low-to-high spectral energy ratio, fundamental frequency, and sound
pressure level) were analyzed in each cognitive load condition.
Results
A logistic regression model was used to predict the cognitive load condition using
participant as a categorical predictor and the four acoustic measures and three autonomic
measures as continuous predictors. Skin conductance response amplitude and pulse volume
amplitude were both predictive of cognitive load; however, no acoustic measures of
voice were statistically significant predictors of cognitive load for older adults.
Conclusions
These findings support the idea that increased cognitive load is associated with increased
autonomic nervous system activity in older adults. The lack of changes in acoustic
measures of voice with increased cognitive load may result from age-related changes
in vocal quality and speech subsystems.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 25, 2021
Accepted:
December 17,
2020
Footnotes
An early version of this work was presented at the 46th Annual Symposiums of the Voice Foundation, Philadelphia, PA (2017).
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
